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[hd-dude]

Bob;
The clicking you hear when going from hi to low is normal for the Bi- Xenon H4 bulb, the bulb actually moves in and out of its socket a bit via an electro-magnet.

Try moving the electrics away from you radio as far as possible, that should eliminate any interference there.


On another note I did a dual H4 setup on a Road Glide yesterday and it worked great LOTS of light from the dual bulbs!

[Twolanerider]

Bob;
The clicking you hear when going from hi to low is normal for the Bi- Xenon H4 bulb, the bulb actually moves in and out of its socket a bit via an electro-magnet.

Try moving the electrics away from you radio as far as possible, that should eliminate any interference there.


On another note I did a dual H4 setup on a Road Glide yesterday and it worked great LOTS of light from the dual bulbs!

Two of those in the nose of RG should knock out tremendous amounts of light.  Did it work as well as would be expected?  Sounds like a very good setup for lights on those.

If the newer Road Glides still have the heat problem inside their headlight housings that some of the older ones used to you'd have a nice side benefit there too.  Less damaged housings because of the lesser amount of heat produced. 

[hd-dude]

Don, I only had a short jaunt on the bike but the initial impression was yes that they will work very well. The owner will be giving me some real feedback after he gets some more time in the saddle.

[Chief]

Was there ever a conclusion, or at least a summary of possibilities, to upgrade the spots? I'm sure they won't match the HID units, but what upgrade would be recommended to improve the 881's?

[Twolanerider]

Was there ever a conclusion, or at least a summary of possibilities, to upgrade the spots? I'm sure they won't match the HID units, but what upgrade would be recommended to improve the 881's?

Chuck, there are 881 HID kits.  I was going to do just that before someone liberated the light kit from my garage.  You'd have to open up the brackets and light standard to allow passing two wires rather than one directly from the inside of the fairing to the bulb.  But it'd be do-able.  Then just find a place to mount two more ballasts.

Working with standard bulbs, however, there aren't a lot of options.  Perhaps the easiest might be going to the HDI section at the bottom of the parts breakdown page for our bikes.  The international lights used to meet European requirements are better than what DOT makes HD give us.  So swapping to international housings and bulbs could be relatively easy alternative to try.

[Chief]

Chuck, there are 881 HID kits.  I was going to do just that before someone liberated the light kit from my garage.  You'd have to open up the brackets and light standard to allow passing two wires rather than one directly from the inside of the fairing to the bulb.  But it'd be do-able.  Then just find a place to mount two more ballasts.

Working with standard bulbs, however, there aren't a lot of options.  Perhaps the easiest might be going to the HDI section at the bottom of the parts breakdown page for our bikes.  The international lights used to meet European requirements are better than what DOT makes HD give us.  So swapping to international housings and bulbs could be relatively easy alternative to try.

I remember reading all of the permutations of bulb swaps, Luminics etc., and was hoping there was an easy bulb swap to improve them. Some improvement should be easy.

I can't imagine what that thing would be like with 4 HID bulbs running. It would be interesting to see tho. Is there a limit to how far you can extend the leads downstream of the ballasts?

[Twolanerider]

I remember reading all of the permutations of bulb swaps, Luminics etc., and was hoping there was an easy bulb swap to improve them. Some improvement should be easy.

I can't imagine what that thing would be like with 4 HID bulbs running. It would be interesting to see tho. Is there a limit to how far you can extend the leads downstream of the ballasts?

Don't know what the effective limit might be to in any way impact on the digital ballast.   But I do know they'd work in our environment. 

I tried a chassis ground scenario to avoid having to pull the second home run and, therefore, having to open up the holes in the brackets/mounts to allow for the second wire.  They fired, but flickered.  Then made the connections that would be used and wired it all up loose without actually installing it through the bike.  That worked fine.

Then set it all aside to actually finish the install the next night.  Set the light kit parts back in their box for safe keeping and planned ahead for the next evening.  It was during that next day that the garage got broke in to though.  So never got to button it up.  At that point I bailed.  Plugged the original connectors back together inside the fairing, put the fairing back on, and decided I liked it the way it is just fine (at least for now). 

[naitram]

do you guys have halogen style plugs in the spots? just noticed the 881 reference

[Twolanerider]

do you guys have halogen style plugs in the spots? just noticed the 881 reference

Neal, HD has five or six different auxiliary optics housings for the spotlights (for domestic consumption).  I think there are three different bulb options among them if memory serves me correctly.  The plugs that terminate inside the housings are universal though. Just a couple of spade terminals; one hooked right to the chrome housing for a common and the other back to source in the headlight harness.  They mate to those spade terminal with appropriate pigtails off the various bulbs.

[erniezap]

I'm running 5800k halogens in my spots and they are still VERY yellow compared to the HID headlight...

[Boatman]

Hope this helps someone who will be doing the HID install themselves.  It is not a hard job, just laying everything out under the fairing for placement of wiring and components.  I thought I had the job done right the 1st time with a nice install but lost my AM radio reception with radio noise.  Most people probably don't even use AM but I listen to it going/coming to work.  Had the fairing off 3 more times (could use a Zipper), kept moving components until the radio noise problem was solved.  I had mounted the ballast on the supplied bracket and mounted to the RH radio speaker/fairing brace and one of the relays tie strapped to the same brace.  THIS is is where I SCREWED up-I placed the cylindrical excitor that comes off the ballast by the RH side of the radio.  The further I moved it from the radio, the better.  Ended up doing away with the metal ballast bracket and self adhesived the ballast to the RH inner fairing-figured I would keep it off of metal too.  I originally laid the cylindrical excitor next to the radio as it laid in there nicely and the leads off it easily reached the back of the headlight plugs.  Now it is zip tied on the RH side bottom fairing to a wire harness as close to the bulb as I could get it so the leads would work.

So, if you've read this far, my tips to potential installers would be:

1) keep all the headlight components as far from the radio as possible.

2) remove the headlight assy when the fairing is in place and look the situation over inside so wires/components are placed properly.

Thanks to Jim for his help & Don for his pictures/help.

Now all I need is some nightime riding (and now the days are getting longer).   

[Chief]

Hope this helps someone who will be doing the HID install themselves.  It is not a hard job, just laying everything out under the fairing for placement of wiring and components.  I thought I had the job done right the 1st time with a nice install but lost my AM radio reception with radio noise.  Most people probably don't even use AM but I listen to it going/coming to work.  Had the fairing off 3 more times (could use a Zipper), kept moving components until the radio noise problem was solved.  I had mounted the ballast on the supplied bracket and mounted to the RH radio speaker/fairing brace and one of the relays tie strapped to the same brace.  THIS is is where I SCREWED up-I placed the cylindrical excitor that comes off the ballast by the RH side of the radio.  The further I moved it from the radio, the better.  Ended up doing away with the metal ballast bracket and self adhesived the ballast to the RH inner fairing-figured I would keep it off of metal too.  I originally laid the cylindrical excitor next to the radio as it laid in there nicely and the leads off it easily reached the back of the headlight plugs.  Now it is zip tied on the RH side bottom fairing to a wire harness as close to the bulb as I could get it so the leads would work.

So, if you've read this far, my tips to potential installers would be:

1) keep all the headlight components as far from the radio as possible.

2) remove the headlight assy when the fairing is in place and look the situation over inside so wires/components are placed properly.

Thanks to Jim for his help & Don for his pictures/help.

Now all I need is some nightime riding (and now the days are getting longer).   

BM,

How about pulling the fairing ONE MORE TIME and shooting some pics where you have the components. I too am picking up the interference. I have the round units strapped to parts of the harness where the cables worked well. Looks, and sounds, like a no-no.

 

[Twolanerider]

Mine are strapped down to harnesses on each side of the radio also.  No interference here though.  I think I just go so much stuff stuck inside the fairing that it all absorbs all forms of energy that pass inside  .

[hd-dude]

I'm doing an install this afternoon on an SEUC, I'll snap some photo's of where stuff ends up.

[Chief]

Mine are strapped down to harnesses on each side of the radio also.  No interference here though.  I think I just go so much stuff stuck inside the fairing that it all absorbs all forms of energy that pass inside  .

Sounds like you've created a self-contained black hole.