Lighting Issue

I have been having some issues with my headlights on the Road Glide. I took HRK;s advice and went with the Ultra Silver Star bulbs as I was looking for a brighter light than the PIAA's that came in my bike when I bought it. I liked the Silver Star's very much but them I discovered that they gave out really fast. I opened up the fairing and reinstalled the PIAA's. As I was reinstalling them, I noticed that the connectors that go on the bulbs were melted. There was power going to them as the lights were lighting up, however I noticed that one of the lights was really dim. Again, however, if I were to jostle the bezel around a little I will get full power to the lights and they are at full strength.

Here is my question. Do you think that it would be better to replace the entire wire harness for the headlights which will include new connectors or should I just replace the connectors? I suspect that there is a spot somewhere in the wiring that has a greater resistance that what is acceptable. No I have not checked it at this point because the lights were staying at full strength for a long time and I now have just noticed that my issue has returned.

Thanks Guys!!!

Johnny, don't know about the lights, but I just had a fried connector between my regulator & stator. Had to replace both the stator & regulator as the connector was molded to the wires. I'd been told it's best replacing everything instead of of just trying to patch things together.

Haven't heard from you lately. Hope things are okay.

the reason the connectors are melted is the fact that the ground circuit itself at the connector is bad , thats why the lights are dim as well when you play with the connector itself the ground has better contact thus the light gets briter . when the ground circuit at the conector spred out internally it buids heat and melts the plastic . replace the pig tails on the bulbs .SOLDER THEM IN NOT BUTT CONNECTORS! , put dielectric greese in the sockets and replace the bulbs of you choice . follow down the harness and check the main ground also for head lamps if the bolt on the ground has a flat washer replace it with a star washer , problem fix!

Good tip about the washers. Why doesn't HD use lock washers & locktite when assembling their bikes? I think I know - more work for the dealership service dept.

How hard is it to get in there with a soldering gun? I hate electronic work with a passion. :gah: I would never put a spade connector on that. What a PITA! I need this fixed soon as I am about to drop $700 on the new LED lights that HD came out with for the FLTR

I have been around. No offense intended when I say this but there just hasn't been much that has interested me on the forum for a while. Also I have been on a different site more. One that is dedicated to Road Glides. I pop in, send some PM's occasionally but that is about it. I read about your stator issue. Man What a Bitch huh?

Thanks BaggerPaul. I finally wa able to get this fixed. On this one I decided to let my ESP work. I was the harness that was bad itself, I brought in Friday and it was done Tuesday.

I have seen the LED's on a few CVO's and I do like them a lot. You have two choices of Chrome or Black. I like the black ones for my bike... I am starting to do more and more night riding so I don't care about $700, if I can see better, worth it to me. Check out RGF.org, there is a thread discussing this and there is a post that has a picture of the lights. I think it was from Cycle World??

One of the most over looked aspects of lighting is beam projection. You can have the brightest light in the world, but if it only projects the beam 50 feet in front of you it's not much good. Beam projection is detemined by the design of the reflective surface in the light housing.

I had a customer put a LED headlamp in his 2010 Ultra Limted, took it out and sold it to someone because it didn't project the light far enough down the road. He was actually able to see more at night with the stock headlight.

Another option is the HID lighting, my brother in-law put them in his 02' Road King. Cost was about $300.00. These things are so bright they make the stock Halogen bulbs in his passing lamps look yellow. He's going to change those over to HID's also. He did buy a different headlamp reflector housing to project the light further down the road.

Hope this helps.

I have tried a couple different lights and I am not happy with any of them. I had the PIAA lights and hated those. Went to a Ultra Silver Star light. I liked those but they burnt out too fast. Next thing I am going to try is the LED. I have heard a lot of good things about these lights. Not only that, I am able to get a hold of the FLTR lights for $550 instead of the $700 advertised price from Harley..

Sounds good, let us know how they work out.

I will do that... maybe.........