It seems every winter my headlight on the Ural dies. The first few times I replaced it with the standard sealed beam, but that was a hassle and took up too much room as a spare. Several years ago, I found a Bosch kit online to convert it over to an H4 bulb instead. The H4 is much more convenient since most of my bikes use it as well. They also take up less room on the shelf. It would be nice is the bulb would fail while it is warm out. Taking the fairing off is a messy job with road grime everywhere.
I have a ratcheting box-end wrench which makes quick work of the bolts. It is quite a mess in the headlight assembly with all the wires from all over the motorcycle coming together. Once the headlight was out, putting in a new bulb only took a few minutes. I also took the time to clean the headlight. It was covered in a thick layer of road grime and salt. It is hard to believe I clean it each time I get gas when it looked so dirty. It is nice to have a working headlight again.
Is much of that whitish road grime salt or does MN use something else?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a hassle getting into the headlight of the Beemer. That's quite the rats nest of wires...
MN uses a combination of salt and chemical, so both I guess.
Deleteyea, it's a bit of a pain compared to the SV, but sooo much easier than my Super9 where I have to take the entire front plastic off which is 12 screws.
I wonder why it keeps failing. Wear or maybe vibrations? Does it vibrate over the snowy roads causing it to fail in the winter most often? Things that make you go hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteI think it is just timing. Since it is every year roughly the same time, I'm guessing the bulb is wearing out. I think if I put a fresh one in the fall when I put the winter tires on it would make it until it is warm out.
DeleteChris:
ReplyDeleteI am thinking it must be the "high/low" current cycles. Maybe a new voltage regulator or perhaps it is the bridge diodes that let through too much AC and not filter the DC enough ? Just a novice guess.
Too bad you couldn't modify the bulb holder so you could just remove the bezel
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Thanks Bob, I suppose it could be, but I'm more of a novice in that area than you. The other bulbs are fine though. I'm guessing it is timing. We'll see if I can remember to put a new bulb in when I get it ready for the next winter later this fall. I'm guessing it will make it through the winter just fine then.
DeleteIs there a relay that cuts power to the headlight when the starter is cranking? If there isn't, that would cause a lot of spikes and transients to hit the filament.
ReplyDeleteNo, there is not a relay that cuts power when cranking the starter. The only bike I have that does that is the wr250r. The rest keep the headlight on while the key is on. I have been wanting a headlight switch anyway for making cold starts with the kickstarts easier by turning it off. Maybe I will have to investigate that again when it gets warm.
Delete