Headlight Relay Mod Atari notification by pass thread

Hello,

I intend to do relay bypass on my headlight as im only getting 6v to it under load. in searching i found that this will trip the headlight warning on the atari and the high beam indicator will always be on?

this is a thread about bypassing some of that, is this the only thread on the subject? have others done it and was it an accurate mod?

ideally i want to power my headlight via relay while still keeping the atari happy (or at least off) and the high beam indicator to work.

https://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/...ss-and-high-indicator-pics.38079/#post-332308

 

Why not just solve the problem of 6 volts getting to the headlight, that is way below normal? Have you installed a higher wattage bulb? Have you replaced the fuse block? The original fuse blocks tend to break and develop high resistance that causes voltage drop.

You can get a brighter light with a relay mod that bypasses all the other switches, wiring, Atari, but it gets kind of messy and you give up a fairly nice safety feature

The thread you referenced should work. There are some wording issues where he says to jumper the coil, but (hard to tell from blurry pics) the jumper actually should be installed across the reed relay contact. It appears he used a large gauge wire for that, and really a small 28 gauge wire would suffice and keep it neater.

 

its 6v underload full battery voltage without load. so I have some wiring there that cant carry load. I have previously replaced the fuse box with bade style years ago.

I have successfully installed the relay mod and a lovely bright light now. I did take the gauges apart and bridged the 2 coils mentioned in the other thread. I did use small gauge wire on the back side of the board as it was neater.

that solves the headlight check issue. it still checks for headlight at startup but it forces it to pass so no warning light.

the high beam indicator lamp though also needs re wiring to work when doing relays. that is what i found slightly confusing in the other thread. and maybe i can clarify what was done. the high beam indicator bulb has green wire and yellow wire, as its a regular bulb it doesnt matter what is positive and negative. cut those yellow and green wires several inches from the bulb. to leave enough slack to reach the factory headlight bulb harness from the gauge cluster. to remind you the stock headlight socket comes from the gauge cluster, yellow green, green red, black ground (at least on an 82 750 maxim). Take the yellow from the indicator bulb and side splice into the yellow/green of the headlight socket. that is the high beam positive. then take the green from the indicator bulb and side splice into the black of the headlight socket, that is the ground. you have just made a super simple circuit, when high beam is selected the indicator bulb will light up bright.

it was not difficult to do and i think worth giving up the bulb check to not have the annoying warning light to clear every startup. for me with my fairing it was more annoying as i have to take that off. but on a stock bike no big deal to pull gauges and do the mod and its reversable.