Headlight wiring

[newell]

I am wiring in a headlight to my Project Divi 6. I have removed the fairing along with the fairing frame etc. And have bought a single headlight to stick on the front. It's a Bates type chrome job. Began wiring it in today.

Slight problem is that the colour coding of the headlight does not match the bike harness.

Disregarding the pilot wiring, which is seperate, I have coming off the new headlight 3 wires;blue, white, green. The harness wiring to the headlight connector is also 3 wires (hooray) black, green, yellow.

If the rain holds off, I can probably suss this tomorrow with a multitester and my Haynes wiring diagram, but wondered if anyone has any thoughts on the problem?

[sledgegreen]

Start by using an ohmeter to find the earth wire on the bike and on the light - on the bike, switch the headlight off then put one probe on the battery -ve and the other probe on each wire in turn. The earth should be near zero resistance, the others should be infinite.

On the light (with a bulb fitted), measure the resistance between each pair of wires. When you have one probe on the earth, the circuit will be made through a single filament, which will provide most of the resistance. When you have one probe on the main beam wire and the other on the dip beam wire, the circuit will be made through both filaments so the resistance should be about double.

When you have both earths, join them together. Then connect the other wires at random and point the lamp at a wall and test it. If the beam goes down when you dip, fine. If it goes up, reconnect the main and dip wires the other way.

[newell]

Thanks for the feedback Sledgegreen. I am waiting for a couple of connectors to arrive. When they arrive I shall finish the wiring.

I'll post a picture of my 600N (nee 600S!) when I'm done.

[amorti]

Or do it without a meter. H4 connectors are all the same. Wire up so they go to the same pole.

[newell]

;D Yes, I realised that earlier. So when the new light arrived I immediately took the back off to see what went where!

As you say a H4 bulb's poles are consistent: top is low beam, left is earth and right is high beam. So when I looked at the connections in the new light I had it sorted!

Great minds work alike they say

[amorti]

I re-wired the lighting in my 955i Daytona recently. Triumph seem to have thought it clever or maybe funny to run power from the battery through a starter cut-out relay, to the headlight switch, branch that output so one headlight is powered through the switch, run the other branch back to the relay collection under the seat, through a pair of relays to power the other headlight. By running the whole lot through thicker cables through the existing relays, you get an extra 2v at the switched headlight and an extra 1v at the headlight which had a relay though it, most of that due to thicker cable (25A rated), particularly the earth (33A rated). The headlights are 5A per filament, so 25A is 2.5x generous and 33A earth straight to the battery pole is plenty generous even when you are "flashing" the high beam together with low beam... All that means you get about 150% more light from the same bulbs for no extra energy usage, as the losses were previously going into heat in the skinny wires.

I also had an auxiliary headlight relay fitted to my Divvy, while I had it. I like fiddling about with electrics, mainly because I think it's a good thing to be able to see where you are going at night.

Upgraded the starter solenoid circuit too. Triumph triples <'02 are known for weak sprag clutches, so more volts = less chance of mine going tits-up = yes please, I'm happy to spend a few plodding hours doing it.