Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Headlight out

Low beam out. Changed bulb twice, cleaned contacts. cleaned handle bar light switch. Checked fuses. Cleaned corrosion from fuses. Still no light. High beam works fine.

Any ideas.

Larry

are you traveling at the speed of light when you turn your low beam on?

My first thought,if the contacts are clean and bulb is good is the high/low switch. Maybe some corrosion in there, next would be a broken wire somewhere. Have you done anything to maybe pinch one lately?

My guess is a bad contact inside the grip switch or an (unlikely) broken wire, they both run off the same fuse. Low beam is the blue and red wire, high beam is blue and white. Just to eliminate the extremely unlikely have you tested the lamp to make certain the low beam filament works? Maybe with alligator clips and direct attachment to the battery just to eliminate the possibility.

That's pretty funny, I hit the submit button and when I finally got back to the page Ian's post was here...

Great minds think alike!

Also check for chafed (sp?) wires going into the headlight bucket. A lot of times the rubber grommet will come loose and the wires will rub. Usually shorts out...

Another thing I've had happen is a wire brike right AT the main connector inside the headlight bucket. I didn't have enough wire to solder to, so I soldered a quick connect onto the broken wire, cut the wire it connects to on the opposing side of the connector, and put a quick connect on that too, made a jumper.

Thanks for the replys. I think I may stab into the wire before the main connector inside the headlight bucket. To see if I have power there. I have a multimeter, just got to find it!
I am thinking it may be the connector as one of the wires looks suspicious going into it.

Thanks again
Larry

Cinnamon Girls low beam went out. 2500 miles later I back probed the bucket connectors and the handlebar switch. Everything checked out a okay. Took a gander at the low beam and guess what? it was working! So what was it? Must have been a loose wire in one of the connectors. Or corrosion that I unknowingly flaked off. Slathered all connectors in dielectric grease and Cinnamon Girl still has her low beam. And I have a new H4 spare head light bulb. A bulb that I bought at Wally World in Spruce Pine NC one brisk morning back in September 2007.

Moral to this tale? Carry one of them thar lectric meters when traveling, and a basic wiring diagram so snekeptp can help you when you are 300 miles deep in Yankee Land.

I have occasionally found that the wire was caught on something and pulled the socket pin back against the spring enough to not make contact with the bulb.