What a difference!

[clcorbin]

As part of my "get the bike ready for school" project (on going), I have FINALLY replaced the headlight on my 79F. I was fairly tired of being able to outrun the light at about 35 mph... I knew I could do a LOT to improve it with a good Silver Star bulb and a lot of cleaning/reworking of the wiring harness. But, with the greatly decreased price of HID kits and the high price of the Silver Star bulbs, it was a pretty easy decision to go HID.

My original plan was to get rid of all the connectors that were not needed (aka: splice into the original harness with wiring as neat and short as possible). As I started to test fit everything, I found that with the lengths of the components, everything pretty well fell into place. The small ballast took the place of the RLU, the head light wiring was rerouted and was the perfect length to reach, etc. The only actual "modification" I made to the kit was to lose the inline fuse and use one of the spare fuse locations on my new fuse block. It turned out to be a very nice and neat install that actually went faster than I expected.

During all this, I DID find two things that definitely contribute to the low light output. The first one is probably the biggest. For some reason, Yamaha made the harness to the headlight with two connections. There is the normal headlight connector at the end, but that is on a short (3" long or so) stub harness that had another connector that connects to the main harness with spade connectors.

The headlight plug was almost perfect. Clean. Shinny. Beautiful. The spade connectors made up for it! So, I pulled each pin out and hit it with a polishing wheel in my Dremel until they were nice and shiny. Of course, the power for the headlight no longer goes through this connector, but still!

The second issue is that the PO REALLY crashed this bike! I knew it had been crashed before I bought it back in '89. The tank had been repaired and repainted, same for the side covers. The right side turn signal stalks where both bent, there was some pretty good scrapping on the right side skid bars, etc.

What I DIDN'T know was just how out of square the head light housing and trim ring are! It's one of those things that you know it wasn't 100% right with it installed, but once I pulled the headlight out and actually looked at the trim ring, it was completely trapezoidal in shape. I would guess it is out by at least 1/4" and probably closer to 3/8"! When I put the bare ring up against the headlight bucket, it fit perfectly, so there is no doubt the bucket is also tweaked. Time to start looking on eBay I guess.

One of the surprising things was just how CLEAN the headlight housing and bulbs where. The bulb looked like it was brand new. It was shiny and perfect with NO corrosion on it at all. Heck, even bulb itself looked perfectly clear. The inside of the housing was also pretty much perfect. It was very clean and the silver coating did not have any issues at all. Part of that was because the rubber dust seal was also in almost perfect condition. Soft and flexible and still in the correct place. Definitely NOT what I expected to see.

After seeing how clean the inside of the housing was, I knew all the "dirt" had to be on the outside of the lens. I had cleaned it several times with soap and water, but it never got the brown film off, so I assumed it had to be inside. This time, I hit it with engine cleaner and let it soak for about five minutes. When I wiped it off, I had nice, shiny and clear glass again. Definitely a huge improvement!

Performance wise, what can I say? Night and day doesn't quite cover it! I won't be able to just leave it on high beam all the time now. I also love the WHITE light (6500k bulb). That was one area I was always jealous of HID lights. No matter how good a halogen light was, it always had a yellow tint to it, especially when set against a HID light. Yes, even the Silver Stars...

All in all, this is definitely one upgrade I can recommend to anyone that rides at night. The factory lights didn't really cut it when the bikes were new and 30 years time hasn't help them. Thankfully, technology HAS improved and we can rebuild it and make it better than ever!

[WMarshy]

Sweet, got a good source for the HID?

[clcorbin]

Sweet, got a good source for the HID?

Not sure how good it is, but I went with this kit: HID H4 Bi Xenon lights. The shipping was a bit slow (bought it on the 19th of March and it showed up on the 8th of April), but he does clearly say how long the shipping will take. And for $54, it was worth the wait. We shall see how well this kit holds up over the long run.

One thing I do like about this kit: The ballast is a perfect (snug, but perfect) fit in the location of the RLU. I pulled the RLU out before I installed the kit and simply had to drill two small holes in the RLU's bracket and then use a pair of #6 sheet metal screws to securely attach the ballast.

Of course, when I did my first test, it was before I modified the wiring for the removed RLU, so I plugged it back in for the test. And I found that this kit works perfectly with the RLU anyway! It would switch between high and low instantly. Just as fast as stock, or close enough to it that my eyes can't tell the difference.

I REALLY liked where that ballast was mounted, so I pulled the RLU and spliced the two wires together to complete the bypass as it is TOTALLY useless on a bi zenon lighting system. With only one lighting circuit, when the light goes out, it is OUT and there is nothing the RLU could do to help. I guess it COULD turn that little "bad bulb" dash light on for you...

[mro]

Power consumption 35 watts

That can help some.

mro

[WMarshy]

Sorry, I dont speak the same lingo as you elect's do and Ive never done anything behind the headlight. What is the RLU and what does it do? Thanks.

[justme1100]

Reserve Lighting Unit and I read about it in here someplace but I don't remember what it does. Anyone?

[DGXSER]

IIRC, the RLU monitors your headlight and if you lose either high or low beam, it turns on the HEADLIGHT indicator light in the lighting set of the "dash" and automatically turns on the high beam if the low went out or the low beam if the high went out.

I am not so much of an electrical wiz as many others here so I may have a couple things off there, but that is fairly close.

[CatatonicBug]

Actually, the RLU only goes one direction. If the low beam filament dies, it kicks over to the high beam filament, but at a reduced wattage. It then lights the warning light on the dash. It does not do the same for the high beam though.

When the RLU has activated, and is running the high beam filament at a reduced wattage, you can still turn on the high beam, and it kicks up the the full high-beam wattage.

[WMarshy]

What years has that, all?

[CatatonicBug]

What years has that, all?

Yep. It's located dead center, under the tank, just forward of the Reg/Rect.

[Cobia]

Modulator compatability?

I wonder if this system will work with my Kisan Pathfinder modulator??
Anybody??

[clcorbin]

I wonder if this system will work with my Kisan Pathfinder modulator??
Anybody??

I wouldn't use it with this system. The bulb is physically moved to different positions for high and low beams. Flicking it from high to low constantly WILL cause it to mechanically wear out MUCH, MUCH quicker than normal high/low beam switching would.

Personally, I would take the increase in safety caused by having a MUCH brighter headlight over the possible increase in safety due to flicking the head lights. But that is just me.

[TomRodgers]

With the install, is it necessary to to the RLU bypass modification? or do you just "hack it out"?? I would think that removing it without the "mod" it may interfere with other stuff....or am i way off here?

[clcorbin]

With the install, is it necessary to to the RLU bypass modification? or do you just "hack it out"?? I would think that removing it without the "mod" it may interfere with other stuff....or am i way off here?

Let's see if I can go through my install and my logic for you. First, when I started the installation, I ASSUMED the RLU would NOT work properly with this HID kit, so I pulled it out and set it aside. As I started to mock everything into place, I found the small ballast was an almost perfect fit for the old location of the RLU. I only had to drill two small holes in the metal bracket and screw the ballast down. Very nice and very neat.

Once I had all of the HID kit installed, but BEFORE I made any changes to the stock lighting wiring harness (aka: RLU bypass), I decide to fire it up and test it WITH the RLU plugged just to make sure the system worked. That way, if it worked BEFORE I did the bypass and did NOT work after, I knew exactly where to look. Otherwise, it could be a needle in a haystack tracking the problem down.

To my surprise, the kit I bought worked perfectly with my RLU! High worked, low worked, the high beam indicator worked, it changed from high to low exactly like it did before (just the light was a LOT brighter!). That put me a bit of a quandary because if I kept the RLU, then I wouldn't have to modify the wiring at all. But, I WOULD have to find a new home for the ballast.

I fairly quickly decided that I wanted to go ahead and loose the RLU. It can NOT do anything on a bi zenon lighting system as high and low beams are both produced by the same bulb and ballast, so if it fails, they both fail. If the light goes out some night in the middle of nowhere I am fairly sure the fact that it suddenly went DARK will be all the indicator I need to know the light failed, so having a dash light come on to tell me the very obvious is a waste of time as well.

Getting rid of it has some positives too: 1) My ballast can stay in it's new home, 2) One less piece of equipment to fail (and possibly take my lights out with it), 3) I can get rid of on extra connector (I spliced the main harness, so the old connector was cut out completely) and 4) I guess I could sell the RLU on ebay for some cash... Maybe...

So, for me at least, it was a very easy decision to ditch the RLU. Bypassing it was also trivial after studying the wiring diagrams as the only thing I had to do was splice the blue/black and blue/yellow wires together. One provides power that comes from the relay that powers the lights and the other one goes to the switch, so tying them together permanently did the trick.

Now, my high beams work, my low beams work and my high beam indicator light works as well. And I am very happy with the new lights!

[Brent]

80XS1100SG RLU removed. HID light in

Let's see if I can go through my install and my logic for you. First, when I started the installation, I ASSUMED the RLU would NOT work properly with this HID kit, so I pulled it out and set it aside. As I started to mock everything into place, I found the small ballast was an almost perfect fit for the old location of the RLU. I only had to drill two small holes in the metal bracket and screw the ballast down. Very nice and very neat.

Once I had all of the HID kit installed, but BEFORE I made any changes to the stock lighting wiring harness (aka: RLU bypass), I decide to fire it up and test it WITH the RLU plugged just to make sure the system worked. That way, if it worked BEFORE I did the bypass and did NOT work after, I knew exactly where to look. Otherwise, it could be a needle in a haystack tracking the problem down.

To my surprise, the kit I bought worked perfectly with my RLU! High worked, low worked, the high beam indicator worked, it changed from high to low exactly like it did before (just the light was a LOT brighter!). That put me a bit of a quandary because if I kept the RLU, then I wouldn't have to modify the wiring at all. But, I WOULD have to find a new home for the ballast.

I fairly quickly decided that I wanted to go ahead and loose the RLU. It can NOT do anything on a bi zenon lighting system as high and low beams are both produced by the same bulb and ballast, so if it fails, they both fail. If the light goes out some night in the middle of nowhere I am fairly sure the fact that it suddenly went DARK will be all the indicator I need to know the light failed, so having a dash light come on to tell me the very obvious is a waste of time as well.

Getting rid of it has some positives too: 1) My ballast can stay in it's new home, 2) One less piece of equipment to fail (and possibly take my lights out with it), 3) I can get rid of on extra connector (I spliced the main harness, so the old connector was cut out completely) and 4) I guess I could sell the RLU on ebay for some cash... Maybe...

So, for me at least, it was a very easy decision to ditch the RLU. Bypassing it was also trivial after studying the wiring diagrams as the only thing I had to do was splice the blue/black and blue/yellow wires together. One provides power that comes from the relay that powers the lights and the other one goes to the switch, so tying them together permanently did the trick.

Now, my high beams work, my low beams work and my high beam indicator light works as well. And I am very happy with the new lights!

Thanks Clint,
Same experience for me. One additional motivation for me to remove RLU was a drop in voltage at headlight (about one volt). Voltage is Better now that RLU is gone. Wiring in my HID kit put balast next to coils under plastic steering neck cover. HID relay fit beside headlight relay. Too much stuff & wires for me to fit in hedlight bucket.