| Author | Message | ||
     Invisible_monster |
A few months ago I did the headlight mod where you switch wires in one of the headlight connectors to make both lights come on when high beam is selected.http://www.rhinowerx.com/fotos/details.php?image_i d=2501 Works great. Last week I was looking at some pics in the Uly pic thread on ADV and noticed that some of the bikes have the opposite light on as mine does when in single light (low beam) mode. Checked my light vs the manual and it would appear that when I did the mod it has made the high beam side the 'always on'. So, when I'm standing in front of my bike ('08 Uly XT) the left beam is the always on. Both light are on when I switch to high beam. Anybody else done this mod and noticed this? | ||
| Gamdh |
If your standing in front of the bike.. the left headlight is the low beam.. its the one on the throttle side as your ridding..... or am I missing something? | ||
| Gamdh |
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| Ratbuell |
You should have switched (in the 4 wire connector) the striped wire (position light) with the yellow wire (low beam). That puts low beam on all the time. White is high beam, black is ground. Make the switch on the LIGHT side of the connector, NOT the vehicle side. | ||
| Gamdh |
+1 If it does not look like the pic.. you may have switched the wrong wires. | ||
| Invisible_monster |
Thanks for the replies so far everyone. On my modded setup, the light that turns on when low beam is selected is the throttle side. However, the owners manual labels the lights this way.  (Message edited by invisible_monster on August 23, 2009) | ||
| Kansas |
OK, you made me look. High beam is on the clutch side on my bike.  | ||
| Invisible_monster |
Another thing that makes me wonder is that the throttle side headlamp appears to be aimed higher than the clutch side. Anyone have an unmodded headlamp we could check?  I can't remember how mine used to work to be honest. | ||
| Gamdh |
The picture above with 1 headlight (low beam presumably).. is from the buell Web site and matchs mine... of course I did that mod over a year ago?????? Of course if you have them both on.. it doesn't matter  I had to check my '06 User Manual it has a number 1 pointing to both lights and says 1. Headlamps  (Message edited by gamdh on August 23, 2009) (Message edited by gamdh on August 23, 2009) | ||
| Gamdh |
I also checked my SM.... Text says.. High beam headlight is located on the left side of the vehicle Low beam headlight is located on the right side It then shows the picture (as if you are standing in front of the bike) and points to the right one and says low beam... left one is high beam... Now I'm really confused  | ||
| Invisible_monster |
I was just looking at the same thing in my service manual gamdh! Doesn't make any sense to me. I think I'm going to wait until it gets a little darker and see if I can figure out which is which when shining them on the garage wall. (Message edited by invisible_monster on August 23, 2009) | ||
| Invisible_monster |
OK, so after the garage wall test I think that the owners manual is wrong on which beam is which. My high beam (clutch side) definitely shines higher than my low beam (throttle side). Mystery solved. I think.  | ||
| Johnboy777 |
For some reason, my high beam is on the right side as I am facing the bike (left side--clutch side--while on the bike)....unlike the picture that Invisible posted. | ||
| Gamdh |
 .... at least I'm not loosing my mind... | ||
| Trail_snail |
Don't some of the foreign delivered bikes have the low beams and high beams on opposite sides to account for driving on the wrong side of the road? Maybe some of the pics on ADV were taken in foreign locations. I may be mistaken. My low beam is on the throttle side. | ||
| Froggy |
On US market bikes, high beam is on the clutch side, low beam on the brake side. It is the other way for England/Japan/Aussieland. | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
Not to hijack your thread, but I'd done this mod a year or so ago using the same method. I did it in conjunction with a dual HID installation (the stock low/high harness feed only switches each individual relay). At the time, I chose this method because I was concerned about the low HID losing power during the start cycle. As you know, the power to the low beam is interrupted when the starter is engaged. Not so with the Euro light lead (though the Euro lead experiences a voltage drop). Over time, I decided I'd rather change to the method of bridging the low and high beam circuits in the left-hand switchgear. I did this last week when I had the front end apart to replace the ignition switch and steering head bearings. The benefit in doing it this way (in my opinion) is that the low beam remains on the designated fuse and the Euro light can/will illuminate with the key in the "park" position. Using the method of swapping the low/Euro leads, the low beam will illuminate with the key switched to "park." I don't use the park position frequently, but the few times I have, it drove me crazy having my low HID burning. YMMV. Tipsy   | ||
| Kansas |
Tipsy, So you have not done the traditional headlamp mod, in the white plug, under the windscreen. It is left alone. What I can't tell is which of the white, blue, yellow you have swapped. Did you swap the yellow and the blue on the thumb switch? I'm baffled. | ||
| Keith_mahoney |
Tipsy, So you have not done the traditional headlamp mod, in the white plug, under the windscreen. It is left alone. What I can't tell is which of the white, blue, yellow you have swapped. Did you swap the yellow and the blue on the thumb switch? I'm baffled. Yes please enlighten us with words. I know a picture is worth a thousand of them but I have not taken apart my switch gear in order to notice what is different. | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
No need to be baffled. When I first did this mod, I swapped the Euro lead and the low beam lead under the fly screen (the brown/yellow & the yellow). But I did this at the same time that I installed HID's on both the low and high beam. So I used the Euro lead from the "white connector" to activate the relay for the low beam and I used the yellow low beam lead to power the Euro light in the lamp assembly. What I didn't like about this arrangement is that the low beam and the Euro light are on different fuses in the factory harness (my low and high HID are each fused and powered independently and directly from an auxiliary fuse block). I wanted to return the low beam and Euro light to their proper fuse designation for simplicities sake. In other words, if wanted to kill the low beam while working on the bike (with the key "on") by pulling the fuse for the headlamps, with this arrangement, the low beam would no longer be on the "Lamps" fuse (#5). Instead, you'd need to pull the "Accessory" fuse (#8). And vice versa. A small inconvenience and not a problem if you're aware of it, but I wanted it back to stock. 
Also, if you are using the Euro lead to power your low beam, when you turn your key to the "Park" position, your low beam will be illuminated rather than your Euro light. Not a concern for many, but it grew to be bothersome for me. So, I switched the leads under the screen back to their factory arrangement. Because of my custom wiring, I no longer have the factory, four-pin white connector but all four wires are feeding the same circuits as when they left the factory. Instead, I accomplished the desired lighting arrangement (low beam "always on") by soldering a short bridge between the yellow and blue contacts to the switchgear headlight switch itself. The above photos are not mine. A description of the mod along with those photos can be found on Buelletinboard. Sorry for the confusion. Hope this eliminates any. Tipsy | ||
| Kansas |
I am in the presence of Greatness. Tipsy - I appreciate the illumination (sorry). BTW, I'll be in your area on the 12th. Never been to New York. I would be very happy to buy you an adult beverage! | ||
| Jphish |
I feel compelled to +1 Tipsy's suggestion. The bridge wire has some real advantages... and NO downside I can think of. I did the wire connector swap under the fly screen about 6 mos ago. It worked great for awhile - now the hi beam doesnt come on when hibeam switch engaged. Must have boogered up the hibeam pin in connector - it looks a bit 'burnt'. I will probably have to redo the whole connector to get back to stock. Those dinky little connectors are a PITA! Now I'll just do the 'bridge' in the switch. Should have done it in the first place. Thanks for the lesson Tipsy. j | ||
| Court |
>>>I'll be in your area on the 12th. Never been to New York. Use great caution . . I came here after 44 years in Topeka . . and never went back.  | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
Glad it all makes sense now. Would love to meet up with you on the 12th Kansas, but I'll be riding the twisties in NW North Carolina that weekend! "44 Years in Topeka." - Good name for a band. Or the title of Capote's never written sequel to "In Cold Blood." Tipsy (Message edited by tipsymcstagger on August 26, 2009) | ||
| Kansas |
"Riding The Twisties" would also make a good band name.  There will be other weekends. I'll be Tweeting my way from Osawatomie, KS to Harpers Ferry, WV from 2AM Friday morning (the 11th) to whatever o'clock Friday evening. A John Brown raid, uh, I mean ride, to DC for a little party on the 12th. | ||
| Court |
>>>>"44 Years in Topeka." - Good name for a band I thought so to . . . but the guys in high school, Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope preferred KANSAS. It worked nicely for them . . . Kerry went back to Proto-Kaw and they've now disbanded. All from Topeka, KS . . . Center of the Musical Universe (see video at about 4:10). Original autographed "Dust in the Wind" still hanging here behind the desk though . . . | ||
| Ratbuell |
Kansas - when you get to Harpers Ferry, we're not far away (buelloffrederick.com), and we're open till 8 on Fridays. C'mon by! .....Dust in the Wind....yet another layer in the onion that is Court Canfield. | ||
| Kansas |
THAT was NOT the easiest bit of soldering I've ever done..... However, it works perfectly!! - I have an awesome red Euro light that comes on when the low beam turns off during the start cycle - bitch'n. - Low beam is off when the ignition is in Park (and I have two glowing red eyes staring like some kind of PO'd monster). - High and Low are both on when I hit the High-beam thumb switch. - All the lights are on the factory fuses. Very worth the hassle!! Tipsy, thanks! Ratbuell, I will drop in to see you on Friday. Presuming that there will be something left of me after 1100 miles! Court, this one's for you buddy:  | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
Hey Kansas...glad you got it worked out. To make the soldering a bit easier, I took a piece of wire about a foot long (just so it was easy to hold) and stripped back about an inch of the insulation. I then tinned that entire inch. From there, all I had to do was lay the tinned wire across the two contacts and it very simple to make the connection. After it was soldered securely, I simply cut the rest of the wire away with a pair of dykes. Tipsy | ||
| Kansas |
You see, right there. THAT's the difference between you and me. I'm no pilot. I am a ground-dweller. This condition causes me to frequently revert to Yahoo Engineering. 3 beers, 4 hours, 1 mental-health break SUCCESS!!! | ||
| Trail_snail |
Tipsy, MD-11s! Are you brown, purple or other? I had almost 10 yrs with DAL until something better (for me) came along. TR | ||
| Tipsymcstagger |
Kansas...I'm no engineer. Though I did start as an engineering major...but I switched to business. It was a more beer friendly curriculum  Trail...I'm a Brown guy. I'm in Almaty, Kazakhstan right now. Believe it or not, in a couple of hours I'm meeting up with two guys I know from my old (defunct) airline who are living here flying contract for Air Astana! Talk about a small world! Tipsy | ||
| Trail_snail |
Tipsy, It's a small world for sure. I'm always amazed at who I meet and when I meet them. Not many degrees of separation. I think defunct airline is the norm nowadays, although I've had pretty good luck for the last 20 yrs (knocking on wood). I had a sim instructor a couple of years ago though, who said that his resume read more like an air carrier obituary. Hope you're having fun in "whatever"-Stan. |
