Johnny Racer
Full Access Member
Well after my day started really ******, mostly do to me leaving my dome lights on for 10 hours over night and coming out this morning the warm up the Mighty Yuk before work and finding that my battery was totally drained, a pleasant surprise was at my door when I got home from the office. My newly purchased TYC headlights and Silverstar headlight bulbs. So after getting the Mighty Yuk's depleted battery on a charger I figured, "why not install them?" So I did... it went something like this.
The install itself would have been a breeze actually if I had just gone with my instinct and taking the grill off but of course, I knew a better way. I figured since my headlight brackets were fine that I would take the new headlight housing and just pop it in place of where the old one was using the old mounting brackets. The drivers side is where I started and it went pretty smooth with very minor tweaking to get it into the OEM bracket. Tightened it in place and viola! Done. Then to the passenger side... Got the outside stud out with no issues. The inside one on the other hand had its own ideas on how it was going to happen. It did not want to leave the truck and fought with me for a good 10 minutes. What was happening was that stud was just turning and wouldn't budge. Turns out upon further investigation, the threaded bushing inside the OEM headlight housing was seized in there pretty darn good and was just spinning around with the stud. Scratching head I made the decision to just remove the grill... no other option really at this point. Can't ride around with one brand-e-new headlight and bulb assembly and one factory relic. So, removed the 5 bolts holding the grill in place and carefully unsnapped the lower portion for the filler panel. Grill removal a success. This made things a lot clearer and after seeing how simple this would have been from the start, wish I had done this from the get go. So now I make the decision to remove the entire headlight assembly with the 4 bolts holding it in place and replace it with the entire TYC assembly. BAM! Done in like 5 minutes easy right? So easy I decided to do the same to the drivers side since the grill was off. 5 minutes later... they were done. I installed the new Silverstar bulbs and reconnected all the wiring. I placed the grill back in its home and proceeded to tweak the housings til I got the correct looking alignment. At first it looked like a Chinese version of the C/K series trucks with my initial fitment but after a couple of minutes and some fine adjusting... they were where I wanted them. Re-installed my grill and parking light lenses carefully, bolted it all back together and its a success!!!
I have to say, these things look DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYUM good. So much so what I feared would happen has. I have now ordered my TYC replacement parking light lenses. LOL Shoulda seen that coming and just got em from the start but oh well. the quality of the TYC headlights are really really nice from what I can tell and after some patience, the fitment is really spot on. The install would have been a breeze if I started by removing the grill so for all those looking to take the easy way out, just do it the right way from the start. All in all... I am very happy I went this route and the install even with my debacle, only took me about an hour from start to finish.
Not sure about the Silverstars as of yet... they are certainly brighter which is what I wanted but I have a couple of things I am not certain of. First off for those guys running them, do they leave a "dark area" just forward of the bumper for you? The light pattern starts further out then my old stock ones did and I am not sure if that is the fact that they are not aligned correctly or just the nature of this bulb. Also when I pulled back into my drive way with them on, there appears to be almost a blueish "circle" dead center of my truck now where the projected onto my white garage door. Is that normal or am I having acid flash backs? LOL.
Anyways... here are some pics of the headlights, when I get the parking lights and might even get the taillights too, I will take better pics and when the Might Yuk is washed and presentable.
The install itself would have been a breeze actually if I had just gone with my instinct and taking the grill off but of course, I knew a better way. I figured since my headlight brackets were fine that I would take the new headlight housing and just pop it in place of where the old one was using the old mounting brackets. The drivers side is where I started and it went pretty smooth with very minor tweaking to get it into the OEM bracket. Tightened it in place and viola! Done. Then to the passenger side... Got the outside stud out with no issues. The inside one on the other hand had its own ideas on how it was going to happen. It did not want to leave the truck and fought with me for a good 10 minutes. What was happening was that stud was just turning and wouldn't budge. Turns out upon further investigation, the threaded bushing inside the OEM headlight housing was seized in there pretty darn good and was just spinning around with the stud. Scratching head I made the decision to just remove the grill... no other option really at this point. Can't ride around with one brand-e-new headlight and bulb assembly and one factory relic. So, removed the 5 bolts holding the grill in place and carefully unsnapped the lower portion for the filler panel. Grill removal a success. This made things a lot clearer and after seeing how simple this would have been from the start, wish I had done this from the get go. So now I make the decision to remove the entire headlight assembly with the 4 bolts holding it in place and replace it with the entire TYC assembly. BAM! Done in like 5 minutes easy right? So easy I decided to do the same to the drivers side since the grill was off. 5 minutes later... they were done. I installed the new Silverstar bulbs and reconnected all the wiring. I placed the grill back in its home and proceeded to tweak the housings til I got the correct looking alignment. At first it looked like a Chinese version of the C/K series trucks with my initial fitment but after a couple of minutes and some fine adjusting... they were where I wanted them. Re-installed my grill and parking light lenses carefully, bolted it all back together and its a success!!!
I have to say, these things look DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYUM good. So much so what I feared would happen has. I have now ordered my TYC replacement parking light lenses. LOL Shoulda seen that coming and just got em from the start but oh well. the quality of the TYC headlights are really really nice from what I can tell and after some patience, the fitment is really spot on. The install would have been a breeze if I started by removing the grill so for all those looking to take the easy way out, just do it the right way from the start. All in all... I am very happy I went this route and the install even with my debacle, only took me about an hour from start to finish.
Not sure about the Silverstars as of yet... they are certainly brighter which is what I wanted but I have a couple of things I am not certain of. First off for those guys running them, do they leave a "dark area" just forward of the bumper for you? The light pattern starts further out then my old stock ones did and I am not sure if that is the fact that they are not aligned correctly or just the nature of this bulb. Also when I pulled back into my drive way with them on, there appears to be almost a blueish "circle" dead center of my truck now where the projected onto my white garage door. Is that normal or am I having acid flash backs? LOL.
Anyways... here are some pics of the headlights, when I get the parking lights and might even get the taillights too, I will take better pics and when the Might Yuk is washed and presentable.
will look even better when the parking lights are replaced too 
