Brighter Head Lamp for Venture

T

tripplec

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What does Yammy put in the Venture 600?

My 97 is knowwhere near as bright as the 94 Formula. Both single head lamp.

I don't think going to a higher wattage is the answer since the power source could be taxed or overloaded and it appears to need RPM to gain full brightness. My 97 Venture has electric start w/good new battery.
 
Sylvania Silverstar's are great bulbs. They are super white and a lot better than the stock Yamaha bulbs. Also, have you ever seen this site? Silverstars and some of the ones on that site are stock wattage, they're just a lot whiter/brighter.
 
I guess I may have to pull the bulb and see what is in there now. Quartz, old filament type etc. Anyone running 100 or 90 watts in their venture? Is there enough power for it.
 
Yama49601 said:
Sylvania Silverstar's are great bulbs. They are super white and a lot better than the stock Yamaha bulbs. Also, have you ever seen this site? Silverstars and some of the ones on that site are stock wattage, they're just a lot whiter/brighter.
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I don't see a yammie bulb(100/55w) in clear just blue and yellow..

nice bulbs tho..
 
sylvania silverstars are wayyy overated.

I have run them in the past in cars, and while they are a little brighter than stock, they just do not last long. I get 2 years tops out of the ones in the 99 jeep.

100 watt bulbs are really not the way to go, since the power output on the 2 up is sorta taxed already. plus you have a good chance of melting crap.

I think an HID unit is the best bet. in stock wattage 60/55. But yeah, the headlights suck on the single lite proactions. any of our other sleds with a single headlight are/ were better.

I will probably go the HID route this summer on our Venture. PIAA's are nice, but for 50 dollars you can get an HID kit off ebay for a car that will do 2 sleds with single lights.
 
siverstar work great .but i have quad hid on mine . dual hid in the stock light. and 2 trail tech 13w atv lights . i ride at night but i dont ride in the dark . its unflippin real any one in front of me has a shadow in front of them , but they can see every thing else
 
Checked my bult. It is halogen for certain and 60 watt high beam. I did a long night ride this weekend. Useually quite before real dark. I notice that the light dims a lot at idel (> 2k RPM) and come way back up once reved again. I have electric start and good battery. Yammy must have powered the lights through a different circuit and not utilizing battery to hold the light bright. Even hitting the brake while running dims it noticably. Hmmm thought they got away from that symptom by now with the higher output coils. I tested with the heater off and there is no difference. It must be a dedicated coil for lights only on these sleds. My Formula STX does not drop light at all at idle. They got that does right.

Might try Xenon light for next year or something else and see what it does.
 
To reduce the dimming when applying the brake, change the brake light to an LED, less draw that pretty much eliminates any dimming. Lots on here have done it.
 
Led

Ok, but I also see that the lights are on an AC circuit so I will need a diode as well to convert to DC first. I traced out the wiring diagram and the headlamp is wired right off the CDI magneto before the rectifire/regular.
 
Silverstar?

Yamadooed said:
Set the Idle RPM to factory spec and run the Silverstar 60/55 H4 lamp that is about the best Idea I found for crisp clear light for a 600 twin.
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Do they last? I would not want them burning out on the trail. Also if there is no load the voltage could blow other components. I don't see any regulation on that circuit in the schematic. Can you see yourself tooling down the trail and you close your eyes for say 5 secs(simulate lighting failure, its that dark). Where would you end up? Me straight into a maple tree. They don't move or secume to injury. Trust me I wacked one good last year and its still standing tall. Took me a while to get up all wobbly I might add.

Looks like I will have to find shop manual the owner manual does not seem to have the spec's in it at all for the magneto either unless hidden somewhere else. I look again maybe in my printout will be easier to find.

Thanks
 
i had a xenon 100/65w or some damn thing in my sxr500 with the led tail lamp. it still dimmed at idle. you do not need a diode to put the led tail lamp bulb in. that head lamp bulb is still in there and i put it in in 03 when i bought the sled. even our 1978 et340 dims at idle so i think it is a yamaha thing.
 
tripplec said:
Do they last? I would not want them burning out on the trail. Also if there is no load the voltage could blow other components. I don't see any regulation on that circuit in the schematic. Can you see yourself tooling down the trail and you close your eyes for say 5 secs(simulate lighting failure, its that dark). Where would you end up? Me straight into a maple tree. They don't move or secume to injury. Trust me I wacked one good last year and its still standing tall. Took me a while to get up all wobbly I might add.

Looks like I will have to find shop manual the owner manual does not seem to have the spec's in it at all for the magneto either unless hidden somewhere else. I look again maybe in my printout will be easier to find.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Its a dual filament lamp hence the 60/55 wattage numbers hit the high beam switch and you'd have instant light again. I burned out plenty of stock lamps and never had anything else fry out in other circuits because thats what a voltage regulator is for.
 
Where to get a good Xenon replacement? I looked a Silverstar and the price it through the roof here >$30. I expect a good Xenon would do the trick. The mount appears to be a P43T (metal flange with three tabs sticking out equi-distant). Might be used in some auto. I saw something in a parts store but it said 9003 ST I believe. The base look right but I don't have the old bulb with me so I thought I would wait for now.
 
Right, 9003 and H4 are the same exact bulb. The Silverstars do not burn out all the time. They are the same wattage as stock bulbs. Mine lasted for 2 years, until a couple months ago when I hit a deer, I had the high beams on and both bulbs fried the high beam elements when I hit the deer. I still had low beams though.
 
Tripplec- inspect your headlight reflector and the inside of the lens, they get dirty in time and that will affect your light brightness. If you have hard water, clean it with softened or distilled water. The reflector also can get corroded.

Take a jumper wire and jump from the ground terminal on the headlight bulb to the engine while watching the headlight brightness to check your ground circuit.

The regulator/rectifier does control the voltage in the light circuit, but only rectifies the battery circuit, the lights operate on AC.

You can get an LED taillight bulb that will work with AC current. Bluhm lists them as having a rotating pattern.

I think that it is a 200 watt charging system. There should be no problem running a higher wattage bulb, but it will be dimmer at idle - which I don't see as a problem.

When the light is not as bright, you are going very slowly and do not need much light. When running at increased speed, the light is bright. The brake should only dim the headlight in a large amount when the sled speed has dropped down to a speed that you do not need the light to be as bright. - and the LED bulb should improve that a lot.

The only other thing that uses current from the light generator circuit is the passenger handwarmers so keeping that switch off when they are not in use should help your light output at low speed.

I have found that a place to get bulbs at a good price is JC Whitney. But if you are only ordering one bulb, the shipping cost will increase the price a larger percentage. I usually get bulbs when I can combine them with other items. Another place would be eBay.
 
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