Dual or single beam??

As I imported my '96 VFR from Germany I had a good mate go to the dealer's shop and test the bike on my behalf.
I remember his words "the bike is absolutely mint, but the right low beam is blown. You need to change the bulb once you get the bike."

Sure enough when I got the bike delivered, only the left low beam bulb was working, but when switching to high beam both bulbs worked fine. I thought nothing of it and today I set about to change the right bulb.
Well, much to my surprise the bulb was fine! Just as I started thinking about shorted wires and blown fuses I did a little search on the internet, and hey presto! The EU spec bikes are supposed to be like that!! Whaaat????

On closer inspection the left side bulb plug has 3 wires running to it, whereas the right is missing the middle one. So it looks like a very simple and straightforward conversion to dual beams.

However, my question is: is there a problem with the r/r or with the fuses etc if I make the right bulb light in tandem with the left?
Has anyone done this conversion?

 

I think you'd be opening a HUGE can of worms trying to get a low beam on the right side if the bike isn't supposed to be like that in the first place.

USDM '94-'97 VFR's have dual low and dual high beam bulbs. Both headlights are on all of the time.

You'd need to get a USDM wiring harness (for the WHOLE bike) just to get that one little wire, since the connector probably doesn't have a terminal in it. I would bet that the headlight housing is different, especially for the left side that does ALL of the low beam duty. In addition, the right side reflector may be only good for high beam use, if you put a low beam bulb in there, I'd wager that the beam pattern would be impossible to aim, and quite useless for the road right in front of you.

In order to do what you'd like to do, you'll need the following:
USDM headlight assembly, Honda part # 33120-MT4-671
USDM wiring harness, Honda part # 32100-MZ7-670

 

Ok, let me get this straight.

The different headlight housing I can understand - if the right side reflector is only made for high beam use then I suppose that low beam would be all over the place.

But ripping out all the wiring harness for a small terminal connection??? Why not just run a wire from the left connector to the right and use a generic terminal? It can be done and the connector does have the hole for it anyway.

If I am not mistaken the US spec bikes are already wired that way anyway. Can anyone take a look and put up a pic for me to see?

The big question is if doing this would change anything current wise? I don't want to overload the relays. Got to think about this a bit....

 

With a little bit of digging around I found that the headlight assembly comes in a few different flavours:

33120-MT4-601 -- VFR750 '90-'93
33120-MT4-611 -- VFR750 '90-'93 *superseded by 33120-MT4-612
33120-MT4-651 -- SP(??) designation ??
33120-MT4-671 -- VFR750 '90-'97
33120-MT4-701 -- Japan models only
33120-MT4-771 -- VFR750 '90-'93 *superseded by 33120-MT4-730

I would go out on a limb and suppose that the '90-'93 assemblies refer to single bulb housing...?
So it looks like the only assembly relevant to our 96 models is the -651 one. Maybe the assembly is the same in US and European models after all...

 

I would guess that the "SP" part you are calling out above is what you actually have on your bike.

If you want to check if your reflector housings are different, just take a close look at the headlight - if they appear to reflect the light differently from left to right, they probably are. The USDM headlight is the same side to side. See if there is a part number somewhere on your housing.

According to my parts book (which is from American Honda), the USDM '90-'97 headlight assembly is the same across the board (-671), which means that all 3rd and 4th gen bikes have twin bulbs, and the same headlight unit.

The problem with daisy chaining the low beams together is two-fold.
1.) Rather than run dedicated current to one bulb (as your bike is wired currently), you want to run double the current through the same circuit. This will make the wiring run VERY hot, and be a potential safety hazard.
2.) The headlight relays are load specific, in other words, if the above works, then you might be overloading the relay for how it was designed and built and burn it up...

 

Not good news then! Still, I can't believe noone brought this up before. Are all EU models supposed to be like this?

 

I found the solution!! :cheersaf:
Stay tuned till I can post a few pics of the electric diagrams of the VFR! :smile:

 

Wow! I was going to chime in, I mean I can't miss out on a 4th gen question now can I? But looks like I'm to late. Still, ok I went and looked to no avail, as it's all wrapped up, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't bother anything just jumping across. That is interesting to find out though, I'll need to ask another gentle man that has a EU model and see what he says.

 

Right.

As I said I found the schematics for both EU and US spec bikes and combed them to find differences.
The only differences are the following:

- US bike is running 45W bulbs (EU is 55W)
- US bike doesn't have a lights on/off switch. Instead the lights are rigged to turn on constantly when engine is running.
- EU bike has only 1 relay and uses only LHS bulb for lo-beam.
- US bike has 2 relays and uses both bulbs for lo-beam.
- US bike doesn't have a separate running light in the lighting enclosure but uses the turn signals instead.

So, now, on to the schematics.

US bike...


EU bike...


You can see that in the EU bike, the 2nd relay is missing.
Now, what I need to do is simply to replicate the wiring order of the US spec bike.
I basically have to cut the white wire going to the left side bulb and run it through the new relay.



Result!!

Only question now is where is the original relay...
(Something tells me I will need to remove the instrument cluster, and I want to avoid that...)

 

Cheers for looking mate! I really appreciate your effort.
This conversion is indeed possible and easy to do; I found a guy in the Netherlands who had this done to this Gen4 using a relay just as I am planning to do, and he hasn't had any problems at all!

Best thing is that he claims that the beam pattern is perfectly fine on the RHS lens.
I'll have a look around tomorrow.
Any interest to do a how-to?

 

Turns out he has a version that,s from Au and it two has two hot lamps on at low beam, go figure
looks like you have it pretty much down in what to do yea next hat trick is to find where Honda put the relay, could it be down around the fuse box? I'd like to think they didn't bury it, ha wait, we are talking Honda here right? GL keep us posted, be interesting to see how many others out there jump on this.

 

Strange that no one has ever brought this issue up before...
I would guess that if one saw that all VFRs around were using both bulbs for low beam and his wasn't, he'd be inclined to change that!

Anyway, I think I found where the relay is, and unfortunately it is mounted behind the instruments bracket. In other words, I need to remove most fairings etc to get to it.

So I guess this mod will have to wait a little; as I'm also planning to install a gear indicator in the dash, there's no point in removing panels etc twice.

I'll keep you all posted!

 

Great investigative work, Traveller!

I would say that this will probably be a great upgrade if you can work it. I HATE my high beams, they are next to pointless - I ride at night with only low beams anyways.

A "how I did it" thread with pictures would be awesome. Thanks!

:cheersaf:

 

What? a gear indicator? LOL you can't remember what gear you're in? my my .. The one instrument that I feel almost necessary is a voltmeter, we all know why. There's a couple folks here that have done an excellent install, SLOvfr being one of them and looks like it came from the factory that way.

 

A gear selector would be a great thing for my teenager's bike. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of checking the speedo to the tach to determine his gear, or his memory for that matter.

I guess since just about all 3rd and 4th gen VFRs I've seen have both low beams on at once, I've never seen a VFR with only one light, unless it's burned out! I did know about the Euro "light switch" and "flash to pass" buttons, though. I just got some in from the UK a month ago. I wired the "FTP" button to run my aux lights with a toggle relay I built. I haven't decided what to use the "light switch" for yet.

:unsure:

 

Thanks mate! I will do it in due time! :wink:

As for the gear indicator, well what can I say? I'm a lazy bastard! :tongue:

 

Unrelated:Gear indicator elitism

I don't understand why "experienced" riders denigrate the gear indicator! I ride 3 different machines, hop on others, and consider myself a decent rider. When I am concentrating on traffic, when I am trying to make a quick decision, and even when I am touring and it is late in the day- I don't like being in doubt about my gear. My different machines have different shift points and tachs and engine configurations. I don't like to do any math when I'm making a life and death decision.
They government should mandate all cycles have gear indicators, and then let the tough customers and customizers disconnect or remove them. I'll bet ridership increases by 20 percent!
Install it, dude. Apologize for nothing. Tell these forum nuts to install a "nuts on chin indicator light" and see how often they check it!
(I may be drunk, but it is the truth):bs:

 

Pff whats ya talking about Willus.. Haha gear indicators just make ya lazy IMO, just what a bike needs huh? lazy riders, whats next :bootyshake2:

 

Hahahaha!!!! :tongue: Yer just jealous! :tongue: Bloody :treehugger:!!! :cheersaf::cheersaf:

 

Lazy riders

Just so you don't think I'm holier than thou.
Radios and headsets make me crazy on other people's motos.
Can't understand it, can't feature it, can't hold my tongue when I cross paths with someone riding with a radio. Gotta say something and make an enemy for life.
Everyone is different.
Love the community. :cheersaf: