| Author | Message | ||
     Garyz28 |
Went to adjust my headlamps tonight per the shop manual. It appears to me that both the high and low beams are one unit and cannot be adjusted independently. From the factory my high beam hits the wall about a foot lower than the low beam does at a distance of 25'. Also the pattern for the low beam doesn't even vaguely resemble the pattern shown in the book. There has to be some trick to adjusting these things. My high beam is pretty useless when its pointed down below the low beam. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
The high beam should be the one on the left side as you are looking over the handlebars. The low beam is the one on the right side of the bike as you are looking over the handlebars. Check first to make sure that you have the correct light on when both the low and high are on. The reflector cones are different. The low beam is below the high beam.  In this picture, my HID is in the low beam cone and appears blue. The high beam is halogen and is above the low beam. | ||
| Garyz28 |
The low beam is on the right as I am on the seat looking over the handlebars. The high beam is way below the low beam, making it totally worthless. Maybe the reflector is in the wrong position inside the housing. I'm taking it apart in the garage right now so I can get a better look at it. | ||
| Garyz28 |
I just put it all back together and I've still got the same thing. At 25' the center of the high beam should be at the same point as the upper edge of the low beam. When I measured it, it is a full 20" below where it should be. It's almost as though the two lamp positions are reversed except the low beam has a rectangular pattern with a sharp cutoff on top and the high beam is a round pattern as it should be. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
You could simply swap the plugs. It does appear that they have accidentally swapped the cones inside the housing. Your low beam would then be on the left hand side, you high beam on the right. If they were reversed, would the high beam be in the position pictured above? You would then just need to adjust the low beam where you needed it. | ||
| Maximum |
Sounds like you have a "Left Hand Traffic" headlight assembly, which are backwards from ours. If you decide to replace it with a USA version...I'll buy that one from you. I am looking for one of these opposite headlight configurations (Y0426.1ADA)for my next diabolical experiment!  (Message edited by maximum on March 09, 2008) | ||
| Ratbuell |
Either that, or his is installed upside-down somehow. I haven't had the nose of a Uly/Lightning apart..is that possible? Given the info - light on the wrong side, pointing down instead of up... - sounds like a 180 install. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I believe the reflector cones are simply separate pieces in the headlight housing. It would be easy to have them reversed. Swapping them shouldn't be a problem and should solve your issues. You can't mount them upside down, but the part could be UK ESpec or assembled incorrectly. Either way, Gary, you can fix it! | ||
| Froggy |
I noticed that my headlight says USA on the bottom. I don't know if that means made in the USA or if its the USA spec. Perhaps Gary's says something else? | ||
| Maximum |
The reflective "cones" are not separate...and not reversible.   And the USA marking do indicate a US headlight configuration.  And let me tell you that this is not easy to dismantle without damaging the outside housing. Anyone know how to loosen up silicon glue? | ||
| Garyz28 |
Mine also says USA on the bottom. I was thinking maybe one of the cones was put in upside down, but now I see that's not possible. The bike is still under warranty so I can always take it back to the dealer and have them fix it. But I have little faith in the dealer after taking my son's Blast back five times for the same issue and still never getting it fixed, but that's a entire thread in itself. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Hey Max, If the glue is the same as on the side puck, the serv manual calls for alcohol to remove. . | ||
| Buellinabq |
That was another problem jmhinkle had too. Make sure the bulbs are seated flat/flush against the housing. When I changed out my bulbs to something brighter, I had the high beam in at a slight angle on accident and didn't notice it. That made the high beam shoot lower than the low beam. I to was like, what the hell happened? When looking at the headlight from the front, you could see the center of the bulb was up a little bit, off center. I took it apart again and noticed the base of the bulb was not flat/flush with the housing. Rick | ||
| Alchemy |
Garyz28, Had a very similar (maybe exact) problem on my 06 Uly. Problem was the bulb itself it seems. Never thought it could be the bulb so it was surprising. See this discussion: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/221477.html Installing some sylvania silverstars seemed to resolve it. I went through almost as much hassle as you have. Hopefully this info completely solves your problem. | ||
| Garyz28 |
Alchemy, That's good information. Tonight I'll take a close look at how the bulbs are seated in the lamp. Maybe try swaping them side to side and see what happens. | ||
| Maximum |
Gary, while you have the headlight assembly off...measure the distance from the bulb mounting plate to the back of the plastic housing. The high beam has a deeper cone,so it should be about .75"...where as the low beam with a more shallow cone should be almost 1". This should help you confirm which side is which. | ||
| Alchemy |
Garyz28, It has been about a year but I don't believe I ever tried swapping the bulbs when I was struggling with this. I installed the Silverstars expecting the alignment to continue to be off. When I discovered much to my delight that the alignment was now correct I never reinstalled the bulbs. I probably still have the bulbs. If you end up returning the bulbs to Buell for investigation, I may be able to dig mine up also. I did not observe anything obviously faulty with the bulbs. It is a bit of a waste of effort in that all the hassle that I and now maybe you have gone through may never get back to Buell's quality system to prevent future similar problems (other than through this forum). It would literally take 2 seconds to check this at the factory. I spent hours trying to get this resolved as I am sure you have. The Silverstars are not cheap but they are a significant improvement. I don't think they are quite as robust however as I have had my low beam fail once already. | ||
| Garyz28 |
Success! The sheet metal brackets that hold the bulbs in place on both sides were loose. I squeezed the tabs down that reach inside the housing and got them both nice and tight. A quick check inside the garage now shows the high beam hits the wall just above the top edge of the low beam. Thank you to all who replied! |
