Headlight (Installing a switch 99 XT600E)

[pursang]

Has anyone installed a switch so you have the option of running with or without the light on ? which wire do you install the switch on ? from what I can make out it would be the BrL wire, top left on the diagram under "Dimmer Switch" also can be seen in the connector with the colour code. would appreciate confirmation before getting all carried away.
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[flyn]

You could use the brown or you switch the black ground side .

 

[250ccforme]

Putting the switch in the hot side is better. Breaking a ground makes strange things happen as the voltage seeks ground.

 

[scottbc]

You could use the brown or you switch the black ground side .

Close Flyn, put the switch in BrL not Br. Or as Flyn says in the ground feeding the light on the far right of the diagram. Colour is usually black or black with a stripe of some sort. It does show as B for black.

Scott

 

[tomcycle]

BrL = Brown with a Blue Strip

Thats the wire you want the switch on
Should be easy to find in your wiring harness
make sure you use a switch that can handle the load waterproof prefered
Your passing lights will still work

Just curious, why do you want to turn your headlight off?

 

[04klr]

X2 on the switching of the ground. a bad and unnessecary idea which leaves the circuit live when switched "off".

(my KLR has a switched headlight, for the reason of charging capacity, when riding the Dempster with the vest turned on for hours and the grips on high, I don't want to run the battery down (or chance it), tractors only put out so much juice.

 

[250ccforme]

I'll mod my headlights sometime to have an "Off". The full moon makes a great headlight if you're careful about time and place. Rogers Pass comes to mind, 1972. Traffic actually had sizeable gaps in the flow back then.

 

[pursang]

So I'll cut into this wire, on the connector it's opposite the pink wire, listed as BrL. thanks all for your input.

 

[Sparkle]

I've always disliked running a headlight in broad daylight, especially in some remote place.... it's a waste of power and expensive components and not an efficient warning signal from almost any angle except straight ahead, so I like the idea of a switch too...but.......

Most bikes with battery powered headlights are designed to run with the added load. If the battery is fully charged and the headlight is off (or missing), the regulator has to cope with shunting large amounts of current to ground. Usually they handle it, like if you burn out a headlight....but continuous extra voltage can toast the regulator and overcharge the battery too. It's probably okay though if you replace the missing load with heated grips etc. A quick test would be to disable the headlight, drive the bike a while and check the temperature of the regulator and battery.

Older bikes (dogbone stator coils) ran the headlight directly off a tap in a stator coil and used a regulator to keep the headlight safe. Removing, or switching the headlight off can smoke the regulator in this case too, so the switch should also switch out the regulator....but then the same tapped coil is usually used to charge the battery, and with the headlight load removed the extra voltage to the battery can cause problems.

Also....the BC code says any motor vehicle since 1990 that was manufactured with DRLs must not be modified. I don't know if it's ever enforced, but still...a traffic or safety check might make a problem.

I ended up just running the stupid headlight, and having a spare handy....

more shots in the dark...

Sparkle

 

[guzzihead]

I bought a European headlight switch off e-bay.
Plug and play. Also allows the option of running lights, via turn signals.

 

[pursang]

Switched Headlight.