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headlight hiatus

  • Thread starter Thread starter gr333nyboy
  • Start date Start date
G

gr333nyboy

Guest
hi,

any ideas about this (slightly?!) worrying thing that happened the other night?

i took my 79 gs750 out for a run in the dark (as i try to run it every day to keep it in best order) and i had just got back from the run, it was parked, engine still running, i went to open the garage door when the headlight suddenly went off! i thought it must have blown, but it then went back on without being touched, it must have been off maximum of 2 minutes, but this has everso slightly freaked me out about night riding now.

this must be a wiring problem mustn't it? something come loose? i have tried to replicate the fault by handling every wire i can see near the headlight while its on, but nothing, the lamp stays on fine now.

any ideas how i track down this fault to avoid the potential nightmare of my headlight going off on a dark road at speed?

thanks,

mark
 
gr333nyboy said:
i went to open the garage door when the headlight suddenly went off! i thought it must have blown, but it then went back on without being touched, it must have been off maximum of 2 minutes, but this has everso slightly freaked me out about night riding now.

this must be a wiring problem mustn't it? something come loose?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. If it still uses a sealed beam style head lamp, a loose filament inside it would do the same thing.
 
thanks rustybronco,
no, i don't think so, the headlight has a removable bulb, in fact a great yellow french-style light bulb i got in all the way from california.
 
Then most likely, you are looking for a bad connection or a bad headlight switch.
 
Keep in mind, even a H-4 style headlight bulb has filaments. ;)
 
If your bulb socket looks a little melted, you might want to try a ceramic socket.
 
A loose wire or contact seems likely, but also look at the socket itself for corrosion or poor contact surfaces.

When the bulb gets hot it expands and so does the socket/contacts, and the expansion may be affecting the contact area so that it cannot handle the current, but when it cools for a moment and shrinks then contact is restored.
 
If you have some dielectric grease lying around, that would help, too.
 
argonsagas said:
A loose wire or contact seems likely, but also look at the socket itself for corrosion or poor contact surfaces.
Click to expand...


yes, this was it i think, it looks like one of the connectors was ill-fitting and a bit dodgy, its now gaffered together. so hopefully that will do it. i also changed the bulb to just be on the safe side.

thanks for the thoughts on this.
 
850 Combat said:
You might replace the fuse too. any connection can be intermittent.
Click to expand...

thanks, but it was only the headlight that cut out, the backlight was still fine, wouldnt everything go off it was the fuse? seems ok (so far) anyway...
 
gr333nyboy said:
thanks, but it was only the headlight that cut out, the backlight was still fine, wouldnt everything go off it was the fuse? seems ok (so far) anyway...
Click to expand...

If you have a fuse box then the headlamp is on a different circuit from the signal (brakes/blinkers) circuit.
 
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