The Headlight on my 1983 XJ750 just isn't cutting it. It's real dim and my eyes aren't that good so I have a tough time seeing at night. Has anyone had any luck with a specific aftermarket product for replacing the headlight. Do I need to test to make sure that enough power is getting to the light before I replace anything. And what about auxiliary driving lights? Can the charging system on a bike that old handle the extra load? Any tips or extra suggestions would be fantastic, Thanks a lot.

Get some electrical contact cleaner. Clean every connection in the harness related to the headlight system. Happened on my XS 11. Dirty pins on the plug into the fairing. Cleaned it up, seriously brightened the light.

Thanks a lot, I'll start with that.

One thing that I did on my 81 750 Seca was to clean the headlight reflector using mild detergent followed by a gentle wipe using lens tissue.
This increased the projected beam a lot.


Milton Mike

After you clean the contacts and the reflector, get a Sylvania SilverStar bulb (H4 or #9003). If you have the little auxiliary light, replace that bulb with a SilverStar H3 (20w brighter than stock). The aux light is a spot beam, but you can replace it with any standard 3"x5" aftermarket fog/driving light if you want a better beam pattern.

The SilverStar bulbs are great.. It's a very white light, compared to the yellowish color of stock bulbs. The whiter light is a lot easier on your eyes, and lets you see better. The light appears brighter, but it's actually the same wattage. Stay away from "HyperWhite", "Xenon HID", and any of those other "Fake HID" bulbs. The output on these bulbs is more in the blue end of the spectrum, and aside from being illegal, the bluer they are the lower the "perceived" light output.

Matt

J P Cycles has a conversion kit to change from a standard bulb to a h series replacement bulb. The h series are much brighter than standard and a lot easier to find. The charging system on xj's are not tthat great and it is not usually recomended to add a lot of extra light fixtures to it.

XJ's with the square headlight already use an H series (H4, AKA 9003) bulb and composite reflector.. No conversion necessary.. B) Round conversions are available, but caveat emptor.. The cheap ones are generally made of cheap plastic (which will cloud and turn yellow rather quickly), and the reflector is a sprayed on chrome finish, not unlike the sealed beams you are replacing.. A good conversion set is going to have an all- glass shell (glass lens with a polycarbonate body is good too), and a molded metal reflector. "Diamond Cut" reflectors typically give the best beam pattern, but are among the most expensive. Also look for a DOT approval, so you don't fail inspection.