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Brighter headlight for 1980 GS550E ?

ukjules

ukjules

Forum Sage
I am convinced this has been asked before but I cannot find a
ideal answer.

My headlight is poor in the dark even at high beam. I need a good headlight !

I will get some pics of what I have (Be aware i am not great at electrics hence my question)
But I have a sealed halogen front lamp. One where the side light is taped almost onto
a hole in the rear of the sealed lamp.

this is immaterial as all i want is a good lamp that i can reliably see the road with !
What are the options ? I want a bright light but in keeping with the lines of the bike.
I have only base electrics on the bike and it runs nothing else electrical than standard.
 
Check the voltage to the light while it is on. Low voltage makes a dim light. How old is the Halogen bulb? They do dim with age.

Some modern Halogen lights are a lot brighter than the old school Halogen, LED headlights are getting pretty good, HIDs, several other types if you want to go there.
 
What size is your headlight? If it's a standard 7" light, you might be in luck. There are multiple options for round 7" lights, but you will have to filter through them for your UK light pattern, not the standard Euro or US pattern. Simply fitting a lens/reflector from a larger GS that had the H4 bulb will help. Do not bother with 'brighter' bulbs, they will only drain your battery if you do a lot of riding in town using lower engine speeds. If you want, there are some LED upgrades that will replace the H4 bulb, but you have to have that lens/reflector setup to put it in. Lastly, look into a complete, sealed LED setup. Many of us here have gotten ones from TruckLite, but I am not sure if they have a UK beam pattern available.
 
Bare with ....
Ill take all on board and check it all out tomorrow especially the voltage check.
this will tax me as I am hopeless on electrics but have to learn ! i have a voltmeter and
logic probe. Tis just where to put it ! but i know the theory behind a voltage drop test.

bare with and thanks
 
ukjules said:
p.s - standard 7" and sealed unit if 4 years old.
Click to expand...

If a four year old Halogen sealed beam isn't at least mostly adequate, I bet it's a voltage problem. Those are brighter than anything available when the first GSes came out, they did OK at night. Not that modern lighting wouldn't be a lot better, but I bet you will find a voltage issue.

Just poke the meter probes into the back of the headlight connector while the light is on, should be very close to battery voltage. Same with the engine running, it should be very close to whatever the system is running at. Actually a better test is to slide the connector partway off the light and test the connector tabs on the bulb, could possibly be a big drop in the connector itself. My Jeep had that, it was very dim. Not anymore.
 
tkent02 said:
If a four year old Halogen sealed beam isn't at least mostly adequate, I bet it's a voltage problem. Those are brighter than anything available when the first GSes came out, they did OK at night. Not that modern lighting wouldn't be a lot better, but I bet you will find a voltage issue.

Just poke the meter probes into the back of the headlight connector while the light is on, should be very close to battery voltage. Same with the engine running, it should be very close to whatever the system is running at. Actually a better test is to slide the connector partway off the light and test the connector tabs on the bulb, could possibly be a big drop in the connector itself. My Jeep had that, it was very dim. Not anymore.
Click to expand...

Even simpler look for heat damage. Oxidized conectors will heat and get worse dropping voltage.

You can replace the connector with higher heat ceramic units. I would flow a little solder in. The LED bulbs do not get hort and draw much less current and are brighter(see link mentioned above).
 
This sounds logical.
I broke an indicator the other day and to fix i had to delve into the headlight.
(Remeber the one thing i cannot do is electrics)

however i have been a learnin !

It was a mess and i cleaned up all the connectors , and put a few connectors on
that were threadbare. I sprayed with contact cleaner too.
So now all connectors are ok but i did not check voltage ...... or use my new logic probe.

Tomorrow i will for once do this and get the stats !
Also - i have not run it in the dark since i cleaned up the connectors ... a few days ago.

will post tomorrow
 
tkent02 said:
Pos, have you tried this stuff?

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.190/.f

I have used them both, this stuff worked much better than the Deoxit.
Click to expand...

Have not, but I realize there are various products on the market. The primary issue in my mind is if the product is actually designed to produce low electrical contact resistance through its protective coating? A lot of stuff cleans and lubricates for mechanical properties but what about the electrcial properties?

For most all connectors it probably doesn't matter a whole lot except for charging connectors that need to be sub 1/10 ohm resistance. Someone else brought up another product widely used as an approved "spray-on" anti oxidation agent in the Aerospace industry. You just hose down you airplane with the stuff.

I asked the question if it actually produced a low electrcial resistance with an oxidation preventive and got no response so far.
 
posplayr said:
Someone else brought up another product widely used as an approved "spray-on" anti oxidation agent in the Aerospace industry. You just hose down you airplane with the stuff.

I asked the question if it actually produced a low electrcial resistance with an oxidation preventive and got no response so far.
Click to expand...

ACF50? I found a stockist in Ireland, so will get some soon.
 
posplayr said:
Have not, but I realize there are various products on the market. The primary issue in my mind is if the product is actually designed to produce low electrical contact resistance through its protective coating?
Click to expand...

Dunno, but all of the bikes I've squirted this stuff into the connectors of, none have had a problem since. Been using it for about ten years...

So it works great for me.
 
You could also use the relay mod to give the headlight the max voltage.
 
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