Headlight dimming?Headlight dimming?When the bike is at low rpm the headlight dims, I assume because it is not charging as much. But when the brakelight turns on the headlight gets really dim?
1967 CL77 Owner (work in progress)
Normal. The brake light draws a lot of amps. If your state doesn't require a headlight during the daytime, try this trick. Turn on headlight switch on the headlight bucket, and move high/low bar switch to middle until headlight goes out. This will add more amps to charging system, and help keep battery topped off.
davomoto
I agree with davo regarding the brake light's requirement for current, especially at lower revs. I'd certainly expect the headlight to display a drop in available voltage as a result of applying the rear brake, but your comment that "the headlight gets really dim" is a little ambiguous here. How dim does it go? Half brightness? Or does it just lose, say, 10% brightness? (this I'd expect). Or does it almost go down to a glimmer? Run the motor at about 2500 - 3000rpm and try the same operations. Then do the same with the dimmer switch in its centre position (parking lights only) and monitor the front parker to see if the drop in brightness could amount to a similar percentage.
Post your observations and I'll/we'll offer further diagnoses. Steve
In an attempt to make the most of my charging system, I bought LED's to replace all of the bulbs except the headlight. Much lower power draw, as bright or more so then the original bulbs. We will see if that plus one of them new fangled rectifiers does the trick later this weekend.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/index.htm headlightHere in Minnesota headlight is required by law so I can't just turn it off unfortunatley. I don't have the bike here at this moment so I can't test it all out. I just noticed the dimming last night when I was playing around with the bike. I would probably say the headlight dims approximately 40% maybe. I don't think it did as much at higher rpm but I would have to double check it.
I am not sure what your talking about on the front marker? do you mean blinkers? Cause I don't have them. I think the led is a good idea. Does the led style still illuminate the license plate decent? They are getting more common nowdays should be able to find them locally. Led's definately draw a lot less juice. So I think thats a good idea anyways. Thanks for the tips and I will have a closer look when I get back to the bike. 1967 CL77 Owner (work in progress)
Aron,
Front PARKER -- parking light -- not marker. Sorry, my colloquialism! Be cautious ("...I was taught to be cautious...." -- I'm sure someone will pick up on that!) as LEDs' power requirements are miniscule compared with incandescent lamps; that can be a good thing but, in our finely-balanced charging systems, could cause battery overcharging and boiling. More on that as time passes. A 40% drop in brightness seems a lot. I need to direct you to carrying out some checks. Let us know when the bike is to hand. Steve
Post scriptJust played with my CB, creating a similar situation to yours Aron: my batt is about 2 months old, shows 12.4V, has never seen a charger and the motor hasn't been run since fitting; I've had the lights on a few times during the past weeks -- brake light, parking & head, plus winkers whilst testing after refitting -- the blip in the headlight's output is perceptible, but only just. I'd say barely 5%!
Houston, you got a problem! First thing to check with any lighting problem is the grounding; this very often gets overlooked. The headlight is grounded by the green wire rivetted onto the lampholder flange, and it goes to a connection with the instrument cluster. The earth return seems to be provided by the tacho drive cable! I've run a separate grounding wire from this connector to the main engine earthing point beneath the tank, as the principle goes against the grain for me. The tail light is grounded via the rear fender; connect a length of wire greater than 1mm² (17AWG) from the tail light lamp cap (the metal bit to which the lamp's glass envelope is bonded -- take out the lamp from its holder, strip off about 10 - 12mm of insulation from the testing wire, poke the copper strands of the wire into the lampholder up to the wire's insulation and put the lamp back in, trapping the copper strands between the lamp's metal cap and the lampholder) to the battery NEGATIVE terminal. Now carry out the brake light test again, noting any change to the brightness of the headlight. Let me know here.
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