Easy install HID headlight

Managed to find one of these 7" HID dot approved headlights used, they are marketed for harleys and yamaha road star, but are easy to adapt



The light spreads twice as far and twice as wide as halogen which can't be a bad thing :lol:


Step 1- install in the headlight ring, it's an easy fit, and the stock springs hold it in perfectly



It will not fit in a stock lucas bucket without a little modification- it's about an inch too long so I removed the rubber plug on the back, and it fits


bend the flasher tabs back or remove the bracket, (note my mk3 does not have the warning lights in the shell) It would probably still fit though if you have an older style.

Trim the rubber plug in the back so it's shorter, and reinstall


the ballast, note it comes with a hard plastic protective case


the wiring- 2 big plugs to the ballast, and 3 spades to connect in your previous headlight socket- (made for dummies), if you already have a socket just cut it off and attach bullets of the appropriate spades.


I'm going to seal the rubber plug where I had cut it.

The kit was designed to fit the ballast in the headlamp also, but there is not enough room. Since it's the same size as a boyer I figured it'd be easy to mount under the top frame rail in the same place. As the ballast was meant to be fit close the wire from the bulb to the ballast will need to be extended or replaced with a longer one.

Up to you if you fit a relay(s) or not. As it barely takes any energy I'm probably not even going to bother.

All in all pretty easy. More expensive than the kits, but you don't have to mess around with cutting a reflector and finding a way to hold the bulb in place and aimed properly. Good deal if you can find one on sale or used.

What's the actual power draw?

SOUNDS good based on their advertising but the ability to light up the road more than 2x as far as the halogen light AND be legal AND not require more power than the bike has available sounds impossible to me. But hey, if it really works, that's a great thing. It would be neat if you could do a test with the old light/new light at night and measure the actual difference in the distance that some non-reflective object is visible at the same apparent brightness.

Power draw would be helpful too...

12 volts 35 watts. I guess current would be around 3A? (As far as the power equation.) It doesn't give the actual specs. It just says 47% less current draw in the manual.

Have you actually tried it out on the road at night? If so please give a report, if not report back when you have a good account of it's lighting abilities.

No, I still need to get or make the longer cable and some rubber sealant. I will post up some night time pics when I get it finished.

The reason I shelled out for this is I had the equivalent of cataract surgery about 3 years ago. I didn't have cataracts, but I was going blind. They put some ICL's (implantable contact lenses) in my eyes. It fixed my vision, but sometimes I get glare at night. The brighter the better for me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7-ROUND- ... ccessories

This looks interesting, good price for a pair. Can convert both bikes for$80.00

Also found these, looks interesting.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Car-Xenon-Front-H ... 1c15693184

If they come in pairs only, I'll split a set with someone.

^
You have that other person

interesting!....anyone know if these will work w/ positive ground? (am curious because one of the new LED headlights will not)

All LEDs are polarity sensitive. Somewhere I saw some configured for positive ground. I can't say for sure, but I'd bet HIDs, the box anyway, works with negative ground only. If the box is nonconductive it doesn't matter what polarity the ground is. Just wire negative to negative, positive to positive. I'm thinking the box supplies power to the bulb, so that shouldn't present a problem. I think it's a whole lot less confusing to just change the old gal to negative ground, then everything will plug and play.

been wanting to update, but so far I've been unable to find a longer cable. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement! :twisted:
I've found part numbers on the manufacturers website, but every time I email or call I'm directed to somewhere else. I've contacted sylvania, valeo sylvania, osram, xsighting lighting (another sylvania company) and all the dealers they supplied. You can buy the bulbs and the ballasts all over the place, but it seems no one sells the cables.

pelican said:

been wanting to update, but so far I've been unable to find a longer cable. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement! :twisted:
I've found part numbers on the manufacturers website, but every time I email or call I'm directed to somewhere else. I've contacted sylvania, valeo sylvania, osram, xsighting lighting (another sylvania company) and all the dealers they supplied. You can buy the bulbs and the ballasts all over the place, but it seems no one sells the cables.

Click to expand...

I don't know if they are universal or if there is an industry standard plug.

http://www.motorcyclehidlights.com/hid- ... ires-p-519

thanks, not the right kind though. There's I think 4 different kinds of cables. The ones I need are the kind in oem cars like audi and escalade.

The problem is there is too many divisions of the same company. Sylvania, valeo/sylvania, osram/sylvania, and xsighting lighting. Osram makes the stuff, but is european- they say contact sylvania US. Call sylvania and they say to call xsighting lighting. Xsighting lighting don't even answer their phone. It's an automatic voicemail that directs you to 3 distributors. One distributor doesn't carry them, the second doesn't want to order them, and the third has a very bad rep. I ordered a cable from the third, but they do not give order updates/won't respond to simple emails like how long does it usually take. Been a few weeks and think they stole my money :cry:

May have to snag one at a junkyard or something

pelican said:

12 volts 35 watts. I guess current would be around 3A? (As far as the power equation.) It doesn't give the actual specs. It just says 47% less current draw in the manual.

Click to expand...

Yes 35 w draw but I think they need a lot more (don't know how much) during a brief moment at start up. I would use a relay.

yes, my friend has one he says it'll draw up to 9 or 10A when it first starts up, but is only for a a brief time- less than 1 second

ok, a guy hooked me up with a cable. His company uses them to manufacture lighting systems. Apparently you can't buy them retail. Should be here next week sometime.

On the 75mk3 is the dip button a momentary switch or latching? I didn't use it before selling my original control

Man, I figured buying a DOT approved headlight would be the easier way, but I guess not.
I ordered 3 cables from 3 different places- all of them wrong- I'm out about $50

First guy said it was 16" when it arrived it was only 11" which is 2" shorter than the original


Second one measures 2" longer than original but because of the straight fitting on the end and having the wire come out the bottom of our headlight bucket it equals about the same length


Third one- finally received a longer one but has the wrong fitting on the end




All in all I guess I'll keep searching. I would just swap the fittings, but they are clamped on in a way that makes them permanent.

One thing to note-----
the reason I chose this system is because all of the high voltage is in the actual headlight shell


If you buy one of the kits off ebay - they use a different system where the high voltage is actually transferred through the wire. We're talking about 20kV (20,000 volts) :shock: so be careful

Is the cable simply a wire that can be cut and extended? Solder, heatshrink, etc?

I'd be suprised if that thing would fit into an older Lucas shell with the toggle switch and indicator lights.

I'm not sure what's actually inside the sheath. The connector is a 4 pin connector and then it's crimped on permanently. Not sure about the toggle switch and indicator lights because my mk3 doesn't have that. They might fit, but the normal rat's nest of wires- no way. I'll take some more pics including the connector and see what you guys think.