TOPIC:

A lot of good info there,, but I wonder about the bulb life, I dont think they are made to take the shock that these old bikes make.
any thoughts?

I know with my Z1's any attempt to run a headlight with more power than 60w will drain the battery down.

I've experimented with different things to help. Switching to an LED bulb in the tail light saves a little power, removing the lower two bulbs in the gauges saves another 6w. Cleaning all the connectors helped. But still 100w headlights drain the battery on a Z1. Installing a higher output stator and heavy-duty regulator helped, but still not enough.

Having 90/100w headlight in the bike, but something in the low-beam circuit to reduce power slightly would allow you to run on low beam and not drain the battery, and run 100w high beam on the occasions when it's most needed.

otakar wrote:

Most likely, the one you removed was already Halogen. I want to say that like from 1978 or 9 on all the headlights have been Halogen. The difference being, weather it is a sealed beam or a semi-sealed beam. The semi sealed have a replaceable bulb while the sealed beam are one piece and you through away the whole thing.

They used the same exact part number headlight in a 1981 KZ650 as they did in the earlier KZ650s, KZ1000s, even the Z1 way back to 73, so if it was original Kawasaki bulb, it's not halogen, just a simple filiment. I can see the GPZ1100 and KZ1300 stators failing. The GPZ1100 would fail even with no load. One of those "J" engine teething problems along with the rest. My old KZs, I've yet to have a stator failure despite my trying.

Jeff.Saunders wrote:

I know with my Z1's any attempt to run a headlight with more power than 60w will drain the battery down.

I've experimented with different things to help. Switching to an LED bulb in the tail light saves a little power, removing the lower two bulbs in the gauges saves another 6w. Cleaning all the connectors helped. But still 100w headlights drain the battery on a Z1. Installing a higher output stator and heavy-duty regulator helped, but still not enough.

Having 90/100w headlight in the bike, but something in the low-beam circuit to reduce power slightly would allow you to run on low beam and not drain the battery, and run 100w high beam on the occasions when it's most needed.

That is the beautiful part about HID, it only draws 35W (3.2A) but puts out about as much light as a 300W quartz would. Combined with a LED tail light you only have the high draw of the Ignition to contend with.

So, to clarify (as there appears to be a lot of mis-info on the intertubes...) the reflector in a semi-sealed headlight meant for an H4 Halogen bulb does not work correctly with a HID bulb? I see a lot of "H4 Conversion" kits out there for anywhere from $50 to $350 and none of them seem to include a different reflector or housing. Or maybe they just aren't obvious about it. I would really like to change out my Halogen for an HID setup, just getting really confused to the point of giving up on it altogether.

Otakar, where did you find space in the bike to put the ballast??

And how about the kits that sell two ballast with two Xenon bulbs for high and low, or the ones that simply change slightly the direction of a single bulb to simulate high and low??

The HID Xenon bulb is not an incandescent bulb, like halogens. Is only filled by Xenon gas, the gas is lit by and extremelly high voltage, about 40,000 volts or so generated by the ballast (HID = high intensity discharge) So the bulb itself does not consume current, and keeps cool. The consumption is mostly some heat at the ballast transforming the voltage, therefore the true HID Xenon bulb is probably more vibration resistance, as does not have a filament inside to break.

Did anyone have trouble using an led lamp in their tail light, mine senses it as a lamp failure because the led has such a small resistance this causes the brake light in the idiot console to flash all the time-very distracting -is there a resistor or something you can put in circuit so it doesnt do this?sorry for going slightly off topic

Eliminate the idiot brake light on the console. A resistor in parallel to ground will work, but will release the energy as heat leaving your current consumption as much as before, and contributing heating up the planet. A LED is more reliable than a incandescent anyway so is not likely to fail as often.

hugo wrote:

Otakar, where did you find space in the bike to put the ballast??

And how about the kits that sell two ballast with two Xenon bulbs for high and low, or the ones that simply change slightly the direction of a single bulb to simulate high and low??

The HID Xenon bulb is not an incandescent bulb, like halogens. Is only filled by Xenon gas, the gas is lit by and extremelly high voltage, about 40,000 volts or so generated by the ballast (HID = high intensity discharge) So the bulb itself does not consume current, and keeps cool. The consumption is mostly some heat at the ballast transforming the voltage, therefore the true HID Xenon bulb is probably more vibration resistance, as does not have a filament inside to break.

I hope the next few pictures explain it all.

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