137011
allweatherrider
Thought I should detail this mini-disaster and subsequent workaround in case this happens to any of my MOA club mates.
I was on my way to a local club meeting one Saturday this past October on my new F800GT. Turned on the ignition, the computer check did its pre-flight inside the instrument pod, and displayed an error message saying it had found a burnt headlight bulb. It turned out to be the heavily used low beam H7 bulb on the right side. We have -a lights on all the time- law in Quebec for all motorized vehicles so this did not surprise me.
Had a bulb in stock so naturally decided to change it before leaving the garage as it would only take a few minutes, right? If I had only known what was about to happen.....
Reached in, forward of the headstock, and pulled off the o-ring equipped inspection cover in order to access the bulb. I have fairly large -mitts- so everything was done blindly at this point but I've changed many headlight bulbs on various German vehicles over the years so that was only a minor inconvenience. I squeezed the wire bale that retains the bulb in position and swung it back....an ominous clink, clink, clatter sound emanated from under the machine.
Well, there was the wire bale on the garage floor (it is supposed to be captive on the headlight reflector)
GOOD GRIEF, guess I'll be late for the meeting , right?
The headlight pod is a one-piece plastic (glued together) reflector/lens assembly that is buried behind a lot of fairing parts. I didn't want to risk breaking any fairing bits by going at things willy-nilly so resigned myself to a few hours of tedious work.
It turned out to be impossible to get access to the headlight pod without removing every blasted piece of Tupperware on that bike. I did not bring it to the dealer for a possibly free warantee repair as the season was quickly coming to a close and I didn't want to forfeit any remaining riding time. The repair would probably not be covered under warantee anyway and the cost of a new reflector is $449.35 US. (component repairs are not done these days, only replacement)
Here is a photo taken with the camera set on the macro setting and stuffed into that cramped space before anything was removed from the bike.
Here is a photo taken showing the plastic bits removed from the bike. Wasn't sure what I had to do to fix the reflector assembly at this point so I opened the patient up completely in order to determine the best procedure
Modified paper clip shown in position on the existing OEM screw (SEE PART 2 OF THIS POST FOR THE FINAL RESULTS)
I was on my way to a local club meeting one Saturday this past October on my new F800GT. Turned on the ignition, the computer check did its pre-flight inside the instrument pod, and displayed an error message saying it had found a burnt headlight bulb. It turned out to be the heavily used low beam H7 bulb on the right side. We have -a lights on all the time- law in Quebec for all motorized vehicles so this did not surprise me.
Had a bulb in stock so naturally decided to change it before leaving the garage as it would only take a few minutes, right? If I had only known what was about to happen.....
Reached in, forward of the headstock, and pulled off the o-ring equipped inspection cover in order to access the bulb. I have fairly large -mitts- so everything was done blindly at this point but I've changed many headlight bulbs on various German vehicles over the years so that was only a minor inconvenience. I squeezed the wire bale that retains the bulb in position and swung it back....an ominous clink, clink, clatter sound emanated from under the machine.
Well, there was the wire bale on the garage floor (it is supposed to be captive on the headlight reflector)
GOOD GRIEF, guess I'll be late for the meeting , right?
The headlight pod is a one-piece plastic (glued together) reflector/lens assembly that is buried behind a lot of fairing parts. I didn't want to risk breaking any fairing bits by going at things willy-nilly so resigned myself to a few hours of tedious work.
It turned out to be impossible to get access to the headlight pod without removing every blasted piece of Tupperware on that bike. I did not bring it to the dealer for a possibly free warantee repair as the season was quickly coming to a close and I didn't want to forfeit any remaining riding time. The repair would probably not be covered under warantee anyway and the cost of a new reflector is $449.35 US. (component repairs are not done these days, only replacement)
Here is a photo taken with the camera set on the macro setting and stuffed into that cramped space before anything was removed from the bike.
Here is a photo taken showing the plastic bits removed from the bike. Wasn't sure what I had to do to fix the reflector assembly at this point so I opened the patient up completely in order to determine the best procedure
Modified paper clip shown in position on the existing OEM screw (SEE PART 2 OF THIS POST FOR THE FINAL RESULTS)
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