Is this even possible ? Went out to garage tonight to take the Mt Bike out to the forest with the dog, and noticed some small pieces of glass on the garage floor. I was perplexed and was trying to figure it out, when I noticed the right side spotlight of my Electra glide was shattered. Here is the strange bit, the bulb is partially blown away, and the very tiny pieces of bulb glass are on the inside of the remaining lens and housing and the pieces of the lens were scattered quite a distance outward from the bike almost making it seem like it exploded vice was hit and imploded ! have started the bike with lights on a couple times over the past couple months but it has not extreme cold temps. Is this even possible or has something else occurred ? To my knowledge no one has been out there for quite some time, so not sure what the hell happened. Too much pressure fro lens clamp ?? To make matters worse, the tiny nut on the lens clamp does not allow for socket or adjustable wrench removal, hell I tried with needle nose pliers but this got tricky and I really don't want to scratch the crap out the lens housing ?? Weirdness !

 

Are you sure no one was playing with it????? From what you describe, it sure sounds like it blew up. I got no answer for you but, if you find out, let us know.

 

So it happened while the bike was sitting in the garage.

Possibly a combination of several interacting factors. there might have been a small knick in the headlight glass that you didn't notice that caused a minute weak spot in the glass. The enclusive vibration over time could have cause more unseen weakening. When the bike was last put away the combination of cooling, spot weakness and possibly band tension may have all conspired to cause lens breakage.

Sorry... that's all I'vd got!!!


Jim aka kiltiemon

 

don't know why the lens busted.
U need to get a set of these, they come in handy for a lot of jobs.
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-piece...:referralID=NA

Or these at sears.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...=SPM2092159603



.

 

Hey thanks all, to add, I am really puzzled by this one, looks like the bulb blew outward on the glass , any chance for any type of heat or pressure build up caused by a temp differential ?? I am not an engineer but this looks strange. I do have a pretty good tool set, with sockets , even small ones, problem is I need a thin walled socket to get at that nut ...Yeah No WALMART, Harbour Freight , anything much remote over here ...the couple hardware stores are pathetic , germans make good equipment and tools they just don't sell them to John Q Public , only the Tradesman gets tools over here ...where I they get them , I have no F**Kin idea ! ...Cue the Twilight Zone music for my garage ! LOL

 

I've seen halogen bulbs explode, or rather the aftermath.

 

Here's what happened to me; Saturday morning (14APR12) I go out to my garage and notice some glass on the floor by my bike (2012 ULTRA LIMITED). I look around to try and figure out where this glass came from and finally notice my right spotlight is destroyed. No I'm not copying your description and couldn't believe it when I searched the web and found your tread, I could have written the exact same thing before I found the thread. The picture of my spotlight looks exactly like yours. I went to San Diego HARLEY and asked the service manager if this has happened to anyone else and his only explanation was to blame me, maybe I accidently hit it or a rock hit it putting a small crack in it and then it decided to break. So I bought a new one for 40 bucks and installed. But the more I thought about it the more it bugged me so I did my own investigation, no I'm not a CSI, just watch it on TV. This clearly looks like an outward explosion and as I'm taking a closer look at some of the bigger chunks that blew out the middle and landed on the floor I notice something very revealing. I'm sure most of you have seen what a BB does to a window when you shoot at it, typically there is a small hole and on the side where the BB exits it leaves a small crater. Well on the tip of one of those larger chunks I see about a quarter of that crater and hole, the crater is on the outside of the glass so it was shot from the inside out and when I stuck the piece of glass where if might of fit, the hole would of lined up perfectly in line with the bulb. Also just the tip of the halogen bulb is missing. After thinking about this I think I actually heard it happen but just didn't know it at the time, my garage door to the house is always open and while watching TV, (maybe 15 feet away from garage door) I heard a strange noise that I thought might of come from the side of house maybe neighbor, but thought it sounded like glass breaking. Now I know what the noise was. If you research halogen bulbs, you find that they are prone to exploding. I think HD should pay for this as a defective item under warranty so I will present my case to the dealership, it's only 40 dollars for new light and puts hardly nothing in their pocket so they probably will not be very interested or willing to pay. There has to be some other instances of this occurring out there but perhaps you just chocked it up to some unknown mystery and just bought a new one. But this is definitely strange to have happen to you.
Louis

 

You are not supposed to touch them as your hands leave oil that makes the spot you touched hotter and causes them to explode. Either install them with a rag around the bulb or wipe them off throughly after installation.

 

I thought that as well but while I new it caused the bulb to fail I did not realize it made it explode.

 

Had this exact thing happen to me today on my not but a week old 2013 Ultra Limited. The right spotlight exploded while I was getting off the bike. Pieces flew onto the ground around the front tire. I was taking my helmet off when it pop'd, and I walk around and was like what the heck?! Best I can guess the sunlight hit it just the right way and heated up the bulb inside, and bam. The bulb and glass lens definitely exploded outward from the center. The lens opened up like a flower. Dealer wouldn't warranty it. Bastards.