Headlight testing (no low beam)...

In an ironic turn of events my new light started shaking something mad when I started the bike. It was like the element was loose or something.

I rode it once to work and back and it killed the low beam. Took it back to Autozone today and they swapped it for free. The new one is much better, but still has a bit of vibration at certain rpms (which I consider normal).

If this one dies I will order one from Jeff and see if that one is any better.

are your mounting bolts tight?they normally shake a little!goodluck,happy wrenching!

My head light did the same thing when it burned out at night going home. I had to ride all the way home with my emergency flashers on. :S

If you need to buy an H4 bulb for your bike, the autoparts store sells Heavy Duty bulbs I think. The comment about China was pretty much on the mark. I bought six "high power" bulbs from JC Whitney awhile back. I think they are 80/55W. On the high beam, it looked like I was holding a candle out front. The light was yellow and diffuse. You couldn't see squat. The 55W low beam was actually brighter as it was somewhat more focused but still scared me to ride with one of those bulbs. I still have them I think somewhere. I went to the autoparts store and bought a car bulb that is supposed to be ultra-white and put out more power at the same wattage and it is certainly much brighter than the JCW bulb. I won't say it was US made but it was a GE or Phillips or something and at least held to some quality standards. I have at least a dozen spare H4 bulbs in my spares.

just put a new halogen headlight in my bike found at
local auto parts store cheap but if you want a real bright light that might use less amps check out xesighting.com for HID lights, (very expensive)

Do H4 bulbs come in a sealed beam unit, or do you need to buy a headlight bucket to switch over from the stock setup?

I replaced my h4 with a hologen bulb from sylvania when i get home i'll get the part # the only thing i noticed was the back side of bulb was a little larger but it still fit in the bucket, not as much room for all the wires but it still worked

it is a GE bulb # H6024 it has the same mounting lugs for correct fit

Chet, The H4 bulb is a FORMAT... it is a plug in bulb that doesn't work in a sealed beam unit. You MUST buy a bulb holder and this usually comes in a kit. The reflector/bulb holder and a wiring harness to connect to your in-headlight shell harness. You can get these from many places like z1enterprises.com or JC Whitney; etc. The sealed beam was limited to lower wattage values where you can put in any bulb in an H4 system that the wiring / fused circuit will allow. The H4 systems are available on eBay all the time.

Thanks for the explanation George. Sorry if it's a bit of a highjack, but hopefully it's relevant to the original poster too!

If in doubt, don't hesitate to start a new thread with a well thought out subject line. It helps for folks who are searching. If a thread starts as a bad low beam and gets to be sealed beam vs H4, then a searcher is not likely to benefit. Good lesson for us all as I have jacked more threads than most bwhahaha