New headlight in the Vulcan

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
06/08/2018 at 10:54 • Filed to: None

Because of the way the headlight assembly is mounted to my Vulcan 500, a broken turn signal meant I had to replace the whole headlight assembly. So for $22 on Amazon I got a universal replacement.

It’s black! Mounts to the fork tubes instead of the triple tree like mine dow now.

Step 1 is to remove the stock headlight and gaze in wonderment at the wiring harness. Notice the big insulated connectors to the right. Those are unused switched power conveniently left there by Kawasaki for user-installed accessories.

Compare headlight assemblies. Neato.

The new one is supposed to have an H4 bulb.

This is not an H4 connector.

What the ass is this? Fortunately I can remove this ridiculous adapter and weird china-bulb and slap an H4 in there.

Bye.

Also bye.

Realize at this point the bolts and nuts the company sent come pre-stripped from the factory and one of them has a split head. Looks like the bulk powdercoated a bunch of reject hardware and sent it? Amusing.

1 trip to Ace hardware later...

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Nice.

Need to properly bend these brackets but good enough for now. Notice the USB cable coming up to my phone mount. I tore apart a car USB charger and soldered a couple spades to it and stuffed it in the headlight so I could charge my phone. Mounted sideways in the phone mount running Android Auto and charging it’s almost like having a car.

Bright, and it doesn’t vibrate! Going to put in a Silverstar Ultra that I have kicking around from my NA Miata days and see if that improves visiblity a bit but at least now the light and turn signals are properly mounted. Light seems a bit more focused now, oddly. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

Bonus pic.

DISCUSSION (9)

Spaceball-Two > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/08/2018 at 12:04

Aren’t you not supposed to touch a bulb with bare skin? Or is that on old thing I remember from high school auto shop?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Spaceball-Two
06/08/2018 at 12:09

that bulb was going in the trash so I did not care.

Spaceball-Two > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/08/2018 at 12:13

oh ok!

punkgoose17 > Spaceball-Two
06/08/2018 at 12:29

Yes, doh! I forgot that when changing my turn signal bulb for the 2nd time. I think it is a socket problem though not a bulb problem....?

Spaceball-Two > punkgoose17
06/08/2018 at 12:36

I was under the impression that oils from the skin get on the bulb and as the heat ramps up the glass can weaken and pop.

punkgoose17 > Spaceball-Two
06/08/2018 at 12:52

That is true. I just forgot. It leads to a shorter bulb life.

thejustache > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/08/2018 at 13:18

Does yours rattle at all? Pretty sure I have the same ebay headlight and it rattles annoyingly whenever I rev above 2500 rpm or so. That said I have a rock guard over the front so maybe it’s that? I tried insulating the rock guard with rubber to no avail, maybe I’ll try rubber gasket maker around where the inner rim fits into the dish?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > thejustache
06/08/2018 at 15:42

Does not seem to. My speedometer does. I need to get/make a rubber insulator for that thing. Metal-on-metal on the gas tank and it makes AWFUL noises sometimes.

thejustache > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/08/2018 at 16:37

My dad’s Maxim 650 was missing one of the rubber bumpers the gas tank rests on for a while. It did NOT sound pretty!