Headlight relay, now lost high beam indicator?

Ok, I got tired of my dim/sometimes not working headlights and wired in two relays for low and high yesterday, and the day before, but I didn't like what I did the first day, so re-did it.

I did quite a bit of searching and reading on here, but not finding this problem.

Basically what I did, 12 gauge wire from positive battery terminal to relays, then from relays to socket(with an in-line fuse) And 12 gauge ground wire from negative terminal to relays and socket. (Per diagram on another site, that recommends not using the provided ground at the light, to prevent flickering, or something)

Using the old wires that used to go to the socket to flip the relay only, as usual. (one expected bonus, instrument lights now much brighter, since that circuit has a lot lower load now)

Seems to work great, measured 11.7 volts across battery terminals with my multi-meter(battery was a little low from a lot of turning it on and off testing things, when I started it was over 12) and measured 11.71 at the headlight socket(yes, I gained .01 volts point is, I'm losing very little voltage getting to headlight, as intended.

Problem is this, my highbeam indicator, the little blue light, now seems to be very very dim, or maybe not coming on at all. Also, the low beam not as bright as I think it was when I just ran a hot wire to it, to see how bright was possible(it's a Silvania Silver Star)

I'm still tinkering with it, was a bigger pain than I expected doing all that soldering, so hopefully I'll find that I wired something poorly, or wrong, wouldn't surprise me, especially at the relays, it's not as pretty as I'd like, but should be making good contact, and the voltage seems to verify that(within the limits of my meter)

Sorry for all the words, just wondering if people have had similar problems and what are the normal kinks to work out for this mod. My high beam is BRIGHT now, though, so I like that

 

first thing is check the bulb, then that the bulb has a ground, then that the H4 socket is wired right.
another handy thing to have is a connector on the ground wire to the light so you can unplug it and do other things on the bike without the headlight coming on and running down the battery.
does the warning light flash and the lights lcd stay on?

 

Ok, thanks, Pol, I did check it earlier, but farting with it for days, it seems problem one was at the socket, I had ground going into high and high into ground, duh. That is fixed. Second issue, I think, is how I split the ground from the battery. I had it split going to the two relays and the socket, like before the relays. I changed it to neg battery terminal => relay for high => relay for low => socket, which is how I meant to do it, following the plans from this site: http://www.ebbo.org/headlamp_relays.php

My question is, should I maybe use the ground that was going into the socket before, and if so where, maybe into the low relay? I think ground is ground, but I'm still getting both filaments lighting up, now that I think I "fixed it" and no high indicator. Though still bright as hell, even on low, now.

And yes, I get a "head" warning, but I'm under the impression that that's gonna happen with relays no matter what, am I wrong?

 

look at the socket, high and ground reversed ?

 

That's what I tried to say before. I HAD high and ground reversed. I fixed that, socket is right, I'm positive. Top is low beam, left is ground, right is high, when you are looking at where the wires go in.

I forgot to mention the first time. The first time I hooked it up, high worked fine, low was lighting up BOTH filaments, just dimly.

NOW, low works fine, aside from computer warning, but when you switch to high, BOTH filaments light up very bright. I tested at socket, have voltage at both high and low, for some reason. It's like when you switch to high that low relay isn't turning off, I can feel and hear them click on and off when they work.

Like if I turn the key on and off, the low relay clicks, and if I flick high switch, the other one clicks on and off. What DOESN'T happen is the low beam relay clicking off when the high beam switch is thrown. Both filaments on high is a no go.

 

Ok, further research: I unplugged the green/red wire from the relay(this is the low beam power) and tested it. Guess what? There is voltage coming out of it even when the high beams are on. This is annoying, because I know it wasn't doing that before. The first time it was shutting off the low beam when I switched to high, but lighting both filaments on low(due to ground run into high on socket, I'm sure)

Now Low beam works fine, but when you switch to high, the low beam is still being powered. I checked the dimmer switch, seems fine, and it *is* working, turning high on and off, but the computer seems to want to send power to the low (green/red) output.

HELP! I need to get this sorted.

 

Draw the slots like the bulb has, now draw the filaments,
The right side vertical has L and H, horizontal has L, left has H. Right side with two connections is ground.
If you put + on the low horizontal and ground on the left both filaments light half bright.
Swap the two vertical wires H and G

 

AHHHH! Sorry, I'm getting frustrated. I'm not yelling at you, I just feel that I'm not being understood.

THAT, Polock was the very first thing I fixed. I DO NOT have both filaments light up half bright. I did before, now I don't because I swapped the "two vertical wires H and G"

What I have is one good filament low, TWO BRIGHT filaments HIGH.

That being said, I don't really follow part of what you said, "right side vertical has L and H?" You mean ground? Mine doesn't have two connections at any point on the socket. It has a black wire (ground) a yellow and something wire (high) and a green/red wire low. Each going into it's own terminal.

The problem is not at the socket, I took the socket and relays OUT of the circuit to check for voltage at the low beam positive wire(green/red), which gets power no matter what you do with the dimmer switch, that's the problem, currently. That relay that sends power to the bulb WILL NOT turn off if the green/red wire running into it has power. That wire should go cold when the high beams come on, as I understand it.

 

this is what you need, the #'s 85 and 86 can be swapped and #'s
87 and 30 can be swapped it don't matter.
remember that high beam indicator light, take it out of the socket, it's powering the relay through the bulb

 

Yeah, that's how I have it, but that wire you have labelled "G/Low" coming out of the Atari, going into terminal 86 on the top relay... It has to turn off for that relay to turn off, and it isn't doing it, and it isn't my wiring, because I cut that wire off the relay and it still registers 12 volts when the HIGH beam is on, no idea why.

So what makes that wire go cold, the switch or the computer? If it's the computer...I dunno, if it's mechanical then I can probably get it to work. Unless you are saying...the high beam indicator is powering the low beam relay through the bulb? That's weird, especially since it doesn't even light up, now. I'll pull it out, see if it stops powering that green wire when I switch it to high beam.

 

Ok, finally. It was the high beam indicator, nobody told me (before Polock) that you have to pull the bulb from the high beam indicator, or else you keep getting voltage at the low beam wire, powering the relay.

I've stared at the wiring diagram a lot, but still am not sure why that is...but anyway, I'm gonna re-wire the high beam indicator so it just runs of the high beam wire, as it should, not going anywhere near the low beam. But I can't allow no high beam indicator on my bike, my OCD.

Now I get the low relay ONLY on low beam powering ONE filament and the high beam relay ONLY on high beam powering the other filament, as it is supposed to work. pics soon, or maybe video.

Light is super awesome now, high and low, 12 gauge wire all the way from the battery to the bulb with no bottlenecks or computer nonsense really makes a difference. Now to get that "head" warning off.

 

that "head" warning isn't going to be easy, i thought about disabling it inside the speedo case, then i came to my senses and just lived with it

 

The high beam indicator shouldn't be that hard, It won't have anything to do with the actual dimmer switch or atari, I just plan to power the bulb off the high beam wire going into the relay, then back into ground. In other words, putting it in parallel with it, and leaving the low beam circuit separate, I'll post a video this weekend if I get it to work.

But the "HEAD" warning, yeah, that is a problem, no idea on that one, as of yet, I did pull the warning bulb, which I meant to do anyway. There should be some way to bypass is though, running a wire into the computer with a voltage on it, or something.

I haven't seen anybody solve it yet, though, it would be nice to have it not only turn off, but be functional, like my "BATT" bypass. Which just started up the other day, turns out battery needed water, so not enough voltage getting around, but that's another story.