Any other ideas for a dim headlight?

[Droneh8tr]

83 Venture

Well I've resoldered the circuit board to fix the dim low beam headlight issue... It didn't fix it. High beam is plenty bright. Anything else I can try? I don't feel like driving around with my high beam on all the time, and I don't feel like putting on an aftermarket system.

I did clean every contact as well.

[Neil86]

Your best bet is to do a voltage test through the circuit.....

into CMS on low beam

out of CMS on low beam

at the bulb socket

to determine exactly where the drop is occuring

ie headlight switch, or CMS, or wiring or socket.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Neil86

[Guest tx2sturgis]

DH:

 

Let me ask a question or two:

 

Has it always been dim or did it happen suddenly? Or did it happen over a period of time?..slowly getting dimmer and dimmer.

 

Or did the previous owner complain of it too?

 

One thing that WILL cause a dim low beam is an improperly wired harness, sending current thru BOTH filaments in series on low, and then normal one filament operation on high beam.

 

Dimmer switch has been checked, right?

 

Of course, swapping in a new bulb was tried, I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

[jakester]

Keep it simple...as headlights age they can become dimmer with time. Try a bulb first.

Bill

[Droneh8tr]

Your best bet is to do a voltage test through the circuit.....

into CMS on low beam

out of CMS on low beam

at the bulb socket

to determine exactly where the drop is occuring

ie headlight switch, or CMS, or wiring or socket.

 

I had to run out to work but I was able to take a couple readings and try something:

Switch on Low Beam:

Low beam circuit = 12.13 volts

High beam circuit = 4.10 volts..... why would this be?

 

Switch on High Beam:

Low beam circuit = 11.10

High beam circuit = 11.96

 

DH:

 

Let me ask a question or two:

 

Has it always been dim or did it happen suddenly? Or did it happen over a period of time?..slowly getting dimmer and dimmer.

Don't know, I literally bought the bike 2 months ago and just got it on the road..

 

Or did the previous owner complain of it too?

Again, don't know

 

One thing that WILL cause a dim low beam is an improperly wired harness, sending current thru BOTH filaments in series on low, and then normal one filament operation on high beam.

Hmmm, you may have something here... See above

 

Dimmer switch has been checked, right?

Sorry no, no time yet

 

Of course, swapping in a new bulb was tried, I'm sure.

No, but this is why.... I swapped the high and low beam wires going to the light. The light was very bright on low and high beam.

 

 

 

 

Keep it simple...as headlights age they can become dimmer with time. Try a bulb first.

Bill

I agree, but please read above..

[Guest tx2sturgis]

It seems that there may be a wiring error or possibly a ground problem.

 

Not sure which, (could be both).

 

You should unplug the headlight and using a volt meter or test light:

 

Hook ground lead to chassis frame somewhere.

 

With ignition on:

 

Probe to each terminal in the headlight conector. Switch dimmer from High to Low and see which is hot in each position.

 

The one thats 0 volts is the ground lead. One should show about 12 or over on high, the other should show 12 on low.

 

Record the results.

 

Now, using the lead that was zero volts, ground your test lead to that, and then probe the other 2 terminals. You should get the same, (or nearly the same) results.

 

If all goes well, we can assume the dimmer switch and all circuits to the plug are good...but you could possibly still have a mis-wired connector. I've seen it before.

 

Post your findings here. We'll fgure it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil86]

Were your voltage tests done at the socket with the headlight lit?

[Droneh8tr]

Were your voltage tests done at the socket with the headlight lit?

 

Yes..

[Droneh8tr]

It seems that there may be a wiring error or possibly a ground problem.

 

Not sure which, (could be both).

 

You should unplug the headlight and using a volt meter or test light:

 

Hook ground lead to chassis frame somewhere.

 

With ignition on:

 

Probe to each terminal in the headlight conector. Switch dimmer from High to Low and see which is hot in each position.

 

The one thats 0 volts is the ground lead. One should show about 12 or over on high, the other should show 12 on low.

 

Record the results.

 

Now, using the lead that was zero volts, ground your test lead to that, and then probe the other 2 terminals. You should get the same, (or nearly the same) results.

 

If all goes well, we can assume the dimmer switch and all circuits to the plug are good...but you could possibly still have a mis-wired connector. I've seen it before.

 

Post your findings here. We'll fgure it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Im gonna do all this within the next couple days. Its a busy work time so free time isn't avail. until Saturday morn.

[Droneh8tr]

It seems that there may be a wiring error or possibly a ground problem.

 

Not sure which, (could be both).

 

You should unplug the headlight and using a volt meter or test light:

 

Hook ground lead to chassis frame somewhere.

 

With ignition on:

 

Probe to each terminal in the headlight conector. Switch dimmer from High to Low and see which is hot in each position.

 

The one thats 0 volts is the ground lead. One should show about 12 or over on high, the other should show 12 on low.

 

Record the results.

 

Now, using the lead that was zero volts, ground your test lead to that, and then probe the other 2 terminals. You should get the same, (or nearly the same) results.

 

If all goes well, we can assume the dimmer switch and all circuits to the plug are good...but you could possibly still have a mis-wired connector. I've seen it before.

 

Post your findings here. We'll fgure it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just got home from work and couldn't wait until this weekend to get you an answer...

Here you go:

1. The switch had bouncing resistance... Which means I had lube on the contacts.. I cleaned them and now it's nearly no resistance.

 

2. I grounded the black wire and measured the voltage to the other wires switching from low to high...

Low = 12.7

High = 12.17

 

3. Black wire not connected to a grounding lead, voltage readings = SAME RESLTS

 

So, from this I would say its a fair assumption I'm getting the power I'm suppose to have..

 

BUT WAIT, when I connected the bulb directly to the battery, the high beam was very bright, but NO low beam.. And the ohm meter showed open on the low beam side.... THIS suggests the bulb is bad.

But hold on again... With the switch in low beam, voltage = 12+ on that circuit AND I get a 4 volt reading on the high beam side of the bulb (why i dont know) while the switch is still on low beam. MAYBE, my dim indication is that the high beam side of the bulb is getting 4 volts while the low beam hasn't even been working this whole time... So why am I getting 4 volts on the high beam side of the bulb???

Later today imbuying a new bulb and I'll go from their.. I'll take JAKESTERs advice.

 

Any additional suggestions would still be appreciated..

[Neil86]

The 1st Gen has a Reserve Lighting Unit....what it does is switch power to other filament if you switch to a failed one...

 

ie....high beam failed....when you switch to high beam the RLU sends power to low beam to maintain a headlight.

low beam failed....when you switch to low beam it sends reduced power to high beam (to prevent blinding oncoming traffic).

 

Normally though if everything is working right....you should have a bulb failure alarm on CMS

(the headlight is the larger light icon) and whenever you are running on the failed beam and the RLU is powering the alternate the white HEADLAMP dash light should be lit up.

 

You might also check the reserve lighting unit to make sure the connections are clean on it as usually you can't see such as major change in lighting when it takes over...so the voltage is probably too low.

 

If you are getting no CMS alarm using the bad low beam....remove bulb and try the good beam...see if the CMS works for the "bad" high beam.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Neil86

[Droneh8tr]

SOLVED everyone...

It was the bulb..

But I got the board soldered and found that my high low beam switch was messed up.. so all in all it was all worth it.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond..