2004 LED Headlight bulb replacement

[Mike97unger]

Hello
I bought a 2004 Vmax recently. I have owned a bunch of bikes in my past. Did some semi serious drag racing, had a several liter sport bikes and was a motorcycle mechanic in my college days. Decided to get something more comfy yet powerful. Simply love my Vmax.

However
I am looking to do a couple simple upgrades just since technology has improved significantly in the past few years especially when it comes to lighting.

I recently bought a M3S LED replacement bulb and installed it. It barely fits in the headlight bucket and for some reason blows the 10A fuse for the turn signals. I have gone back to the original bulb until I figure out what is going on.

Has anyone done this mod? Had the same problems? Any ideas?

Let me know
Thanks

 

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Any chance you are wiring up the LED headlight backwards? Positive wire to negative terminal?

 

[Mike97unger]

Hmmm. I will have to get a tester to make sure but I don't think so. The LED bulb has a pigtail with the same 3 prong connector as the OEM bulb.

 

[Pighuntingpuppy]

I would look at the wiring on the bike to make sure the wiring is good. Make sure you are not pinching anything in the bucket. My LED came with an external ballast. Yours looks like it is part of the entire bulb assembly. Possible that the bulb is defective right out of the box. Try another bulb and see if that does the trick.

 

[one2dmax]

Another thing to consider is the wiring color. Some manufacturers use the black wire as the "HOT" wire much like in a house wiring while the white is a ground. I would double check that. We have a simple high output bulb and ceramic socket so there isn't any modification required to get double the light output.

 

[02GF74]

sounds like it is faulty.

you should be able to test by connecting 2 prongs to a 12 V battery. The wiring for the 3 terminal socket is as below:

Connect the negative ground to -ve of battery and then each of 2 others to the battery +ve. The lamp should light up both times.

note the lamp consisting of light emitting diodes means you can connect any 2 of the 3 terminals safely, the LED does not conduct when wired in reverse.

Also check that the lamps body is not touching any metal so as to short circuit to earth.