flyinwheelie

Here is my Superhawk streetfighter. It is the result of Ebay+500 bucks after a massive track high side. Ever since the rebuild I have had strange charging problems. Initially, I thought my R/R had been damaged, because it was getting VERY hot. It cooked all the wires in its vicinity. I replaced that with another superhawk one I found on Ebay. Same problem. The wires seemed to be heating up the most right at my crimps -- there must be some major power going through these things. I did every motorcycle charging system test routine out there... the stator is fine and putting out plenty of power, but my 2nd r/r was definitely fried. I replaced the r/r with a much better GSXR1000 r/r. This time I ditched the half-melted plug and soldered everything together for a better connection. It was fine after that -- low heat and everything, but my battery would SLOWLY discharge over time, even though it was 13.6 volts at idle. City riding would allow the battery to go 3-4 months, but when I took an 8 hour ride one day, I had to roll-start it at a gas station. It never quit once it was actually running, so it was making enough juice to keep the ignition going. When I got home, I hooked up a volt meter from the "accessory plug" in the front so that I could watch the voltage while riding. Sure enough, when I got rolling at about 4000 rpm, the voltage dipped from 13.6 to about 11.6. In addition, the voltage directly across the battery was slightly higher than the voltage I was reading in the front. WTF? That led me to think the headlights were pulling too much current. I rigged it so that only one headlight comes on for low beam, and had about 12.3 volts running. Not quite enough to maintain things. This is when I discovered that not all 55-60watt H4 halogen bulbs are created equal. I pulled the ones out of my dual headlights and they were slightly bigger than the bulbs in my busted stock light, with the same plug. I put a stock superhawk bulb in there, so it should be pulling the same voltage as the stock system on low beam now. I am FINALLY getting a reading a meager 12.85 volts while riding. It climbs to about 13.0 over time. When I kick on the brights and both lights come on, it dips to 12.3 and slowly ticks down from there. It's still around 13.6 at idle, with brights on or not. So it works, but only with one light, and I don't particularly like the "winking pirate" look.

Has anyone else had problems with a dual headlight setup? It almost seems like the wiring just can't handle the current that 2 bulbs pull, and power is getting lost as heat, but it doesn't explain why it is still able to charge at idle. I am out of ideas. Thoughts?

Tweety

If you are using stock wiring, no the wiring cant handle two H4 bulbs... It has severe problems with one... But that doesn't effect the battery that way.. Two dead R/R's does however usually damage a battery so it doesn't hold up to a load very well... Either overcharging them for a good while or undercharging... Or just plain shorting them out when it goes bye, bye... Before you do anything, have that battery load tested... If it's a dud, replace the battery and check all cabling and the R/R again...

The wiring for the headlight is just as you deducted converting the power to heat... So If you want to use two H4's use a relay with apropriorate cabling from the battery... www.easternbeaver.com is a good place to get them...

flyinwheelie

Thanks for the suggestion. I refocused on the battery and it did seem to have low capacity. I got a new battery and things seem improved. I don't know yet if it's slowly discharging the battery while running. I do know that I get very different voltage readings when one bulb, two bulbs, or no bulbs are plugged in. I like the numbers when the light is totally unplugged, but I can't legally ride around like that... If the voltage didn't go down so much at higher rpms, I wouldn't have a problem.

Thicker gauge wire and relays straight from the battery seem like a necessary addition. Thanks Honda! I have some relays lying around somewhere... Photos to come when and if I manage to fix it.

flyinwheelie

I got the basic single headlight kit from easternbeaver.com and it only took it about a week to get here from Japan. I chose that over the dual headlight kit because my dual headlight only has one h4 plug, with wires going to it from the back of both headlight casings. I thought about switching to a 20 amp fuse, but both headlights running through the single 15 amp fuse do not seem to cause a problem. The relays are rated for 20 amps, and I think one h4 bulb draws about 6 amps.

My lights are noticeably brighter, and the response is a lot faster when switching between low and high beam. The voltage is now approximately 13.5 at idle and 13.2 at 5000 rpms. Perfect.

Installation was so easy, a monkey could do it. I zip tied the relays to my clutch line. I'm not too worried about visible wires. People already roll up their windows and cover their kids' eyes when they see my bike anyway. I just followed the existing wires down the left side, behind the left radiator, and back up under the seat.

peterpanic