On the road, Headlight screwed up, need ideas

[Ivan]

I am a mere 1200 miles from home, and my old lady says it will be worth it to get home sooner than later, but my head light is jacked up.

The low beam comes on in high position and the high beam comes on in low position, although very faintly.

The quick checks I did were the bulb, the harness that interfaces with the vetter and the switch. All are ok. Both elements light when power is jumped to each, and the switch is mechanically sound, meaning all the solder joints are ok. I have no way to test it because both terminals at the headlight get voltage, although at the wrong time.

I am suspecting the RLU at this point, but until now, I havent had the tank empty enough to pull it without causing a mess.

So, any other ideas before I set out early in the AM?

[Montreux_Blue]

Get a yellow H4 bulb.... So this problem came up during the trip or had it been there since you put on the Vetter?

[petejw]

could also be a bad earth,
if its not a bad earth, id suspect the rlu next.

[Montreux_Blue]

Try swapping the bulb with a know good one and see if it works otherwise I'd think the RLU...

[CatatonicBug]

Does the headlight warning light on the gauge cluster turn on when you have the switch in the low-beam position?

[yamahansolo]

which bike is it on as they have different colors for the wires... i have had some experiance with headlight issues... i did the rlu bypass and my high came on with low but i didn't know it and i burned up several buls in a matter of months until i figures out if you have a 78 or 79 the bypass is differnet that posted.

[Montreux_Blue]

I'm pretty sure it's a 79, now the engine is a different story though.

[yamahansolo]

i have a 79 and the rlu bypass procedures on the site are wrong. i searched for 2 days before i found something that showed the right way. i'll have to dig through my old posts to find it though...

[Crazcnuk]

I've done the RLU bypass on an 80G and a 78E, using the procedure here and it worked fine.

You can use one of those wire splices that you squish with pliers to bypass the RLU.

[Brad]

Although the bulb may work, it may not be perfect. It could be weak, try a new bulb. There is no diod, regulator, transformer or any other major electronic component in the high low switch or bulb. It's either high or low. It also could be a short in your low beam positive wire.

[yamahansolo]

crazy you might want to check your 78 take your light bulb out turn on your lights and switch between dim and bright watching the filaments i bet money on your dims both bright and dim light up. the procedure i copied is for the 80 and newer wiring. the 78 and 79 has differnet wires. only two of the wires need to be spliced together i will have to look at my old posts to see which ones. if you use the other way it makes both filaments light on dim. when you drive for several hundred miles it will burn up trusr me on 2 trips to florida i have done it. i only discovered it was wrong when i took the bulb out and watched it while flicking the lights.

[yamahansolo]

it was skids page that shows the rlu bypass. we need a sticky on there to tell 78' and 79's not to try this one.


http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24039

go to the section where it says here and here... also i guess it was dim staying on when switched to brights. i ride mostly at night so that's why i went through several bulbs. if you are dim all the time you may not notice this. once i did the fix i haven't had any problems.

OK I cured it.

I eliminated the Y to BLU/GRN connection in the UPATED and the Diagram.

So, I only kept the BLU/BLK to BLU/Y.
This eliminated the LO Beam being on all the time, even on HI Beam. My HI Beam Indicator works fine.

This was also causing XS amp drain.

[Crazcnuk]

I only used 2 wires to start with, which is why I could use the 2 wire splice.

I just connected the two blues as per the instructions, never touched the yellow.

I also only bypassed it long enough to test all my components. Once I found the relay was the dead part, I hooked up everythin as original.

I have no issues with the RLU and keep them hooked up.

[yamahansolo]

you must not have used skids page then... he's the one who burned up all my bulbs !!! damn him!!!! just kidding.

[Crazcnuk]

I used the one form THIS site, under modifications:

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=874