Headlight swapped high/low beams? By rosiemoto (Read 896 times)

[rosiemoto]

I think somewhere along when various people have worked on my bike to fix my headlight issue, my headlight wiring might have gotten switched. The light pattern completely changed when a neighbor put in a new bulb for me, and it's been weird ever since that time. That was the first time it was touched. High beam makes a weird pattern of light in front of me, and low beam is very dim and further out, with a circular shape.

This is the same headlight I've been having trouble with for years blowing out and/or losing connection. I managed to get it working at least for now by bending the contacts on the connector downward to fit onto the light better... it'll probably vibrate itself back away again, unless I did a better job than the local mechanics around here...lol...very possible...

If the high and low beam are swapped, how would I fix them? Another thing, my light "pulses" while riding.. like it's not getting a constant power or something. It's not a flicker, but a gradual dim, then comes back, and repeats.

This is a picture of when I have the switch on high beam. In person, it looks like a bunch of lines going outward, and it doesn't really light up directly in front of me; it lights up the diagonal sides mostly.

[Alleyoop]

First thing to know is what type of bulb was put in and the watts of it. Could be the wrong headlight bulb is in there. The dim and bright could be bad contact at the socket and or bulb in the socket.
If all your other lighting does the same thing then I would say it could be your Regulator/Rectifier and or Stator not putting out constant power. Make sure you connections at the battery are nice and clean and tight.
Alleyoop

[rosiemoto]

All of my other lights run good... they all run from the battery, except the main headlight (the problem one) which runs only when engine is on.

This is the type of bulb (12v 35w) my bike has always had since I bought it. I do wonder if it's the wrong type now that you mention it. I wouldn't put it past the shop that assembled it. When I put the bulb into the socket, the connectors at the bottom of the bulb face DIAGONAL instead of straight, so they're barely touching, and it just seems wrong.

If it helps I can take it apart and get a picture up of the whole assembly?

[Alleyoop]

Yea check the bulb that is in there and see if they are the same as the S2 types that you say came with the scoot.

[cyborg]

Alley hit it yet again,,,voltage "pulsing" is a sign of the regulation not doing it's job correctly and may be getting ready to fail,,,and he is also correct about checking the battery terminal connections and I would go a step or two further as long as you're at it and check all connections and also the ground to frame terminations

[rosiemoto]

Other things I know that are related is: rectifier was changed along with a new bulb; then that bulb stopped lighting 2 weeks later. Afterwards a resistor was put in somewhere by another shop, to lower the voltage that was going to the light I guess. They said it was going up to 15v with engine revving... the resistor lowered it to 13 or 14v if I remember all this correctly? New bulb, shortly later it went out too. Brought it to shop, they bent the connector, it lit up again... then went out again again later. This was a couple years ago and after that is where I gave up... I was spending too much money at the shops and it still wasn't working.

Alleyoop, I don't have the original bulb to compare with, but I'm pretty sure it's the same one it's got in now. I bought 2 from eBay and it's the same exact thing and same packaging as the ones my local shop sells, and they're the shop I bought the scooter from. But the original bulb lasted 3 years.

[Alleyoop]

For chuckles try putting in a 25watt bulb instead of a 35. Also the way it lights with dark light dark light that has to be something on the plastic lens and or reflector a bulb is not capable of creating that that type of lighting.
Alleyoop

[rosiemoto]

Mar 4, 2016 13:00:22 GMT -6 Alleyoop said:

For chuckles try putting in a 25watt bulb instead of a 35.

What would that do? Would it maybe work better?

In the picture in first post, can you tell if that is low beam? I had it set to high beam and it looks more like low beam to me.

[Alleyoop]

The 35 watt bulbs draw more juice so maybe a lower draw bulb will work better. Some scoots do come with 25watt bulbs and to some folks that ride at night a lot get 35watt bulbs for a little brighter. But then they usually have trouble with the charging system due to the stronger bulbs drawing to much juice.

Hard to tell if the first post is high beam or low bean but you could verify in a flash by switching and seeing which is which.
Alleyoop

[rosiemoto]

Think I might know why the light is throwing a weird pattern... it's in DIAGONAL. Might be why the beams seemed switch, and maybe why the high beam hits the trees instead of the road.



That's not normal, right?

[Alleyoop]

I believe you found the problem good investigation

[rosiemoto]

I think it's all fixed now, I'm HOPING it stays good! After some experimenting I found it was simply the bulb wasn't turned/locked in! It had to be pushed in, then turned. Without doing that, it meant the connections had to be manipulated lower to sit on it, and it kept vibrating off/on because the bulb wasn't locked. It also meant the connections were coming in contact with the plastic bulb holder, and caused some meltage. I was wondering what that smell was...

With the bulb being in incorrectly, I couldn't tell which was low and high beam..they were both weird. Low beam aimed at the sky, and high beam threw a jagged pattern close up.

What I figured out is strangely it seems low beam comes from the TOP side of the bulb. That's confusing. When I purposely switched it around to come from the bottom of the bulb, it aimed up at the trees.

Well all is good now... it still pulses a little..hoping it's not the stator and maybe just the resistor that was put in at one point.

[Alleyoop]

Good to hear it was an easy fix, good job
Alleyoop