low beam barely lights

[johnnycruiser]

Hello everyone. Here's my problem-and I've read every post I can find on this issue. I have an 83 xvz12tk. My high beam works fine but the low beam barely lights-not enough to ride with for sure. I bench tested the bulb and have an extra that I also bench tested; Both work fine. I've cleaned the starter switch, took the cmu out and looked at the solders and decided I didn't need to resolder it as they looked fine. Also I have a parts bike that I took the whole instrument panel out and hooked it up to my bike and the headlight did the same thing. So I'm wondering if maybe it's my reserve lighting unit. Here's the voltage at the headlight plug-when the dimmer switch is on low, the low beam wire has 11.26v. The high beam wire has 3.86v. When dimmer switch is on high, the low beam wire has10.21v and the high beam wire has 11.04v. Also the the whole dimmer switch blinker turn signal assembly on my parts bike looked better so I put that one on and it didn't help a bit-except the blinker switch returns better:clap2:I guess I'll swap out the reserve unit but wanted to get some input from others who know these bikes waaaay better than I do! Thanks in advance for any advice

[Squidley]

The reserve lighting unit would be a strong culprit, swap it out and see what happens. It sounds like you have done all the other troubleshooting pretty well.

[johnnycruiser]

Thanks Sqidley. Just wanted a second opinion b4 pulling the skin off. I will let ya'll know what it does. Hopefully the one off the parts bike works. LOL

[Squidley]

Thanks Sqidley. Just wanted a second opinion b4 pulling the skin off. I will let ya'll know what it does. Hopefully the one off the parts bike works. LOL

 

You can reach through the right side blinker hole to get to it if memory serves me correctly. Then just plug the spare in and see if it works to avoid pulling the upper fairing off...

[Black Owl]

As the bike is an 83, maybe your just getting down to the dredges of light left in the lamp.......

Just a thought. :rotfl:

[johnnycruiser]

Here's what happened...I pulled the right fairing off n swapped out the reserve lighting unit. Low beam came on-then went off again; well, real low wattage anyway. So I jiggled the headlight wires n it came on again. So I took the big connector off the cmu n sprayed electrical cleaner in it again. Plugged the connector back in again n seated it real solidly. Low beam came on n stayed on. It even made my low fluid light go off-no more flashing red light:dancefool:So I put my rlu back in n it still worked. So I've got a spare now. Next will b my neutral safety switch. The light stays on most of the time n it sure is bright at 5:30 in the morning on the way to work-but a piece of electrical tape solved that problem!:fatsmiley:I'm still gonna take it out one of these weekends n clean up the contacts n see if it's salvageable. That'll b something else I'll need advice on I'm sure. For now I'm happy I've got low beam n no flashing warning light. The low beam doesn't look too bright though. I may have to do one of the upgrades I've been reading about. This site is the best, so much info for $12. My bike wouldn't b in the shape it's in without this site n the people on it.:clap2::clap2:

[johnnycruiser]

You can reach through the right side blinker hole to get to it if memory serves me correctly. Then just plug the spare in and see if it works to avoid pulling the upper fairing off...

I wish I would've waited a few before going out n pulling the fairing off so I could've seen ur response. LOL. Well I had some plastic repair to do anyway, so while I had it off I went ahead n did it. I'll remember that little tidbit for next time though! Thanks

[johnnycruiser]

As the bike is an 83, maybe your just getting down to the dredges of light left in the lamp.......

 

Just a thought. :rotfl:

:crackup::crackup::crackup:

[Venturous Randy]

One thing that I feel also helps is to take a plastic wire tie and connect it around the wiring harness going to the CMU and pull it up some so there is not as much weight pulling on the CMU connection.

RandyA