Headlight/driving

[kantornado]

This is one of the best winter projects you can do for your VENTURE. I did this about 8 months ago and wanted to see how they held up these Daymakers are just that and then some. Well worth the time and money.

[uncledj]

Any specifics on exactly what ya got there?

I might want to do that same upgrade.

[zagger]

Looks like your lights ought to help spot deer in the road. In Wisconsin, deer hunting starts tomorrow and they are out running all over the place. My daughter just missed hitting one yesterday but she got lucky and the car right in front of her hit it instead. Not lucky for the deer, but at least her car was spared.

zag

[kantornado]

I will post pics of what I did and write out how I did it and if is worthy FREEBIRD can be posted in the Technical library.

 

O.K. I got it done and hope this may help someone else. It is a job for sure but well worth it headlight and driving light set I bought on Amazon Prim.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/…/7-inch-Headlight-Mounti…/163339540192…

 

This is the replacement ring I had purchased for the new headlight. You cannot use the old ring or attempt to use old light housing because you need the locking tabs for the new light to mount. The driving lights more or less plug and play.

 

When taking apart the original light housing first thing is to remove the plastic retainer on the top of light housing. DO NOT BREAK IT and be careful with it treat it like gold. To remove it mark the top with a marker then you have to put your thumb in behind the plastic and take a small screwdriver and push in on both sides while pushing with your thumb.

Once off put it in a safe place.

 

I broke the glass out of housing and I used a propane torch on the back side of light to heat up the rubber glue so I could scrape it away to get to the brackets to Dremel.

 

I cut the light housing brackets off with a Dremel to remove old light housing off old headlight.

 

Draw a center line down middle between the two mounting holes and the new housing to line up mounting bucket to clamp housing brackets before drilling and pop rivet. I also held the new headlight in place in the locking tabs mounting bucket to insure center of headlight and the center lines lined up.

 

I had to cut the back side of the new housing out to accommodate the new light and bend the flange and put it on work bench and hammered it flat to be able to clamp the housing to the mounting bucket and make sure your lines line up as perfect as you can to drill 1/8 holes for pop rivets.

 

While clamps are on drill holes and pop rivet housing and mounting bucket.

After you have it pop riveted and it’s to your liking now you can put the plastic holder on the shaft and slide it into the bracket.

Then put outer ring on and screw in place then mount on the bike. Trim the tabs down were the screws go in and bend them back so they do not touch the chrome headlight rim so you have room to adjust the headlight up and down. If any question ask.

[RoTorKev]

Nice work, thanks for taking the time to write up the directions and post pics!

[Freebird]

Great write-up. I did indeed copy it to the tech library.

[Jthomas]

How bright are the low beam and driving lights? I hate it when people get the ultra bright lows that blind everybody in anything smaller than a semi. I want to see well but not blind everybody, leave that job to the highs.

[kantornado]

How bright are the low beam and driving lights? I hate it when people get the ultra bright lows that blind everybody in anything smaller than a semi. I want to see well but not blind everybody, leave that job to the highs.

 

After instaling I adjusted my headlight on low beam. Bike on flat sulrface 25 feet from a wall I measure from center of headlight to the ground. Then on the wall I measured the same height and used a 3 ft level and draw a straight line then adjusted my headlight to the middle of line. In comparison these daymakers on low beam are about the same as my Chevy truck and on bright are about the same. In my opinion the bike light is just fantastic. And truly light up the road without blinding on coming traffic.p]

Edited November 26, 2019 by kantornado

[saddlebum]

Those headlights are coming out as stock equipment on Mack and International trucks as well as some of the other commercial trucks, so once a bike is converted there should be no issue finding a replacement should the occasion ever arise. The rectangular versions as well are becoming quite common which should work as a a direct replacement for the sealed beams on the MkI 1st Gens.

Edited November 25, 2019 by saddlebum

[Jthomas]

After instaling I adjusted my headlight on low beam. Bike on flat serface 25 feet from a wall I measure from center of headlight to the ground. Then on the wall I measured the same height and used a level and drew a straight line then adjusted my headlight to the middle of line. In comparison these daymakers on low beam are about the same as my Chevy truck and on bright are about the same. In my opinion the bike light is just fantastic. And truly light up the road without blinding on coming traffic.

 

Cool. I'll add this to my winter do list

[leroy]

My buddy installed those on his Harley. They sure are nice and throw light down the road. I had already installed an HID headlight with Truck Lites in the passing light housing on my RSV. If I had seen his conversion earlier I would have went that route also. They draw even less current.

 

Good post.