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headlight conversion problem (battery)

1484 Views 24 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  RJ2112
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So tore my bike down, repainted everything and did the duel headlight conversion that I found from this forum , now it keeps killing my battery, brand new battery, had local shop check the charging system and eveything is working properly, it would die in about 2 days on a full charge , pulled the headlight fuse and been riding it for about 2 weeks now and battery had never died, so headlight conversion is the problem, anyone have any ideas, I fallowed all the steps, u think the relay is bad?

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Can you tell me what wires you connected where?

it shouldn't be that you bypass the headlight harness. in the end there is no dual headlight conversion re wiring of need if you'd just keep it switched on hi beams all the time.
Unless you take off that metal dome that is mounted in top of the bulb on the hi beam side you will always run with a hi beam anyways. If you take off that metal dome covering the one bulb, you lose the hi beam light. In the end same bulbs.

It's totally different for a J model since those had dual headlights with hi beam switch for the orientation of the bulbs.
So tore my bike down, repainted everything and did the duel headlight conversion that I found from this forum , now it keeps killing my battery, brand new battery, had local shop check the charging system and eveything is working properly, it would die in about 2 days on a full charge , pulled the headlight fuse and been riding it for about 2 weeks now and battery had never died, so headlight conversion is the problem, anyone have any ideas, I fallowed all the steps, u think the relay is bad?
What else draws power, on your bike?

The relay doesn't draw any power all by itself. It's a simple remote controlled switch.

When you say you did the dual headlight mod, what exactly do you mean by that? If you mean you installed two HID projectors and have them both running at the same time, that's somewhat different than the OEM bulbs both being turned on at the same time. How many other electrical modificaitons have been done? LEDs? Power commander? Heated grips? Alarm system?

If your battery is being discharged when the headlights are on, you are asking more from your alternator than it can give. The battery has to make up the difference..... you run long enough that way, the battery goes flat.

Run that way long enough, you will damage your alternator, possibly your regulator/rectifier as well.
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I went from the single headlight to the dual headlights,, not projectors, switched to high low bulbs and tied them into each other, everything else is stok besides integrated taillights, but the bike is keeping a charge now that I pulled the fuse to the headlight out
I went from the single headlight to the dual headlights,, not projectors, switched to high low bulbs and tied them into each other, everything else is stok besides integrated taillights, but the bike is keeping a charge now that I pulled the fuse to the headlight out
I can't see how this should be enough to drain your battery. The charging system had to be designed to support both headlights on. Maybe not with a lot of overhead (extra juice available).... but it should still support the load that the operator can set within the design. I have to think your charging system is weak.

At this point, you may want to remove the plug from the back of one of the bulbs, so you at least have one headlight. If everything is okay in that configuration, you can either leave it that way, or try and find out what is wrong.

If you haven't already done so, download the shop manual for your bike from here, and do the diagnostics on your alternator. It's a pretty easy test if you have a multimeter. The allowed range is pretty big; I'm guessing yours is near the lowest allowed output, or you have something wired wrong.

The bike shouldn't have a problem, OEM, running the high and low beams at the same time.
I did this conversion, lights work good, just battery won't stay charged for me then 2 days with headlights on, pull the fuse and battery stays charged

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I took it down to the local kawasaki dealer and they did the multi meter test and said eveything is charging perfect
I took it down to the local kawasaki dealer and they did the multi meter test and said eveything is charging perfect
What is your idle speed set to? If it's too low, the bike will not charge the battery when the engine speed is low... should be 12-1300 at a minimum. If it's low and you do a lot of city driving at low speed, the battery could discharge even with everything else right.
I'm driving the same way I've been driving for a month, only thing I did different was take out the headlight fuse and now the bike hasn't had a drained battery, the previous few weeks it's died every 2-3 days, charged it few times and same problem
Sounds to me you did something bad with the wiring.
What if the relay is constantly on?


Where does your 86 input and 85 ground of the relay connect to? Straight into the battery?

http://zx6r.com/guides/1354-dual-headlight-conversion.html
Thing I don't understand with that wiring diagram, what stock plug is he talking about and which one of those has 2 inputs with a ground?

I just did a whole bunch of wiring on my retro fit hid projectors.

I think it would help if you described which wire of the H4 plug got connected to which wire of the bike harness and where each wire went to and from the relay.
It almost seems to me that the headlights are drawing to much power for the bike to handle, cause I would let it sit for a few days and would fire up, like it's only happening when I'm riding it and the headlight are on, u think I could be that I went to a stage 2 high output h4 bulb
as long as hey're 55w bulbs it shouldn't matter.

but you can test that by having the bike fully charged, then put the fuse back in and see if it starts after 2 days of sitting in the garage.

cuz then it means it's drawing power with the bike turned off and not while you're riding it with headlights on.
Take a multimeter. Set it to amps. With the bike off, remove the headlight fuse and connect your multimeter leads to the pins where the fuse plugs in. How many amps is being drawn? The number should be 0. Anything bove that means something isnt fully shutting off and is sucking power from ur battery. U can start unplugging wires to see where the current stops.
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No I think the bulbs are like 80w and 100w and now that's it dual, u think that's it?
do what scorpi0 suggested.

easy, just unplug stuff and keep track of the current changes.

80 or 100 watt sounds bad to me.
Take a multimeter. Set it to amps. With the bike off, remove the headlight fuse and connect your multimeter leads to the pins where the fuse plugs in. How many amps is being drawn? The number should be 0. Anything bove that means something isnt fully shutting off and is sucking power from ur battery. U can start unplugging wires to see where the current stops.
^^Yup, do this^^
I don't have a multimeter, the bulbs I put in are 80 watt Lowe and 100 watt high, big difference from stock 55 watt single bulb
U know thats prolly gonna fry your electrical system. Thats a lotta power! Why did u go so high?? I have 35 watt bulbs on my bike and theyre bright as fuk.

I also recommend u get urself a multimeter. U can get a decent one for about 20 bucks. Greatest tool u can have when messing with electronics.

Where in cali r u?
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I don't have a multimeter, the bulbs I put in are 80 watt Lowe and 100 watt high, big difference from stock 55 watt single bulb
Drop back to OEM wattage bulbs, and see if you can keep your battery charged. If the bulbs are pushing you over the edge, you are putting your charging system at risk of overheating. That extra wattage is drawing extra current... all work comes at a cost.

If the bike is expecting to 'see' a load of one low beam bulb at OEM wattage, and you are expecting it to work at what is nearly 3 times what it is rated for.... nothing good can come of that.

one low is around 55W, two high beams at 100 Watts apiece is 200 total.

200W/12V = 16.7 A, present load
55W / 12V = 4.6 A, designed load

12 extra amps is a lot, for a sport bike.
Yeah I'm GONNA go down to stock wattage and hopefully that fixes the problem
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