82 XS400J Custom Headlight / HID Xenon Question

Hey there folks. So I have a 82 Maxim 400 XS400J with a big round headlight. It's currently a sealed setup, and I am thinking about replacing it with something more efficient. In particular, I am thinking about getting a 7" Hummer round projector headlight, and then fit/install a H1 HID kit into it. I have a H1 6000K kit on hand, and I found the projector headlights on ebay for cheap:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT


I'm quite confident I can get that headlight mounted in my factory mount, but my main concern is electrical load. Can anyone suggest if this is going to be harder on the bikes electrical system? I have read that HID systems can work at lower voltages, but just think that maybe I'm overlooking something.

Thanks everyone!

 

There's a good thread in hererecently about headlights, just did a quick peek without success....

Not a lot of spare room for higher wattage bulbs.... so try to stick with a 65 watt max for your highbeam ( stock was 50/40 for the Maxim, 65/60 for the Seca)

Hmmm wonder why the Seca's got a brighter bulb, maybe the Round vs Rectangle sealed beams at the time?

 

I did a Hi/Lo HID Xenon upgrade to my 750 Seca using the stock lamp. I had to make a few mods to the bulb lip, it was made out of thicker plastic instead of metal and I still need to some how make a reflector to go infront of the bulb. You just have to find somewhere to mount the ballasts. It will draw more power, I've only notice it dimming with the brake & turn light both going while stopped @ low rpm's.

 

JayEye
Here’s a link to MAYBE get your bulb capped.
http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/StoreFront

Here’s their email. sales@retro-solutions.com , my contact was Todd.
I used this co. when I upgraded my wife’s car to HID’s.
If you contact them you might mention that a Ford Edge forum member referred you.

IF I ever get the chance to upgrade the SECA to round headlight/s I’ll be ordering one of these.
http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/Categories
ab

 

Dustinb,
I have a pair of those in my Honda Accord (same only square ones) and they aren't all that much better. The light pattern is in streaks and not much brighter than the old Halogen sealed beams that were in there before. Infact I may take them out and go back to the Halogen sealed beams I had in there before.
They might be better on your bike if your upgrading from a non-Halogen sealed beam however. Atleast they are cheap enough to experiment with.

 

If anyone is interested, Hummer H1 bulbs fit perfectly into our housing, and the H4 bulb is completely plug and play.

 

Here's a picture of the bulbs installed in the XS400 housing:

 

On mine, I'm thinking about taking it apart and taking out the magnifying glass that's in there. It seems to be screwing up the headlight pattern somewhat and would probably be better without it. They are just riveted in there and the glass is glued on, so it doesn't look too hard to get them apart.
The bulbs are 65-100w, so they are plenty bright.

 

HID (Xenon) lamps draw less current and run cooler than halogen lamps. There is a very short period of time where they draw a little more current. This occurs when the ignitor initially fires the lamp. Again, this occurs for only a short period of time usually 1 to 2 seconds and the extra current draw is minimal.

Now then, DO NOT USE A 65 W HID LAMP FOR LOW BEAM. It will be un-usable due to the amount of light they throw. I converted my BMW's halogen low beam with a 35 W 5000 degree(*) Kelvin HID system and the light output is amazing. The original halogen was much higher wattage. The halogen high beam lamp is 100W and I will replace it with a 55W. I'm serious here. I can see the light from the 35W lamp refllect off roadside signs in broad daylight. Not making this up.

Do not go higher than 5000* Kelvin in color as the higher the color temperature the less USABLE light you will get from the lamp. 6,000 to 10,000*K lamps look cool (blue to purple) but you can't see with them at night. In addition John Law will likely pull you over because of the color. I read a post yesterday in the BMW forum I frequent where a member failed his annual safety inspection in New Jersey because his 5000*K lights were "too white". If he had ordered a 4300* K kit he would have been fine. 4300* K is the same color as halogen/incandescent lamps. Another member converted to 8000* K lamps and he can see only 15 feet down the road. The solution? He only has one option and that is to purchase new lamps either 4300 or 5000*K.

The best place to get HID is from www.ddmtuning.com. Go to the motorcycle tab. When I converted my low beam 8 mos ago the kit was just under $50 delivered to my door and the price has dropped since then.

You can also get a kit from them that has a high/low beam lamp. Not sure how this works as there are no "filaments" in these lamps. I think they use a mechanism to physically move the lamp further into the housing

If you find a compatible headlight housing that will accommodate 2 lamps make sure that your low beam stays on when you switch to high beam. HID lights do not reach their full brightness for 1 to 3 seconds after the ignitor fires the lamp. In the meantime it would get pretty dark.

If you can swing the cost of the lamp housing and the HID kit do it. It makes an unbelievable difference.

Hope this helps.

Loren

 

I agree about the 35W being plenty bright.
I put 55W’s in my wife’s MKX, because the currant draw using 35W makes the car think it has burned out bulbs and lights the burned out lamp indicator on the dash.

The 55W’s are too bright.


Two negitive things about using HID for high beam.
You lose the flash to pass feature
and
It will be very dark for that 1 to 2 seconds while the high beam HID's start.
“This occurs when the ignitor initially fires the lamp. Again, this occurs for only a short period of time usually 1 to 2 seconds”

albran

 

Actually most HID HI/LO kits use a single stage bulb which moves magnetically up and down when it sees the high beam line power up. So there is no black out period, just when the HID kit initially starts.

I'm just going to use the standard H4 bulb, and not go HID.

 

I installed the HI/LO bulb kit on my seca from ddmtuning and it works great under one condition... the bike has to be at full running temp before the light will stay on. for at least the first ten minutes after I start the bike if I rev over 1500 the light goes out, comes right back on when the rpm's fall and as it gets warmer it takes a little higher rpm before it goes out.

Wondered if anyone else had this problem and if you fixed it??
Also wondered if anyone could explain why this is happening?? I'm thinking the ignition is pulling too much power at this stage and not leaving enough for the HID ballast to ignite the light.

 

Check your battery voltage. The battery will need a good voltage in order for the ignitor to light the lamp. Once lit it should stay lit as long as the battery voltage is 12V or better.

Make sure your ground is good.

If you still are having a problem then the bulb is bad. Call DDM support and tell them the lamp goes on and off and they will send you a new one. They are warrantied for life.

This is the first failure I've heard about with a DDM system.

Loren

 

Thanks for the reply Loren, I have checked the battery voltage and a full 12v is there. and all grounds have no resistance through my multimeter. I however do not think my bulbs are bad because I installed the 55w HI/LO for the main headlight and a 35w for aux lamp and both shut off at the same time so I want to rule out any posibilities of the 28 year old bike being the problems before I say its the brand new lights, like loren said its the first he's heard of a posible failure in a DDM system.

When I do the charging system check as described in the haynes manual I find about 15.0v at the battery when I rev the engine to 2000rpm when i should have between 14.2 and 14.8 If I rev higher the voltage goes higher. could my voltage regulator be going bad and sending too much power to everything including my new HID's which posibly have a high voltage fault cut-off??????

(I have also bypassed the headlight relay to rule that out) Thanks for any help someone might have. I currently have the stock headlight installed to get me on the road for now and that seems to be working fine.