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burned out light bulbs

  • Thread starter Thread starter badbrown
  • Start date Start date
B

badbrown

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I get the 78 gs550E out for a ride sunday, and ten minutes into it. My headlight and almost all my lights burn out. Is this a symptom of a stator problem or old bulbs or what? I started replacing some of the bulbs and got the tail and signals working, then started replacing bulbs in the guage cluster and threw of the signals. It won't signal to the right. Headlight hasn't been replaced yet.
 
Get a voltmeter and check your charging voltage. I had a similar problem after having a car alternator rebuilt. The charging voltage was higher than 15, which burned out my headlight bulbs.

Even if this isn't the basic problem, you'll still need one to check any electrical problems.
 
badbrown said:
I get the 78 gs550E out for a ride sunday, and ten minutes into it. My headlight and almost all my lights burn out. Is this a symptom of a stator problem or old bulbs or what? I started replacing some of the bulbs and got the tail and signals working, then started replacing bulbs in the guage cluster and threw of the signals. It won't signal to the right. Headlight hasn't been replaced yet.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the regulator is malfunctioning and allowing excessive voltage through to the electrical system. This is the common cause of a group of lights burning out. Check the charging voltage of the bike at the battery at 5,000 rpm with a digital voltmeter. If it is over 15 volts, I would replace the regulator and rectifier units (if you have two separate units) with a single unit RR (regulator rectifier). You can either put a used or new one on the bike.

You can get a new R/R at a reasonable price at Z1 Enterprises. You can also pick up a used one on eBay. Use the search function to search for "Shindengen R/R" (no quotes) in Technical Info and you will get a lot of hits with information about which used Honda R/R's can be used for replacements.
 
You'll notice that Philip did NOT suggest you replace it with a Suzuki OEM unit ... that's because it's proven to be a weak spot on our old bikes. If you like doing your own electics you could even build a R/R (there are several threads covering this topic with a wide variety of opinions), but if you "need it now" the Honda regulators have proven to be a good alternative and you can generally find them reasonably priced on Ebay.

Regards,
 
Same thing just happened to me. 18 volts with the stock r/r blew a headlight and two directional lights. Got a honda regulator from a cm 400 for $30 shipped and now the output is 14.6 - 14.8 volts. Just have to cut both connectors and crimp on your own.
 
I had the same problem on my 1985 GS750EF.

After replacing the r/r 2 times i had my hands in my hair pulling!](*,)

On a hunch I checked the connections of the headlight socket and found it to be loose. This was causing the headlight to go while riding. replaced the socket and r/r again and this seems to have solved the problem.

God luck fixing ur's!
 
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