Headlight Problem

[oldschool2]

This may sound strange, as I find it to be strange. I have a gs1000 that has had two headlight buckets replaced. The buckets seem to be getting hot from the headlight and they become brittle and brake. The headlight has a 55/60 watt bulb. The reg/rec., stator, and battery have been replaced. I have just ordered the third bucket and I would like to resolve the problem before installing the new one. I am in the process of cleaning all the electrical connections and grounds. Testing voltages and resistances, so far everything has been relativily clean and in the ballpark concerning testing. Any ideas and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Oldschool2

[Rover]

Not saying your wrong but could they be breaking from mounting too tightly?
They are 30 years old.Does the bucket fell hot to the touch?

[oldschool2]

The last one I put on was only a couple of months old. There appears to be some melting and as I said the plastic has become brittle and crumbles between my fingers. The first one was original to the bike and was in good condition. I was wondering if there could be some electrical problem going on causing excessive heating of the head light. I'm in the process of doing the various checks listed in the stator papers and checking all the electrical connections. I was hoping that maybe someone else has had this problem and might shed some light.

[BigD_83]

This may sound strange, as I find it to be strange. I have a gs1000 that has had two headlight buckets replaced. The buckets seem to be getting hot from the headlight and they become brittle and brake. The headlight has a 55/60 watt bulb. The reg/rec., stator, and battery have been replaced. I have just ordered the third bucket and I would like to resolve the problem before installing the new one. I am in the process of cleaning all the electrical connections and grounds. Testing voltages and resistances, so far everything has been relativily clean and in the ballpark concerning testing. Any ideas and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Oldschool2

Where are you sourcing the buckets? Sometimes I'll see old plastics that have been stored near/around/over solvents, and those solvents (especially acetone) have a particular ability to change the properties of plastics, usually rendering them soft at first, and then very brittle as the solvent outgases.

[Indiesol]

Any of the wires inside the bucket show signs of excessive heat ? Might also be brittle?

The factory bucket on my GS1100 has antivibration pads that fit inside the bucket. I wonder, but doubt, if a lack of anti-vibration material could be causing the issue....

[oldschool2]

I got the replacement buckets from Bike Bandit. They look OK to me. The first one was original to the bike. I checked the wiring and the connections appear to be in good shape and there is no burning or stiffening of the wires. The part that I suspect is the Headlight reflector, it and the metal attachment pieces. The bucket is damaged where the pieces connect and are screwed. I'll be able to tell more this weekend when I can get some time to test the voltage at the headlight with the bike running. I plan to do the various checks listed on this sight as well. So far I have tested the battery voltage with the bike off that was 13.5 volts a little high from what I have read so far. The battery was fresh off the battery tender the day before I tested and I had not run the bike very much.

[OldVet66]

I got my headlight housing from Bike Bandit. Trash the old reflector. These are excellent replacements: http://store.candlepower.com/ca53mohe.html

[OldVet66]

While you are at it order one of their ceramic replacement plugs for the bulb.

[oldschool2]

I spent the day working on the GS I did the tests as described on the GS sight. I started the bike and checked the voltage at the battery and headlight finding 12.45 and 11.95 volts respectively. Next I revved the bike up to 5000 rpms and noticed no difference in voltage. I tested the stator resistance and found 0 ohms. I then tested the rec/reg following the steps listed. I found o volts when applying voltage in one direction. The directions said I should have had 1.5 volts. I then switched the leads on the multimeter and I got .5 volts on each wire. The directions said .5 volts is what I should have found. Now I'm not sure what to think. I spent the rest of the day cleaning connections and grounds. When I checked the resistance of various ground connections I found some up to 40-50 ohms after cleaning I got them down to .2 to .3 ohms. When I cleaned up the fuse box I found a bad fuse. Now I wonder if that could affect the testing. I also connected a ground between the engine and the bike frame. While I was tearing into things I removed the battery box so I can sand blast and repaint. When I get that done I will replace the battery and do the tests again with a good fuse. Thanks for all the replys and the info on the reflecter on the headlight web sight. I looks like the new stator that I had the shop install needs replacing. Thanks again for the help oldschool2

[OldVet66]

Put a stainless steel star washer on both sides of your ground connections. It will dig in and give you a much better ground.