Headlight Relay - problem not switching Hi / Low - KZ1000-D1 Restoration

The way the "kit" appears to work to me is:

There is one relay for high beam and one relay for low beam.
The kit plugs into the original bulb plug, then provides its own plug to the bulb.
The kit also has a connection the battery positive and ground.

When the bike powers a filament, the kit intercepts that power and uses it to energize the corresponding relay, which then feeds battery voltage to the corresponding filament of the bulb.

The hi-lo switch and RLU are still wired the same as stock and the only change is that the filament power now only powers the appropriate relay coil. This is a problem since the RLU will see the relay coil as a bad filament and assume the bulb is blown. Likewise, the RLU will also see the other filament as blown when it tries to switch over. SO the RLU will behave as if both filaments are blown. I'm not sure what the behavior will be, but it appears, from the symptoms, that the behavior is to just stay on one circuit rather than switching over to the other circuit, and to ignore hi-lo switch input.

It's also possible the RLU is defective in the first place. As DOHC suggests, it might be worth it to restore everything to stock and see if the RLU works correctly. I would even include a test to simulate a bad bulb and see if the RLU does in fact automatically switch over to the other filament. This can be done by unplugging one filament wire or the other.

Maybe this one will show up clearer. Does the site compress images?

The answer is yes, yes it does. What started as 6267x4198 is now 1791x1200.

PDF?

loudhvx wrote: The way the "kit" appears to work to me is: ....

Yes, I agree with everything you said. And I agree that adding the relay coils in place of the bulb is likely to be interpreted by RLU a failed filament, and it would try to activate the other filament (or both).

The PDF upload seems to have made it intact, so that should be clearer version.

After looking at the diagram more carefully, I realize that I was mistaken. The resistor pack is used by the RLU when the dimmer switch is in the low beam position. In this case the resistor can connect the light blue wire from the RLU box to the high beam filament. However, with the switch in the high beam position, the light blue wire is now connected to the low beam, and the blue/yellow is connected to the high beam filament. It looks like the RLU box could then drive both filaments in this case, even with the resistor removed.

So it seems like, with the two aftermarket relays installed, and with the resistor pack unplugged, I would expect the low beam switch position to work as expected, but the high beam position to light both filaments.

Here is another thing to try. The diagram shows a bullet connector for the light blue wire leading into the left handlebar control. I believe the left control wires go through the bars, come out at the top clamp, and then go down the left side of the tank. There is a hood on the left side just behind the steering head where I suspect you'll find this connector.

Anyway, I think if you disconnect the light blue wire the RLU will not be able to drive the alternate filament on. The RLU box might get grumpy, but I don't think it will be able to do anything about it (other than turning everything off, which seems unlikely). And with the light blue wire disconnected you should be able to plug the resistor pack back in.

Did try a copy and paste,crop and rotate of your wiring PDF, now should 3316 x 2219 size JPEG



Edit: DOHC is right, the site compress Images!

Thanks for that pdf DOHC, great idea using the pdf format.!
I played with the image a bit (less background noise and smaller footprint) but it still got shrunken.
So I will host it offsite for a while. EDIT It's the same file shown below.
loudfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/KawKz1000D1_78_Z1R_cleanedLD.JPG

Let me know if the link doesn't work. Sometimes Amazon is a bit finicky.

I'll see if KZR will show it full size if it's hosted offsite:

EDIT: AHhhh yes, KZR will let you zoom in full-size if it's hosted somewhere else. I shrunk/cropped it to 3600 x 2100... not quite as zoomed in as the original PDF, but still very readable.

Thank you for the feedback.

Unplugging the resistor didn't work.
Unplugging the light blue wire killed the headlight working all together.

I'm going to put everything back to stock - just waiting on some new posi-tap connectors to arrive.
To test the RLU in stock condition, should I just unplug one headlight wire, say Hi beam?

In any case, I would still like to use the relay since the stock headlight is so dim.

The aftermarket relay guy suggests jumping the wires into and out of the RLU for the headlight. I've studied the wiring diagram but am unsure which wires exactly to do that. I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts on that and which wires to jump.

BTW; sorry for the delayed response. You guys are a great resource for an electrically challenged bike owner.

Swest turned me on to this LED headlight, so far I really like it. Plug n play headlight. You will need to pick up a halogen carrier. Redline sells one that has good reflection pattern.

H4 9003 HB2 LED Bulb Hi/Lo Beam HID White Motorcycle Headlight High Power

If you do want to keep the relay system and don't care to keep the stock system working, then it would be pretty easy to bypass the reserve lighting unit. There are several ways, probably, depending on which area is easier for you to work on.

One would be to remove the RLU completely and just put some jumpers in the empty harness connector. You would then lose all of the bulb warnings, but the hi-beam indicator will still work. It will require a few jumpers to get the tail, brake, and signal lights working.

Another option would be to just re-route power at the area DOHC circled in red earlier. You disconnect the light blue wire from the switch end, and put a jumper from the RLU end to the blue/yellow wire. This means whichever way the RLU tries to route power to the dimmer switch, the blue/yellow wire always gets power. Then the dimmer controls which filament wire gets power. THe lo-beam uses the red/yellow wire, and the hi-beam uses the red/black wire.

I think this should work... as long as the RLU will output power to one of those wires, which it should.

I will check into this as an option.
Thank you for the suggestion.

My gut is telling me to stay stock since that is my philosophy how the rest of the restoration is (except NGK-branded spark plug caps and newer retro looking Dunlop tires) so that when or if one day comes and I want to sell it on eBay I can say truthfully that the bike is bone stock and all systems function the same as new.
But the other side of me says this was, and remains, the biggest complaint I have with this model and I bought my first version way back in 1979.
The headlight sucks.
I tried a 90/100W bulb replacement on my first bike and all that did was eventually melt my stock H4 bulb connector.