Both of the 20+ year old H4 connectors were cracked and full of green corrosion from years of exposure to the elements (one connector was partly melted). You can try cleaning the connectors up, but you will be back at it in a few months, because its the plating that has corroded through, and this plating is supposed to slow corrosion.
I ordered a pair of these Ring ceramic connectors.
Massive difference, though I also changed to new Lucas-branded 7" headlamps to replace the Freeforms I had before (The Stanley Raybrigs were a glass freeform. In 2020, Stanley stopped selling the Raybrig line, but allegedly the same headlamp is now sold, Japan only, under “Stanley Electric”. Raybrig was the consumer line, where they’d put a blue tint on glass to sell, Stanley is the serious OE replacement brand).
Freeform headlamps have the beam focus moulded into the bowl not the glass. It debateable whether they are better than comparable conventional brands (comparable being the operative word, because the only comparable brands being genuine Cibie, Hella and maybe PIAA). Raybrigs are always better than the woeful Japan/US only sealed beams, though the export-spec Koitos were pretty decent. The Freeform idea was invented by Trucklite, for American big rigs, looking for something cheaper and weightsaving compared to glass units that were getting smashed all the time. So the originals were all polycarbonate. Stanley changed the polycarbonate “glass” to glass. I’ve not seen side by side comparisons of Raybrigs and Wipac freeforms. But most people back in the day brought these headlamps because they came in JDM yellow or blue.
Another driver was to cut down on the glass thickness (cost). There are a lot of mystery brand headlamps on the market which, if you look closely, seem to have the distinctive Cibie or Hella fluting in the glass. But they are knockoffs with thinner glass, generally made in India, which seems to be the global focus of headlamp manufacture these days. Cibie performed well because they used good quality crystal and thick glass to get accurate focus (and were pricey). Freeform headlamps free the manufacturer from having to use thick glass, or even pay all that much attention to the quality of the crystal. Or just use plastic, which won’t crack when you spray cold water on it after a 10 hour haul through the dark in a Semi.
I said I used Lucas-branded headlamps. They came in a Lucas box from a reputable UK supplier. They aren’t knockoffs. Lucas doesn’t exist anymore, but its brand does, having been sold to, or licensed to ELTA. Allegedly they are made to the same spec; the 328s I have do have nice detailing in their construction, but I have no idea where they are actually made. They beat the 15 year old Polycarbonate Freeforms I had, thanks to the polycarbonate picking up thousands of fine scratches over the years.
I think Wipac would have beaten those Freeforms (and the Wipacs were OE fit on the original Defenders), but I fancied King of the Road/ Prince of Darkness on the car.
Ultimately though, the 7" bowl headlamp is an ancient design with limitations. Its never going to compare to modern lighting, and the Chinese trying to shoehorn various technologies into the unit will always be compromised.
