Apart from the obvious one? Had my 2002 900SS ie just coming up for a year now, it was a Japanese import. Great bike now its (mostly) sorted....it was fitted with a LED H4 when I got it (and before anybody says anything, it got its MOT with it in). Only thing is over the last couple of months, it's been displaying classic symptoms of bad earth, ie. lights go out and main beam telltale comes on. Got worse and worse until something has to be done to get it through its next MOT. Ripped it apart and I've traced the bad connection to the electronics package (driver) that is connected in between the H4 socket adapter and the LED light itself. So it needs a new one. 2 options - either replace the LED with a conventional H4 or get another LED unit. The LED that's gone tits up looks fairly old - does anyone have any recommendations as to a replacement and where to get one? I've done the usual trawls on the Bay and the S.American river, and it's a minefield - most of the reviews are couched in what can only be described as 'Chinglish' so do not entirely inspire confidence as to their impartiality.... Any pointers? Thanks S23
One thing to check is that whatever you choose....make sure the flasher works....i spent a good couple of hours thinking my switchgear was broken (Hypermotard 1100 evo sp) and why i dont know but the LED didnt work with the flasher (put the original bulb back in and it was fine so i have to find one that is compatible....(i was doing my MOT checks and found it at that point...)
Thanks both. Decided to take the easy way out as a matter of expediency and replaced the LED unit with a normal bulb, just to get it through its MOT. I don't do that much riding at night anyway, and TBH I don't think the white LED headlight is quite in keeping with the "period" of the bike, IYKWIM.... At the end of the day, I bought the bike because of the way it goes, handles and stops, not because of the colour of the light. But thanks to those who responded.
Try an Auxito H4/9003 from eBay. They are a straight swap with no fan/extra gubbins hanging out the back. I've had one on me daily V-Raptor for a couple of months with no hassle.
I blew the R/R on the 900SSie after installing Leds, the old thing (68k km) had to cope with ca. 60 extra watts of power dissipation, couldn't handle it.
Really.... the reason I installed the Led was to reduce the load on the r/r which was starting to become a yearly service item. The Auxito is rated at 26w compared with 55w for standard.
The less power the bike uses the hotter the regulator gets, scavenged my 996 for a replacement and installed a mosfet on the 996, ordered a cheap chinesium spare (25 euro) fro Ali and hid it under the seat, Road Assistance had to step in a couple of weeks ago because of a failed R/R, believe me the bike won't run once the R/R has failed and the battery is drained.. Spare will probably sit there for many years...;-) But hey.. I don't care... Better than waiting at the side of the road for 75 minutes.As an extra precaution I ordered a charge monitor light from fleabay
Ah I see, so you are saying because the LED bulb saves power this excess will cause the reg/rec to fail because it gets too hot burning it off to ground. This could also happen if you ran the bike without lights and is probably just a poor reg/rec mounting position out of any cooling breeze. Seems to be par for the course on quite a few motorcycles. I went through a good 4 or 5 reg/recs on the V-Raptor, all mosfet replacements from Electrex world, in part because the (Suzuki TL) electrical system was crap, but mainly because I was using heated gloves during the winter months which pushed the power consumption right to & over the limit of what it could handle. So In my case I did want to reduce the overall load. I also have fitted one of those exact same LED charge monitors and it does prove useful in showing impending reg/rec failure and the state of the battery. On seriously hot days I also run a fan directed at the reg/rec when I park up in the garage... sad I know... Andy B
