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FZS600 Fazer / Re: FZS600 Project. Carbonating a Fazer...
« on: 30 October 2013, 12:25:04 am »
Headlights.
I'm not realising anything new here. They're crap and we all know it.
When I bought my bike, it got dark on the way home. As the sun disappeared over the horizon I went from having the most fun since I discovered girls, to abject terror at not being able to see ANYTHING! I calmly assumed something was wrong. Easy fix, I thought. But then I discovered FOC-U and the crushing reality that the headlights were designed that way. Maybe Japan is 100% energy efficient LED streetlit?
Anyway. I very quickly did the Headlight mod thanks to the forum and the improvement was vast. But considerably better than awful was still bad.
First thought was to modify the nearside reflector to take an H4 bulb so that I could have twin dip, twin main beams. But that plan relied very heavily on the reflector working with a different bulb setup. Not to mention the fact that the silver in the reflector, as is common, is flaking off. NOT very reflective! And I'm dead against anything that might cast light in a wayward fashion because I hate it when I'm dazzled by badly adjusted/wrongly fitted lights.
So I jumped on the Bay of E and ordered a set of these from China.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171093207271?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
For £30 I was happy to take a punt.
So the lights arrived and the 'fun' began.
First off was the very unnatural feeling act of putting my headlight in the oven.
20 minutes at 80 degrees did the trick I think. Then a couple of flathead screwdrivers worked around the edge and the front was off.
Finally I got to have a closer look at the infamously troublesome left hand reflector. As expected, the reflective material was in a rubbish state. And you can see where the silver shroud has worn away the top and bottom of the bulb slot.
On the right hand H4 reflector, fitting was pretty straightforward. At first. The lamp fitted through the hole and an adapter plate fills the space where the H4 base would be. BUT the reflector interfered with the solenoid mechanism of the lamp. So out came the Dremel, a little earlier than expected.
Which gave the space to fit the projector in without interference.
Sadly the modification wasn't over. My assumption that "will work with any H1 bulb" meant I could use ANY H1 bulb (I din't want to go to HID just yet). Sadly I was wrong. The hole in the back of the unit was made for HID H1 bulbs. But a little filing to extend the slot northwards...
And the standard H1 Halogen bulb fitted like it grew there!
The other side, the H1 bulb reflector, neede a LOT more work. I had to Dremel out the whole H1 mounting surface to make a hole big enough to fit the projector into. (no pic unfortunately. Seems I neglected to photograph this stage. Must have been getting pissed off with the continuing cutting!). The hole ended up being much bigger than expected as the left hand reflector is much more shallow than the H4 one. So the projector actually touched the front of the headlight unit lens. Until I chopped away even MORE of the reflector. The kit also came with Chromed plastic shrouds which quite simply didn't fit into the cramped space. SO after a bit of chopping and shoe-horning (unsuccessfully) the shrouds found the bin.
Due to the size of the hole, I had to brace the fixing nut with a couple a of big rubber washers.
After all the cutting, I had to blow approximately a metric ton of dust out of the light before refitting the front lens, with the help of a heat gun.
With the light unit back together, now I had to get power into the bulbs.
On the left I used the existing H1 bulb connector so that I could keep the existing wiring. But the lugs had to go as there was no longer any room for them.
I also had to cut off the ends of the connectors so that the wiring was out of the way of the forks.
On the right hand side I piggy backed a positive feed from the left hand loom. Then I ran the main beam live into the projector solenoids (both linked). The negatives from both the solenoids and the right hand bulb ran back into the right hand lighting loom. (all the negatives lead to the same place anyway!) Sadly the right hand wiring interfered with the forks and looked pretty scruffy too. So I chopped off the original plug and replaced it with an AMP 3-way waterproof connector.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350823770535?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
So thats the headlights improved. And what an improvement! I can see where I'm going. I think a large part of that is due to the Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs. They're quite fantastic. The only shortcoming is that my pass button (to flash the main beam) operates the solenoids only. So if the bulbs aren't already illuminated, I just get a click and no light. Not sure if this is an MOT issue. If so, I'll be getting the relays out...
The headlights re-fitted, with an extra bit of childish decoration. Though I've since removed the autobots decal. This bike is DEFINITELY a Deceptacon
I'm not realising anything new here. They're crap and we all know it.
When I bought my bike, it got dark on the way home. As the sun disappeared over the horizon I went from having the most fun since I discovered girls, to abject terror at not being able to see ANYTHING! I calmly assumed something was wrong. Easy fix, I thought. But then I discovered FOC-U and the crushing reality that the headlights were designed that way. Maybe Japan is 100% energy efficient LED streetlit?
Anyway. I very quickly did the Headlight mod thanks to the forum and the improvement was vast. But considerably better than awful was still bad.
First thought was to modify the nearside reflector to take an H4 bulb so that I could have twin dip, twin main beams. But that plan relied very heavily on the reflector working with a different bulb setup. Not to mention the fact that the silver in the reflector, as is common, is flaking off. NOT very reflective! And I'm dead against anything that might cast light in a wayward fashion because I hate it when I'm dazzled by badly adjusted/wrongly fitted lights.
So I jumped on the Bay of E and ordered a set of these from China.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171093207271?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
For £30 I was happy to take a punt.
So the lights arrived and the 'fun' began.
First off was the very unnatural feeling act of putting my headlight in the oven.
20 minutes at 80 degrees did the trick I think. Then a couple of flathead screwdrivers worked around the edge and the front was off.
Finally I got to have a closer look at the infamously troublesome left hand reflector. As expected, the reflective material was in a rubbish state. And you can see where the silver shroud has worn away the top and bottom of the bulb slot.
On the right hand H4 reflector, fitting was pretty straightforward. At first. The lamp fitted through the hole and an adapter plate fills the space where the H4 base would be. BUT the reflector interfered with the solenoid mechanism of the lamp. So out came the Dremel, a little earlier than expected.
Which gave the space to fit the projector in without interference.
Sadly the modification wasn't over. My assumption that "will work with any H1 bulb" meant I could use ANY H1 bulb (I din't want to go to HID just yet). Sadly I was wrong. The hole in the back of the unit was made for HID H1 bulbs. But a little filing to extend the slot northwards...
And the standard H1 Halogen bulb fitted like it grew there!
The other side, the H1 bulb reflector, neede a LOT more work. I had to Dremel out the whole H1 mounting surface to make a hole big enough to fit the projector into. (no pic unfortunately. Seems I neglected to photograph this stage. Must have been getting pissed off with the continuing cutting!). The hole ended up being much bigger than expected as the left hand reflector is much more shallow than the H4 one. So the projector actually touched the front of the headlight unit lens. Until I chopped away even MORE of the reflector. The kit also came with Chromed plastic shrouds which quite simply didn't fit into the cramped space. SO after a bit of chopping and shoe-horning (unsuccessfully) the shrouds found the bin.
Due to the size of the hole, I had to brace the fixing nut with a couple a of big rubber washers.
After all the cutting, I had to blow approximately a metric ton of dust out of the light before refitting the front lens, with the help of a heat gun.
With the light unit back together, now I had to get power into the bulbs.
On the left I used the existing H1 bulb connector so that I could keep the existing wiring. But the lugs had to go as there was no longer any room for them.
I also had to cut off the ends of the connectors so that the wiring was out of the way of the forks.
On the right hand side I piggy backed a positive feed from the left hand loom. Then I ran the main beam live into the projector solenoids (both linked). The negatives from both the solenoids and the right hand bulb ran back into the right hand lighting loom. (all the negatives lead to the same place anyway!) Sadly the right hand wiring interfered with the forks and looked pretty scruffy too. So I chopped off the original plug and replaced it with an AMP 3-way waterproof connector.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350823770535?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
So thats the headlights improved. And what an improvement! I can see where I'm going. I think a large part of that is due to the Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs. They're quite fantastic. The only shortcoming is that my pass button (to flash the main beam) operates the solenoids only. So if the bulbs aren't already illuminated, I just get a click and no light. Not sure if this is an MOT issue. If so, I'll be getting the relays out...
The headlights re-fitted, with an extra bit of childish decoration. Though I've since removed the autobots decal. This bike is DEFINITELY a Deceptacon
are going to give you.
