Hi everyone, need some help figuring this out. I have a '88 FLHTP and have noticed that my headlight and one of the white running lights is alot dimmer than the other running light. all the bulbs are original, but I would like them all to be the same brightness and of course very bright. Any help would be greatly appreciated, hope all have a great day.

 

Dirty ground or dirty + connection. The light bar grounds through the bolts to the forks, if I recall. The headlight has a common failure point at the connector on the bulb. Clean the connector very well. You can take the connector apart with a pick to slide the actual spade connectors out of the plastic part, clean them with a wire wheel on a dremmel, pinch them a little tighter and put it all back together.

 

The original 1988 bulbs are probably just getting ready to burn out. If the connections are good, just get some new bulbs.

 

thanks dr hess, i will give it a try. any suggestions to make the headlamp brighter???

 

Clean the connectors. After that, make sure you have good voltage at the back of the plug. A bad connection in the ignition switch could cause low voltage there, as could dirty connections on the circuit breakers, which are getting old now. Clean all the connections and put some grease on them when you put it back together. If you have good voltage at the back of the plug, which should be about full from the battery, and you still think it is not bright, then try a different headlight bulb. I have found my bike's headlight to be quite bright.

 

Here's a nice little post with pics if you are into installing an H4 bulb with a relay. Should brighten things up safely.

http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...-80w-bulb.html

 

I run a 55/100 watt bulb,have been foryears. I saw a thread here about melting the bulb connector. I looked at mine. There was a tiny bit of melted plastic on one of the blades of the bulb. I bought a ceramic connector off ebay. Everything is working fine.

 

thanks alot everyone who gave advice, I really appreciate it, this is a great site.