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'03 K1200 GT headlight bulb

johncolleton

Pantana-The Lonesome Weir
Wow - any hints on changing the head light bulb [low bean] on 03' K100 GT.
Got the retaining clip off, but couldn't get the black cover out of the way enough to get my hands in there to pull out the bulb. Any tips or "how to's" out there. Thanks.
 
johncolleton said:
Wow - any hints on changing the head light bulb [low bean] on 03' K100 GT.
Got the retaining clip off, but couldn't get the black cover out of the way enough to get my hands in there to pull out the bulb. Any tips or "how to's" out there. Thanks.

Keep "flicking" it and the damn thing will fall out the bottom by itself. Then you will fight it going back in.
You have to feel it "click" into the groove in order to get the retainer back on.
Bruce C
 
I actually found it faster to pull the gauges off. Then it is a 2 second job. To me it was better than scraping my wrists up and fighting blind with the stupid cover. looked like I had tried to comit suicide when I was done 9the thought crossed my mind!).
Mike
 
johncolleton said:
Thanks Mike - how bad was it to remove the instrument cluster?

That seems like a lot of work. I have done a few of these headlight bulbs and while they are difficult, they are possible.
The new K1200S is a dream to change. It seems like most things I look at on that bike are good for repair. The valves however, are sort of under the front of the bike and the radiator has to be removed.
 
John
If getting your hand in there is the problem, try taking off the upper fairing covers next to the instrument cluster. Only 4 screws on each side.
While in the left side you will find the left/right headlight adjustment screw(white knob, upper left side), if you need it.
Bruce C ;)
 
Hi Bruce - can get my hand in there, but can't get the plastic cover out....thinking If I can't even do that, how will I be able to het hands in for the bulb. I did take the top side [hand fairings off], but it was of little help.

Is there a trick to hoow to get the plastic cover out of the compartment?
 
When I changed my headlight bulb('04KRS) I just made sure that the wire retainer was down and out of the way, Fiddled with the cover a bit and it fell out the bottom and onto the ground.
The cover has to be out of there in order to have enough room.
Bruce C
ps. Halfway through the job, I was wondering if it was worth the effort, it was.
 
. The GT (and some RS) has a control arm and motor for the adjustable windscreen that gets in the way of reaching into the back of the headlamp assembly to replace the bulb. It is almost impossible to reach to 1) take off first the black plastic cover that stops the dust from getting to lamps and 2) then also very difficult to maneuver to take out the lamps. I Did it with my previous RS that had no electric windshield and was a pain . With the GT I gave up after ?¢ hour of fighting just to get the clamp off the plastic cover. Then could not get the cover out.
So I followed some advise from forum writers and took the fairing plastic nose to be able to reach to the complete lamp assembly from the front. Took it out and at the bench changed the bulbs .
So if you take the plastics off probably will faster and easier.
I could not load all pictures on one post so I used many post to cover all steps. In this post I just put all the verbiage, but on rest of post repeated phrases and added the corresponding picture.....


To remove the plastic. First unscrew the two hand guards (4 screws per sides),


Remove now this screw (see below) and at this time take out the turning signal bulb (both sides)


Now unscrew two bottom screws as shown in the picture below. You need to reach under the nose . (Look at the black arrow, not the screwdriver )

Now you are ready to take out the Plastic nose. It should be just hanging from these two “tabs?” as shown in the picture below. If you have taken out the side fairings once you know how plastic parts are joined between each other . You will have to pull up with a sudden quick push to get them apart. I was afraid of braking the plastic but it is strong material and should just unplug from the groove.
You can see from two next pictures how they look after I pulled up and after pulling complete plastic nose




Now let’s remove the headlamp assembly. There are three screws (right, left and bottom of lamp assembly) to remove and, a parking lamp under the assembly.


Regarding the parking light, you need to unplug it from the assembly so you can take the complete assembly from the bike. Do not pull from cables but with a long nose pliers pull from the little rubber part and wiggle to loosen. There is no clip or anything like that holding it in the hole, just the rubber surface. I forgot to take a picture of the part but wiggle wiggle until you see it is coming down.
Do not try to access the lamps by unclipping the below clips and trying to get the glass off.! You are almost there….

Last steps! Now you can start pulling the lamp assembly slowly until you can see the connection from the wire harness to the lamp assembly (facing the bike from the front is at your right). Unclip the harness to the bulbs. See below picture. The screwdriver is showing the clip you need to slowly pull towards you (not up or down). Probably half an inch.


Once you have the assembly off the bike, just follow your booklet manual instruction to change any of the bulbs
Taking the plastic off seems an overkill but I tell you is much better than trying to maneuver between dashboard and the electric motor. Then taking out the bulbs from there is almost impossible
Without the above” experience” it took me 1 hour ?¢ to get it change. Guess next time and following above it will be ?¢ to 45 minutes.
I took below instructions from a forum and guess are good input to include here.
“By the way, when you have the headlamp assembly out, you'll see there's a white lever with a screw adjustment on the right side of the back. That's what adjusts the lamp height of the low beam. That lever has three positions, up, midway, and down. Up and down lowers the beam for when you have all the weight in the world on the back (two-up with luggage) and you don't want to adjust the preload, or the preload doesn't compensate enough. The middle position is where you'd normally have the lever. I adjust my low beam up with the screw (lever in the middle position) until the top edge of the beam is just about to come off the trunk-lid of the car in front of me and light-up the inside. Not high enough for folks to adjust their rear-view mirror or flash their highbeams (oncoming) at me. Lights up the road pretty well. Not perfect, but much better. Most of the K1200's seem to have their headlamp adjusted so you can easily see the front tire grooves as you're motoring down the road. Why the factory seems to think this is important, I don't know. Cheapest fix, though, is to adjust the headlight beam up.
 

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Here are the rest of pictures
 

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Now unscrew two bottom screws as shown in the picture below .one on each side of the nose. You need to reach under the nose
 

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Now you are ready to take out the Plastic nose. It should be just hanging from these two ÔÇ£tabs?ÔÇØ as shown in the picture below. If you have taken out the side fairings once you know how plastic parts are joined between each other . You will have to pull up with a sudden quick push to get them apart. I was afraid of braking the plastic but it is strong material and should just unplug from the groove.
You can see from two next pictures how they look after I pulled up and after pulling complete plastic nose
 

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Here is another view once I took off the front fairing i call "the nose"
 

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Now letÔÇÖs remove the headlamp assembly. There are three screws (right, left and bottom of lamp assembly) to remove and, a parking lamp under the assembly.
 

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Do not try to access the lamps by unclipping the below clips and trying to get the glass off.!

You are almost there….
 

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Regarding the parking light, you need to unplug it from the assembly so you can take the complete assembly from the bike. Do not pull from cables but with a long nose pliers pull from the little rubber part and wiggle down to loosen the bulb connection There is no clip or anything like that holding it in the hole, just the rubber surface. I forgot to take a picture of the part but wiggle wiggle until you see it is coming down.
Do not try to access the lamps by unclipping the below clips and trying to get the glass off.! You are almost there….
 
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Last steps! Now you can start pulling the lamp assembly slowly downwards and to the front, until you can see the connection from the wire harness to the lamp assembly (facing the bike from the front is at your right). Unclip the harness to the bulbs. See below picture. The screwdriver is showing the clip you need to pull towards you (not up or down). Probably half an inch. then disconect the harness

then just wiggle with the assembly until you take it out. is not difficult. pull downwards and to the front. when you have the assembly in your hands and start changing the bulbs you will be happy you did not try to do it blind and in such a small space....
 

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Yes those blasted headlights!!!

Thanks for this Myojuaf,I was beginning the frustration described of fighting the spring clip off,then "remove the cover".How???2004 GT,same problem of tiny space and blind.So,will remove plastic and be illuminated instead of frustrated!!:wave
 
follow mayojuaf post to change bulb.

spend a little time studing mayojuaf post and you will not have a problem. It took me about 90 minutes . Side note, I bought 2 low beam bulbs for $ 6 bucks off Ebay and free shipping. Dealer wanted $38 for one. Same bulb only a fancy box it came in. Thanks for all the good info
 
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2004 GT has the same issue

I have the same issue on my 04 K12GT. My hands are just too big to get in there without losing a pound of flesh. I just remove the headlight as described by mayojuaf. It's not hard to do but it is a bit more time consuming. Remove the nose piece and the head light assembly.
Mayojuaf does a very good step by step.
 
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