Headlight not working

etak · Post by **etak** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:03 pm

I'm on a scooter vacation, on my 2007 Buddy, and am currently in the White Mtns in NH. My husband and I have ridden about 1500 miles since we left Brooklyn. 2 days ago, I noticed my headlight was not working. On the advice of the innkeeper, yesterday we brought it across the road to a mechanic who works on just about everything.

He decided it was the bulb, and by the end of the day had been able to get a bulb and replace it. He billed for 2 1/2 hrs labor, saying he checked all the wiring to make sure it was not due to anything else. He noted that the light itself (don't know what it's called - the glass front and silver back) was loose as one of the tabs was missing. I had been aware of this but it was like that since before I left Brooklyn. He had been able to make it fit more securely.

We went for a ride and it couldn't have been more than a 1/2 hour when my husband notice the light was out.

So this morning I brought it back and his 1st thought was that it was because of the loose light fixture. But that doesn't make sense, does it?

Any ideas? He has it now.

Kate

So we went for a ride, and at some point my husband realized my light was out. Couldn't have been more than 1/2 an hr.

easy · Post by **easy** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:13 pm

check see how many volts you got going to the headlight with the scooter running sounds like it could be overcharging

etak · Post by **etak** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:39 pm

easy wrote:check see how many volts you got going to the headlight with the scooter running sounds like it could be overcharging

Meaning he could have put in the wrong bulb?

PeteH · Post by **PeteH** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:11 pm

No, not the wrong bulb necessarily, but if for some reason your voltage regulator has failed and is delivering voltage > 15 volts or so, this could zorch the bulb. This voltage can be checked at the battery - see what the voltage is at idle and at 'street' rpms (with the scoot carefully on the center stand with the wheel off the ground, preferably with a helper holding the front wheel down, just in case). Overcharging, though, usually hits other systems first, like cooking the battery itself, making the scoot hard/impossible to electric-start. Measure it with a DC voltmeter and see.

Another possibility from your story, pointed out sorta by the mechanic, is that if your bulb housing (front lens and reflector) is loose in the headset, it could be vibrating and getting bounced by the road irregularities, and the bulb filament could break.

etak · Post by **etak** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:51 pm

PeteH wrote:No, not the wrong bulb necessarily, but if for some reason your voltage regulator has failed and is delivering voltage > 15 volts or so, this could zorch the bulb. This voltage can be checked at the battery - see what the voltage is at idle and at 'street' rpms (with the scoot carefully on the center stand with the wheel off the ground, preferably with a helper holding the front wheel down, just in case). Overcharging, though, usually hits other systems first, like cooking the battery itself, making the scoot hard/impossible to electric-start. Measure it with a DC voltmeter and see.

Another possibility from your story, pointed out sorta by the mechanic, is that if your bulb housing (front lens and reflector) is loose in the headset, it could be vibrating and getting bounced by the road irregularities, and the bulb filament could break.

Thanks. I mentioned the overcharging possibility to the mechanic, but he appeared skeptical. The vibration theory makes sense, but the mechanic did manage to get the bulb housing in better than it was previously, and I'd only been riding it, at the most for 20 miles before we noticed the new bulb was out.

Post by **ericalm** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:52 pm

Both issues are possibilities.

The overcharging/too much juice issue is easily checked with a voltage meter. It should be around 12v, possibly higher when revving, but as noted earlier 15v can kill a light.

etak · Post by **etak** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:44 am

Thanks for your help. It's still not clear what the problem was, but they said that the reason the new bulb blew was because of an electrical problem which resulted in one of the plugs (?) in the unit that the bulb is inserted into burning out. However , they (mechanic & owner) insisted that it was pure coincidence that this happened immediately after the scooter was "fixed" yesterday. Anyway, I ended up with my money back, the wire fixed, and a new bulb housing. (But no headlight. I'll be home Saturday and will deal w/ it then.)