headlights keep blowing
 

Hey guys, I have a 99 yellow that I bought super cheap, stripped down and lots of upgrades for the track. runs great, super fun to ride. problem is, it has a couple of electrical issues.

1. it keeps blowing the low beam on headlight bulbs. the high beam is fine, but i've replaced it twice and it blows the low beam really quickly every time.

2. the brake lights work, i.e. they come on when i brake, but the running light doesnt stay on.

I have a cafe-racer style single lamp 7" headlight that was on the bike when i got it, and the stock taillight. no signals front or rear.

any ideas? thanks

well first of all get some damn signals if your runnin the streets lol

Is the new headlight using an H4 bulb like factory? has the plug going to the headlight been spliced? check the fuse box and make sure the headlight has the recommended fuse... do you have any other electrical issues that could leave you to believe the R/R is toast?

basically need more specific info

dont need signals in texas. i will prob put them on there soon anyway. theyre just sitting on my table.

h4 bulb, yes. it's the stock wiring for the headlight and taillight, i believe. fuses are correct.

Have you made sure not to touch the glass part of the bulb before and \or while you are putting it in?

OH SNAP... lol... brings me back to my years of working auto parts...

every time you respond after me you make me feel like an idiot for giving people the
"benefit of the doubt"

Good suggestions on bulb hygiene gentlemen!

With a 7" cafe racer headlight, I wonder how that is mounted and about the effect of vibration. The front subframe on the VTR has similar internal weights to the handlebars, so Honda look like they've done some work to keep resonant vibration from shaking the frame too much. Presumably the low beam is on more than the high beam so it has a higher chance of being shaken to death when hot?

I was careful putting in the bulb. the whole bulb doesnt burn out, it's just the lowbeam.

And it's not just the headlight. The running light on the tail light isn't working either, although they still light up when i hit the brakes. and I haven't touched the bulb. the fuses are fine.

yeah, maybe, except that when i put a new bulb in, the low beam burns out the first or second ride, and then I can leave the high beam on for weeks of riding every single day and it doesnt burn out.

You say the bike has lots of upgrades for the track, any of them electrical? Is it running the factory ignition? Did the PO have the same problems?

You may have to break out the multimeter and chase some wires, if you dont have a hard copy of the service manual its in the knowledge base section, it has all the wiring schematics...

I don't think there's any electrical upgrades, other than a replaced rectifier. Just suspension and brakes, things like that. The PO mentioned that it had blown the low beam on him before. He didn't mention the tail light issue, and it didn't do it the first month I had the bike.

Dunno what's up with your headlight but I've had occasional difficulty with the tail lights not illuminating reliably.

Near as I can tell the stock tail light sockets are prone to insufficient tension on the contacts. Repeatedly re-seating my left tail light bulb was necessary before it would stay lit all the time.

ok, i'll have a look when I get a home and see if a little futzing with it will get the running light working again.

or maybe i'll just fully track it out and take all the lights off of it so i dont have to fuxx with it ;)

Have you examined the bulb socket? Do you use a dialectic grease at the socket?

Check that your voltage regulator is working. I had this problem on a FZR 600 and a pc800. Both times it was the regulator/rectifier. Measure your battery voltage with the bike running. If it is over 14.5v it is toast. My pc800 was charging at 19volts!

ahh, that's helpful. thanks.

Yes, but not if the R/R is rated for more than that. See the last page of the knowledge base on R/Rs.

No voltage regulators on street bikes are rated for more than about 14.7 volts. Any higher than that any you will boil the electrolyte out of the battery. (Ask me how I found this out!) The purpose of the regulator is to limit the amount of voltage available to the battery.

Yes, thank you.
Attachment 18784
My understanding is that the voltage will vary some and so long as it doesn't stay at a value too high or low continuously it's operating normally.

Thats correct. Intermittent jumps over 14.5v indicate that the voltage regulator is beginning to fail. Voltages less than 12v while running indicate a charging issue.

well, I was going to come in here and post something like...wait, but what about the taillight? it's the same bulbs, and they will light up when i depress the brake, but not when it's supposed to just be the running light.

....but then I broke down today, so I guess I'm going into project mode and figuring it out on my own.

Broke down?

my guess is the RR shit the bed...

Well that's graphic. If only I could draw what is in my head, you would laugh your ass off. Quick, someone put a melted Snickers bar on Barbie playhouse bed and lay an old R/R next to it and take a picture.

lol.

yeah, broke down yesterday on the way home from work. on the way to work, it hesistated and stuttered like it was out of gas, just one time for a second. it wasn't. on the way home, it did it again. and again, and again, until it finally died and wouldn't restart. right in the middle of an intersection of two 8 lane streets in Houston. yay. so I wheeled it over to a parking lot and walked home (luckily I was almost home). Walked back out to it when the sun was down to walk it home in cooler weather, and what do you know, started up and ran again.

it was acting like it either wasn't firing, or it was having problems getting gas, but tank was almost full. specifically, it was kind of acting like the pilot jet was clogged. didn't want to start, but once it started, if I kept the throttle at least a quarter turn open, it was fine. until it just died and wouldn't start. I'm going to test the r/r and give the carbs a cleaning and go from there.

So this was a mechanical issue not an electric issue correct? Did you just fill up? You could have over filled it. Im assuming you checked the gas at some point during this event, did you notice a hissing or similar when opening the gas cap?

R/R...

I don't know, I haven't had a chance to work on the bike yet, just rolled it home and put it in the garage until this weekend. The gas tank was about 75% full, it had been several days since I filled it up. and yes I looked, it still had gas. I was a part time assistant mechanic at a vintage shop for a few months. I'm not the most knowledgeable, and not the least either. I've done engine and tranny rebuilds on motoguzzis and bmw's, tons of carb work on old hondas and kawi's, etc., but i dont know everything, and bike electrical is not my strong suit. My assumption is that it's either not getting spark consistently or there's a hangup somewhere in the carb. given the other electrical issues, i'm guessing it's the R/R.

Regardless what you determine this recent cause of trouble to be, the R/R should be changed on principle to a MOSFET type.

GL with the diagnosis and repair.

thanks, will do. what is the general majority consensus on the best R/R for this bike?