screamineagle

Ok GJ, let me see if I can tackle this one. Just remember that I by no means am an electrical expert. I still get confused with watts, ohms, and amps as far as what they do.

I beleve that wattage is how much power the appliance pulls. As for the bulb in your bike, it pulls (according to what I'm reading on BB's site) 55 watts on low beam, and 60 watts on high.
Just remember about useing household light bulbs. The higher the watts, the brighter the bulb, but the more power they are going to pull.
Now as for the warning from honda. They might be thinking about the wireing for the light. It might not be reated to handle more then 60 watts. In other words, you try to put (or pull) more then that through it you might heat the wireing up.
Now as far as using a lower watt bulb. I don't think there would be any problem except safty. Being seen and such.

Now, one question. Why would you not want to replace the bulb with the same rated bulb? Bike Bandit has them for only $6.60 which is cheep. Figguring that a 9004 bulb, which I beleve is a hi/low beam hologen that is used on most cars now a days, from Advance Auto Parts is $7.97.

The bulb that honda uses is a Stanley bulb. (What? You thought Honda made their own bulbs?)
It should have the Stanley part number stamped somewhere on it. Take that number and see if your parts guys (or gals) can cross referance it to something that they can get.
If they can't, try NAPA. They have their hands in everything from big rigs to lawn mowers, and their nation wide. I know. I worked for them for 3 years as a parts guy. Beleve me, I've looked up some crazy shi......ok I'll keep it clean.....stuff.

*EDIT*

Just did some checking on Sylvania's website . Check this out.

http://www.sylvania.com/cgi-bin/MsmG...4&hiword=9004+

Look at the first bulb. That looks a heck of alot like the one that goes in your light. Might be worth checking into.

*Now back to my regularly rambling...LOL*


Buy everything that you've been telling me I think that your going to find that the problem is going to be the conection there in the bucket. Even though the contacts on the back of the bulb may look good, they may be loose and not making good contact with the blade on the bulb. It's either that or what I told you earler with the ground. That's going to be the best place to start anyway. When you start looking into it.

And yet again, always glad to help as much as I can.

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GearJammer

O.K....can see that we're on the same page as far as a higher rated bulb possibly causing problems, but a lower rated bulb might be fine to go with.

Thanx for the link & the additional input. Not having had to change out the stock headlight as yet, wasn't aware that it was made by Stanley & REALLY didn't know that the prices were so inexpensive, LOL! The prices you quoted were definitely in the same range as the lesser rated Wagners that I use on the chopper (a little over $6 or thereabouts), so at the very similar prices, I absolutely agree with you about sticking with the stock rated bulbs with their enhanced illumination. (But I'll bet that if one ordered the replacement from a Honda dealership, the price would be about 4 times as much as buying them elsewhere, LMAO!)

Agreed. Am leaning more & more towards the problem being inside the headlight shell & a loose ground could definitely cause the intermittency without actually toasting the bulb itself, as could a loose connector which you've also pointed out. Kinda have a feeling that once I get back after this, it's going to turn out to be fairly easy to find & remedy (time will tell), but also have no complaint about having tried to chase it down thru the various other possibilities as those other areas needed attention anyways & it gave me a chance to learn more about this bike in general. It's all good....

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"Ridin' Ain't A Hobby, It's A Lifestyle"

1986 450 Rebel

Big_J

Sounds like everyone is able to improve on the state of their machine.

Those rebuild instructions are something else. Nice work.

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screamineagle

Thanks for the complament CTC. I wounder if I could get a job writing for Clymers? ...LOL.
Of course this is something they didn't cover in their manual. And besides, there are alot of folks that wouldn't think of suspecting the switches when trying to track down an electrical problem. Just wanted to give them an idea of what to look for and how to fix it.

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1985 Black Rebel 250
(My first love)
2001 Black Suzuki Intruder 800
( The one I have to tame)

GearJammer

In total agreement with CTC. Your Tech info here is one of the best installments I've ever seen. It goes much deeper than any manual would dare to go, LOL! Who knows ? Maybe you could negotiate a deal with Clymer's for a supplemental inclusion in their regular manual ?

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"Ridin' Ain't A Hobby, It's A Lifestyle"

1986 450 Rebel

Big_J

At a modist wage for time not likely they'd ever pay someone there to do such a job

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jax

I just happened to run across this post. I have been doing the same thing to the switches on the bikes I rebuild. It is something you can not rush!! It takes a lot of patients to get it done right.
I have also taken the covers that are bleached white and redone them also. I am going to try to upload some pictures of the covers I have cleaned up. hope this works.

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JunkyardDog

I have never attempted to rebuild handlebar switches. The only time I've ever had them fail was on old beater bikes, where looks didn't matter. First of all, there are a couple of switches you don't really need. I just eliminated the kill switch, wired the headlight up to low beam without a switch, eliminating the high/low beam switch. What you have left is the starter switch, horn button, and turn signal switch. I got a couple of those little black plastic project boxes from Radio Shack, attached them to the handlebars with hose clamps, put the started and horn switches in one (both just cheap momentary pushbutton switches), and the turn signal switch in the other one. I used an on-off-on toggle switch for that. Very simple and worked great. There are neater ways of doing it if looks are important.

I absolutely hate those factory switches, with all the springs and balls in them, that turn one thing on and something else off at the same time. I keep WD40 sprayed in mine, to make them last as long as possible, as they usually seem to fail from corrosion, but no way would I try and repair them. I have a lot of patience with mechanical things, but those switches are not meant to be fixed. I learned my lesson the first time I tried to fix them, and have not tried since. Jerry.

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Fridgitator

My next electrical project is going to be to install a relay in the lighting circuit. The contacts in the factory switches are just not sufficient to handle the load involved in running the headlight. They can do it for awhile, but they will eventually fry. I'm going to take the load off before they do.

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Guba

I think that's why Honda changed to a voltage regulator that puts out a higher voltage. The 2001's and later have them. So far, I'm not aware of any of these models having those failures. When Honda went to the 55/60 watt bulb with the '96's to 2000's and didn't increase the voltage on the system, things got a little hot on the contacts. If you increase the voltage you will decrease the amperage and create less heat across the contacts. We're only talking about a 1 to 1 1/2 voltage increase, but when you think about it that's around 10% increase.

But I do like the idea of putting a relay in that activates the headlight when the kickstand goes up. Wish I could remember who posted that, but it's a good idea.

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'07 Rebel 250 26,000 miles