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R1100RT High Beam

bobr9

143439
1999 R1100RT

It is rare that I drive at night, but I did last night. What I noticed was that when on low beam the visibility was good, nice and centered and the beam hit the road at a nice distance in front of the bike. When I went to high beam, however, totally different story. The beam pulled way back towards the bike and spread out very wide to each side of the bike. Visibility was significantly worse, almost useless in fact.

I installed a new bulb not too long ago along with doing the Eastern Beaver headlight mod which powers the bulb right off the battery. I aligned the bulb using the low beam only and did it per specifications (like I said, low beam was great).

Since this is a single bulb set up, I am wondering how the low beam alignment could be so good and the high beam so bad. Any thoughts????
 
Sorry, but from your description, it sounds like the high and low beam settings are reversed. You're sure you didn't mix up the connections when you modded the headlight?
 
Sorry, but from your description, it sounds like the high and low beam settings are reversed. You're sure you didn't mix up the connections when you modded the headlight?

Hmmm....a good thought. I'll check into that. Would not be the first time I mucked something up.
 
Hmmm....a good thought. I'll check into that. Would not be the first time I mucked something up.

After looking at the relay kit I got from Eastern Beaver I don't think it is likely that this is the issue, as it is a plug and play replacement, so unless the relay kit itself was made incorrectly, I don't think it is reversed. Good thought though.
 
I don't think it is possible, but could the bulb be in upside-down?

I am looking at an old bulb and it has three tabs on it that I assume have to fit into the bulb socket, so looks like it could only go one way. However I have only done one bulb change and can't really say if there is a way to get it to fit upside down. Could someone with more bulb changing experience than I weigh in on whether it is possible to do or not?
 
Undo your modification

I looked at the Eastern Beaver modification you installed. All the best intentions in the world but if it was put together on a bad day...........Easy enough to switch the pins in the socket by mistake. I fought with a Mazda Miata that came from the US and imported to Canada and the dealership installed the Daytime Running Lamp modification and they really screwed it up. It was doing what you described except blowing fuses every twenty minutes or so.

They had the high beam element to ground and powered the common and low beam element. Once the modification was out, brought it back to original, found that it was just a simple pin in the wrong spot in the connector. Six hours to troubleshoot, twenty minutes to fix.
 
On an H4 bulb, the filament under the shield is low beam. The unshielded filament is high beam.
 
And, from the looks of it I don't think it will go in far enough at the wrong orientation to allow the bail to close.
 

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I took a peak at the wiring and it appears everything lines up according to the schematic that Scott sent. Bulb also appears to be oriented correctly with the middle contact on top. I have contacted eastern beaver to see if he has any suggestions, if not I will try another bulb.
 
Well I think maybe you just have it aimed wrong. so that on high beam it is shooting the moon.

now that I have a real keyboard I'll clarify...

You should aim it on high beam, so that it points pretty much straight out. The bright spot should hit a wall at the same height as the headlight back at the bike. You need about 25 feet of flat ground to do this right, and I find it difficult. I usually wind up stopping and adjusting on the road until it works for me. The "dipped beam" (low) should hit the ground in front of you with a bit of a cutoff to the left, asymmetrical.
 
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I looked at the Eastern Beaver modification you installed. All the best intentions in the world but if it was put together on a bad day...........Easy enough to switch the pins in the socket by mistake. I fought with a Mazda Miata that came from the US and imported to Canada and the dealership installed the Daytime Running Lamp modification and they really screwed it up. It was doing what you described except blowing fuses every twenty minutes or so.

They had the high beam element to ground and powered the common and low beam element. Once the modification was out, brought it back to original, found that it was just a simple pin in the wrong spot in the connector. Six hours to troubleshoot, twenty minutes to fix.

You were correct. I swapped the wires at the H4 coupler and problem solved. Guess this means I just drove 7k miles in July with my high beam on.
 
Stuff happens

I don't know how many times I've tried to get my point across on these forums. The reality, it was put together by a human, we make mistakes, it can be fixed by a human.

Good for you.
 
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