Headlamps blowing at high speeds.

I was riding down the highway at about 60mph tonight when my low beams went out. Flipped on the highs to get off the highway safely and those blew as well. It has happened twice before and always at highway speed. I'm no electrician so I have no idea where to start here. Fuses have been converted from the tube style to blades by my bike mechanic. Front end was rewired from a short caused by my high beam indicator light. 1978 KZ 750.

Probably overcharging. Check the voltage across your battery terminals at 4K RPM.

Thanks for the quick response. I'll unfortunately have to wait til the weeken to do that. No voltmeter.

+1 on the overcharging. When my voltage regulator went out it could get up to 17 volts at speed Motorhead is right, the charging system needs to be checked at 4000 rpm to see full voltage.

If the charging system checks out, it may be crap headlights. I changed over from the factory sealed beam over to automotive type way back in about 1983 and it's worked great, but all bulbs are not created equal. Lots of garbage out there, the old Walmart type stuff. Used to be you could buy motorcycle H4 bulbs that would last, where automotive was junk, but now chances are all are junk.

I'm going with all are junk. The bulbs I've been using are Automotive H3s.

I have seen this condition the serious overvolting when the battery is been sitting a long time and someone goes out on the freeway and gets up to speed. Seen the bulbs Hdlt-Tailight and coils fried on a motorcycle that had been sitting and jump started and was driven at freeway speeds. I think that thing was putting out over 16 volts to the battery. The Vr gets tricked by the low battery voltage and lets the alternator go max...

Another thing is if you changed the headlight mount you have to isolate the headlamp with some sort of dampner/rubber because the vibrations are killer. Especially at higher speeds. A lot of vibrations come from the engine and the road and take a great toll on un-dampened filaments. This is why the manufacturers put the rubber thingies in there. I have seen a lot of customisers just sock a shell down and start going through headlights. So if the juice is running ok look at your headlight mounting. Luck!

Thanks, Proxy. I do have the stock bucket on there with rubber on the mounts. I do notice some vibration but feel it may be an overcharging issue as Motor Head suggested. I'm going to get a voltmeter from a friend this weekend to test out the voltage. I have had a handful of electrical issues with this bike. Mostly stemmed from my friend that I bought it off of. Amateur rewiring and a relocated ignition that has been the bane of my existence. 35 year old parts are probably also at play here. This forum has been a godsend. Thanks to everyone.

automotive bulbs never did work well due to the vibration of the bike,potholes ,etc...... but it does sound like you have an overcharging problem....... :huh:

Now the question is, when/if I pinpoint it to an overcharging issue...is this a rectifier problem? As in am I going to need to replace that? Or is there some tweaking I can do to remedy the issue?

The rectifier converts AC power from the dynamo into DC power to charge the battery. If your bike has a separate regulator and a separate rectifier, overcharging is more likely to be a regulator problem. If your bike has a combined regulator/rectifier that unit may be the problem. You can use the instructions in the Kawasaki Service Manual to test the charging system components. That way you can identify exactly which part(s) is failing. Usually, parts of the charging system that fail should just be replaced rather than trying to repair them. Ed