Having issues w/ headlight in fairing

Hello all! Alright, here's the prob I'm having... First off, 78 kz650. The round light on the bike worked properly, however when I put the quicksilver night stalker fairing on, I found the bulb to be dimmer than it should. The bike isn't giving me any other issues. Starts fine, signals work fine, no odd dimming or anything. I haven't gone whole hog yet as to completely going thru every piece of wiring on the fairing yet, but I was kinda hoping for some thoughts as to what it might be and where to start. The bulb is brand new, sealed beam h6054/2b1. ( that's what was in the fairing to begin w/.) Dunno if that's not the right one for the fairing/bike as info about that fairing isn't easy to find online I've found. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thankfully it's still bright enough for riding. But it isn't as bright as it should be.

Thanx guys!

Can you access the three prong connector that plugs into the headlight bulb? The ground wire should be BLACK with YELLOW stripe. The high and low beam circuits will be two other colors.You'll need a multimeter to read the voltages.

Radio shack stores sell a good cheap meter as does Sears or any good electronic store. You don't need all the bells and whistles, just a meter that checks voltages(A.C. and D.C. and resistances).

I purchased a good digital multimeter from Home Depot many years ago that's held up pretty well

If the tested voltages are low, look for a bad ground first, then check the left handlebar switch for the high/low switch. These switches and connectors get corrosion or dirt in them and can become intermittant.

www.deoxit.com is the website for a really good electrical contact cleaner/preservative I've been using on my bike for many years. I highly recommend it!

Here is a link to the Craig Vetter website, not sure if it will help but it does have wiring diagrams.

craigvetter.com/pages/Vetter_Fairings/Vetter-Fairings-main.html

My Vetter fairing takes the H-4 Halogen lamp and is super bright.

If you have proper voltage at the main harness three prong plug, you should have the same voltage on the fairing three prong plug after you plug in the fairing harness. You should see NO voltage drop.


Hope you get her figured out

If it was fine pre fairing installations.... Check headlight shell/electrical grounding connections/terminations....

Run a jumper from battery (-)/ideally grounded frame to head light shell... Better yes/no?

Have to agree with others... You need a DVM (digital volt meter)... Vdc/Vac, resistance and diode check at least... ~$20 - 30....

OMR

I have the DVM, just hafta get out there and use it. LOL! Thanx guys for all the info to get me started. I'm still learning w/ this beast and electrical can be tricky. When I first got the bike, it had lots of old wires everywhere that hadn't been removed from an old fairing, just tucked in w/ a bit of tape. It took me forever to get that all straight. Wish I'd had all of you to ask then.

Think of electrical trouble shooting and repair as a slow logical process. Having a factory shop manual with the colored wiring digrams is the first item to have on hand.

I source my manuals from three places:

1.E-Bay

2. www.repairmanual.com

3. www.manualsnmore.com

This website also has many wiring digrams in their file base for many models of Kawasaki's.

Another website that might have wiring diagrams is www.wgcarbs.com He has a similar forum for questions/answers.

And www.kz650.info is yet another website to explore.

CHerny... Almost forgot....

OEM Service manual download... FREE

Bottom right of the page... Thanks for the reminder Mfolks...

jarlef.no/Kawasaki/Series/Z/650/z650files.htm