I was riding my VFR this morning through some foggy back roads. Periodically I'd come upon oncoming traffic without lights on at all (dumbasses) so I'd flash my bright at them a few times to hopefully get them to turn on their lights. I stopped a short time later and left the bike running. I noticed that the headlights were off. I switched the high beam on, and the headlights started flashing--they appeared to be rapidly cycling between low beam and high beam.
My bike has one of those brake flashy things--when the brakes are first applied, the tail light flashes rapidly, then slows, then goes solid. I'm guessing that the previous owner set up something like that for the headlight too, hence the flashing when I turn on the high beam.
So, I'm wondering, did I somehow trigger the low beams to be off when I was flashing my brights at oncoming traffic this morning? (I tried turning the high beam off and on several times in quick succession but the low beam still remains off in that setting.) Or is it more likely that something's broken--maybe the high beam switch or a blown fuse? There is a fair amount of custom wiring done (two cigarette lighter outlets, a bar graph volt meter, and what looks like an LED light mounted facing down, to the right of the gauge cluster) so I'm a little hesitant to start troubleshooting without having some idea of where I'm going.
the switch is notorious for being bad. When mine gets wet it does the same thing. Wait for it to dry and stuff the housing with electrical grease and you should be right as rain. I've just learned to live with mine because it does it less than it used to.
It sounds like you have a newer Signal Dynamics headlight modulator. The newer ones have a feature that they can toggle the modulator on and off with a quick cycle of the headlights from high to low.
Lee, I think you're right about the controller. I was able to turn off the headlight modulation by flicking the high beam off and back on once quickly. http://signaldynamic...emart&Itemid=77
Timmy, you're probably right about the switch being bad. I'll take it apart, clean it and grease it, and hopefully that will fix it. (I have a '91 F2 and its high beam switch still works great--I wonder if Honda changed designs at some point.)
[image: View Post]thefleshrocket, on 23 September 2011 - 01:23 PM, said:
...and what looks like an LED light mounted facing down, to the right of the gauge cluster) so I'm a little hesitant to start troubleshooting without having some idea of where I'm going.
Could that be an IR sensor, to keep the modulator from operating when it's dark?
[image: View Post]JZH, on 24 September 2011 - 08:12 PM, said:
[image: View Post]thefleshrocket, on 23 September 2011 - 01:23 PM, said:
...and what looks like an LED light mounted facing down, to the right of the gauge cluster) so I'm a little hesitant to start troubleshooting without having some idea of where I'm going.
Could that be an IR sensor, to keep the modulator from operating when it's dark?
That must be it--I couldn't figure out any way to turn the "light" on, so it makes sense that it would be an ambient light sensor.
Alas, the switch isn't the cause of my problem. I disassembled it and it looked practically virgin inside. There was no corrosion whatsoever and the contacts all had a nice thin coating of grease. I used a paperclip to jumper the contacts. The high beam activated as expected (no flashing since it's apparently dark enough in my garage to make the sensor deactivate the flashing) but the low beam still didn't come on. I'd hear a click (presumably from a relay) when I'd jumper the low beam circuit, but no light.
I also noticed that I couldn't deactivate the high beam flashing properly either. The SD website says to cycle the switch twice within one second (high-low-high or low-high-low) to turn the flashing on and off. I tried it earlier today and was able to deactivate the flashing, but every time I tried it after that, the high beam wouldn't stop flashing.
So, where to check next? Is it possible that the Signal Dynamic modulator has partially failed and that's why the low beam isn't coming on?
if your high light is flash ,you should check it ,connect all lines ,or clear the arsh .
if u want to change a new one ,i suggest you go to vvme or ebay .
they are almost professional for totle type :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: s.
I contacted the Signal Dynamics people and one of their techs replied quickly. Tonight I dug into it and instead of a SD flashed unit, I found a flashed unit that attached between the headlight wire and the headlight itself. I removed it completely (no wire cutting needed, just unplugged it) but my low beams are still MIA. What should I check next?
Check the service manual, might be in the owners manual too, for head light bulb changing procedure.
Hopefully your hand is not too big, or you have a smaller handed helper.
Access is not the easiest (pita!) for my medium size hand, but I can do it, and so can you. :fing02:
[image: View Post]thefleshrocket, on 29 September 2011 - 07:53 PM, said:
If one of my low beam bulbs is out, would it cause both of my low beam lights to be out?
No. They are not really connected in any way that would do that. Both lights being out suggests that the fault is in the wiring that leads to or from the low beam relay. It's often due to the hi/lo switch being dirty.
[image: View Post]thefleshrocket, on 29 September 2011 - 07:53 PM, said:
And, how do I get the bulbs out? I've tried pulling and twisting and while I can see the bulb move, it makes no signs of wanting to come out.
I don't recall exactly on my 5th-gen, but more modern Hondas have H4 bulb connectors that require a "pinch" from the sides to release from the bulb contacts from being gripped by the connector. My ST1300 definitely has this; my VFR750FP does not (the connector just pulls off on the older bikes).
Jzh, I checked out the switch and it seems to be working. Or at least I think it is. When I took apart the switch and jumpered the low beam leads, I'd hear a click (the relay that activates the low beam?) but the low beams didn't light up. The guts of the switch looked practically virgin, with a nice coating of grease and no signs of any discoloration, etc. Is that a sufficient test for the switch, or is there something else I should do?
Have you tried new bulbs? Unfortunately, I don't know how headlight modulators are hooked up--if they interrupt the low beam circuit, then the modulator or its wiring could be causing your problem.
If your low beam relay clicks, it probably works. You can test it by swapping it with the high beam relay. But you didn't say which relay you heard clicking...
If the switch activates the relay, then the switch is good; if not, it's not.
From the Haynes wiring diagram, both relays appear to get the same fused power from the fuse box, so if the high beam works, then we know If the low beam relay clicks and the low beams still don't work, then either the relay is bad, or the bulbs are (or the modulator has changed the circuit!) Good luck.
Jzh, thanks for the info. I checked the wiring to the bulbs. Of the 3 wires to each bulb, one has 12v with the headlight switch set to low beam and the other has 12v with the switch set to high beam. So, it must be the bulbs, probably killed by the stupid flasher cycling them on and off hundreds of thousands of times.
The next question.. How in the mother fu$&;)@/! hell do I get the bulbs out? I have twisted and yanked so hard I was sure something was gonna break, but the bulbs are still firmly affixed.
YouTube had the answer--there is a spring clip under the rubber sheath that holds each bulb in place. $&�#%�!!
Both bulbs had visibly failed low beams--the springs were just flopping around inside the glass. Surely they didn't both fail at once, but I don't specifically remember one side not working either. Oh well.