Sorry about that gents...I just corrected my post to indicate "relay" instead of ballast....brain fart...

 

Hey Splattttttt,

The bike is an '08 FJR 1300 Yamaha, set up for Long Distance riding. In fact, the customer was a top-15 Gold Medal finisher in the 2011 Iron Butt rally on this very bike. He wanted the auxiliary HID lights removed (PIAA's), and the main headlights converted to HID from Halogen.

This was part of a long list of work performed on this bike, so in the picture below, you'll note that the bike is torn down still much more than if the only thing changed was the lights.

Pictures:

This is the box they came in, ordered from Ebay. I think they were about $55.




This is the main harness without the bulbs attached--they are already in the bike at this point...note that the relay is at the top of the harness (as normal), and that I have merged the ground wires prior to installation. There are no other items (besides the yet-to-be-measured ground wire) for this harness, making the amount of junk to hide and secure quite user-friendly! Note that I've also pre-tied a couple of zip straps above the ballasts, in order to facilitate installation, and to keep certain parts of the harness together the way I want them to stay.




This is what the back of a lamp housing looks like with the lights installed. That little piece of velcro below the light is where a ballast ultimately will sit, as well as most of the wiring harness--not much room in there!




This is the 4300k color with the lamps warmed up good.




This is low beam, in a fully lit, main door open, sun pouring in, garage...




And high beam...




This is a ballast I removed, a DDM unit. Note the extra lump in the wire? That's the "ignitor" module, and until now, I had not seen a small ballast that did not have this additional piece. Very nice to be rid of that in a small area. No big deal in a car, but bike front ends don't have the luxury of tons of additional space for this kind of thing.




All the best,

Shane

 

Good catch!

All the best,

Shane

 

i have the hid from socalmotogear. great for daytime use. the light scatters to much at night and doesn't put a good beam on the road. i've also noticed after using at all year that i'm starting to get a haze inside the headlamp housing. i would guess it's probably from heat.

i'm on the hunt for something else. adjure has a h4 led light that has my curiosity at the moment. i have't seen much info on non-hd led lights that aren't a complete headlamp assembly.

 

Can anyone confirm or deny the above?

I have the HIDs and the delay relay in the mail and should be here tomorrow - just want to make sure that I am cutting the HID harness to install the relay in between the OEM Headlight wiring and the Ballast? before I mess anything up.

Thanks

 

@; Shane... Thanks for going far and beyond what I thought was a very thorough insight of your work. I'm sure we'll put it all to good use this winter.
Thank again; Jack

 

I was considering the HID's, but ended up going with the H-D Daymaker.

What does that mean?

 

My pleasure, glad to share some real-world experiences. I know I'm glad when others do--that's where I get a lot of inspiration to DIY stuff.

I always forget to take pictures of things I work on, but for this customer, I wanted to send him text and picture updates due to the size of the punchlist. It is a rare day when I have a play-by-play of pictures like this. Glad the topic came up!

Feel free to PM me when you dive in if you have any questions, or to share some pictures of how you make out.

All the best,

Shane

 

http://www.motoparthub.com/ABH4K_A6K..._Headlight_Bul

 

Wish you were closer LOL. Thanks for being a great member/part of this community Shane.