| Author | Message | ||
     Clot |
I've noticed that my lights haven't been all that bright lately and I took a look today to see if there was something wrong. The attached pic shows the three illumination options available. It's a New Zealand new bike so for you guys in the US the low beam lens is to the right in the photo. Currently 6 months old with 3000km on the clock so I don't think is should be suffering from a degraded reflector yet. The top photo is with the ignition in P. The middle photo is with the ignition on and the lights on low beam. The bottom photo is with the ignition on and the lights on high beam. There is no difference between P and Low - is this right? I thought only the left hand bulb should be illuminated in Low. Now when I switch to High I can feel the heat coming off the right hand bulb but in Low the light is extremely weak and there is no heat given off. Faulty bulb of faulty wiring? Can the R owners take a look and let me know how theirs behave? If I have to replace the bulb the front faring has to come off, correct?  | ||
| Littlefield |
Don't know right off hand how the lights are grounded but that may be your problem. | ||
| Sparky |
Is your RUN switch on in the low beam photo? The low beam should be nearly as bright as the high beam. It doesn't appear to put out any light at all. To change the bulb, you don't have to take the fairing off. Reach in back of the headlight housing, undo the white wire connection from the harness, undo the wire clip that retains the bulb assembly and remove the bulb. FYI, all Firebolts have the high beam on the right side of the bike, so it says in the svc manual. | ||
| Gowindward |
Check to see if the low beam bulb is seated well in the back of the housing. That is how it makes ground contact. The bulbs have a couple of notches in the base, 1 half round, the other square. Make sure they are fitting proper to the protrusions on the lamp housing. | ||
| Clot |
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Well I went into my dealer at lunchtime today. They can't get it into the workshop until the 24th but I got the mechanic to take a quick look and it looks like a dodgy connection between the white wire and the loom. I decided to check it out myself tonight (good opportunity to get to know the bike a little better) and sure enough the connector on the end of the white wire looks burnt. It is working fine now but I may as well get it replaced if I can. I also decided to disassemble the light as it was looking a little cloudy. There was a layer of muck in the inside face of the lens (almost looked like condensation residue) and sure enough my reflector is already showing signs of degradation. The bike has only done 3000km from new and there are already significant bubbles/burns in the coating around the bulb. I'm gonna hit them up about this at the same time even though this is a known fault - might get me a new light under warranty. Maybe the residue on the lens is actually from the reflector degrading??? At the same time I thought I'd try removing the "spoon" that sits in front of the bulb. I guess this is going to make the Low pretty close to a High but I'll take it for a run tonight to check it out. Definitely planning to put the spoon back before it goes into the workshop thou.  |
