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LED Headlight install in OEM Sealed beam Headlamp

19K views 38 replies 16 participants last post by  Curmudgeon At Large  
#1 ·
I promised that I would share this so here goes!

Okay all, It has been a challenge, but I have finally finished the install of a LED assembly in an OEM Sealed Beam Headlamp.
Honestly the hardest part was getting the glass off the OEM headlamp. The rest was just time consuming.
My first attempt at getting the glass off was a disaster, cracked the lens right away. (dont try to pry the reflector off with a screwdriver)

But the second one from member belsk went real good. (I brought the lense inside the house to clean and my cat knocked it on the ceramic tile and it shattered into a million pieces....) So I bit the bullet and took apart the one from my bike (I hoped that this would turn out or I was going to have to buy a new sealed beam) Thankfully it is way better than expected!

Here are the pictures of the headlamp dis-assembly.



Now to do it; I used a real sharp pair of small needle nose pliers.



Once apart I cleaned the glass inside and out....




Now Here is the link to the LED Light Assembly (it is direct from China so it literally must have taken the Slow Boat from there! It took 3 weeks to arrive and it was sent registered mail, I had to sign for it at the post office.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2013...-New-Product-16W-LED-Motorcycle-headlight-for-motorcycles-1800lm/790870994.html













Next I traced the size of the hole needed and used a rotary tool to cut out the original bulb from the reflector.












I then assembled the LED Reflector, with the collar, the locking collar is a left hand thread. It went together real easy.















MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REMOVED THE OLD RUBBER SEAL that will be left on the reflector and the glass!

I then used Clear Silicone from DUPONT (I use it because it has good adhesion properties as well as good waterproofing) to reattach the glass lens to the reflector. But I think any 100% silicone sealent will work. (Use clear so you will not see it once cured). I laid a small bead on the reflector "lip" then ensured that the top of the glass lens was oriented with the TOP of the reflector (so as to keep the general OEM beam pattern.) Then once the glass lens is in place you will see there is a bit of a gap around the glass from taking it apart. Just use some more silicone to seal around the gap and it will also aid in holding the lens in place

I let it cure overnight.

Here is a picture after the cure....You can barely see the lip of silicone around the lens...







Next was a little difficult, but I forgot to take pictures, I'm sorry about that. But I had to enlarge the hole in the headlight bucket (Mine was the OEM honda part). The LED driver (little black box) would not fit in my bucket, so I had to run it out the hole and bring the wires back inside to connect up (I also soldered the Original wires from the OEM Sealed beam that was removed so I could just connect where the wires went without having to mess with the rest of the OEM connectors on the bike.

But after it is all said and done the new light only draws 1/8th to power on high!

Here is the low beam......




And on high beam......... (it seems that my camera kept the same light output, but it is definitely Much Brighter on High!)




And looking from upper at the front of the bike.....



So no more charging issues for me! All lights on the bike are LED now. I will post in another thread on how to get the winker indicator to work properly and not have all winkers on both sides wink at the same time!

If you have any questions Please feel free to contact me, I will help you out as much as I can!
 
#2 ·
Have you ridden at night yet? Is the beam pattern useful, or narrow?

A pic of the beam on a dark road would be nice....It looks like a good upgrade if the pattern is good...
 
#3 ·
No I haven't ridden at night, I actually haven't ridden the bike myself at all, I had knee surgery last month and the Doc wont let me on a bike for a while yet. I couldn't even bend it if I wanted to. But the beam pattern looks good at night on my street. I can upload pics tonight......
 
#5 ·
Thanks...I think this will work for me too.....I have anew R/R that is a little more efficient than the stock (Rectifier ). The headlight is the largest draw other than the coils, and would make the bike really reliable electrically....
 
#6 ·
I am going to take some pictures tonight to show the light output, what frame of reference you you all want? From the riders position, side, front or all 3?

Lemme know here soon. As I think fully dark here is in a few hours. And I will not have the bike tomorrow night......
 
#7 ·
I would be interested in seeing if from the rider's perspective shining on a garage door, or down the road. I think the garage door might be best since a point and shoot camera will likely manipulate the photo to compensate for the bright light. Thank you very much for doing this.
One question, how does the wiring fit inside the headlight bucket? Is there any concern about the rats nest of wires that Honda stuffs inside the bucket melting? Thinking seriously about doing this to my CB200T headlight.
 
#8 ·
CB200T75 said:
I would be interested in seeing if from the rider's perspective shining on a garage door, or down the road. I think the garage door might be best since a point and shoot camera will likely manipulate the photo to compensate for the bright light. Thank you very much for doing this.
One question, how does the wiring fit inside the headlight bucket? Is there any concern about the rats nest of wires that Honda stuffs inside the bucket melting? Thinking seriously about doing this to my CB200T headlight.

The last pictures are of the light on the garage door. I have too much $H!T to move it back any further. But I will try from the outside tonight.
 
#13 ·
Okay, So I went out tonight and got the night time pics, I must say I am impressed with the beam pattern. This is down my street which has a street light....

This is low beam.......




And on High beam.....




and no headlight.....





Now this is down a dark street with no street lights (on low beam).....






same dark street on High beam......






And with no headlight....





Finally on my driveway pointing to my garage door from the curb........ (low beam)






and my driveway aimed at the garage door on High Beam......






As you can see the beam pattern is good, if not great!

So much less draw on the battery.......

If I can answer anymore questions please feel free to contact me.
 
#14 ·
Hmmmm... I think I'd aim it a little higher, but it may just be the perspective in the pics make the light look a bit low.

I wonder how the beam pattern would look without their reflector. Is the front edge of the new reflector pretty close to the lens? From your pics of the assembled light, it looks like the outer part of the lens is pretty much left unused.

May I ask how much you paid for the kit?
 
#16 ·
juggler said:
I'm also struggling to imagine what "installation,prohibited not live oper ation" might mean. "Don't fire this bad boy up while holding it in your hand"?

LOL. yep, completly lost in translation i suppose. . . I posted the link to the kir on the first page of the install post. I think it was. 30. 00
 
#18 ·
It looks like it might be the same! Good price that's for sure! I would have bought this one had I seen it. For that price it is definitely worth trying. I probably would not use the angel eye, but that's just me. Like I said in the write-up its really not that hard to do. Just have to be real careful pulling apart your OEM glass and metal sealed beam.
 
#19 ·
From the lighting patterns, it APPEARS that a 180 degree rotation of your mount (the bulb) would shine the lights as is common practice.
(Low beam slightly off to the right, and High beam straight forwards and out further)....
 
#20 ·
66Sprint said:
From the lighting patterns, it APPEARS that a 180 degree rotation of your mount (the bulb) would shine the lights as is common practice.
(Low beam slightly off to the right, and High beam straight forwards and out further)....


I didn't think about that. I'm going to tear into it again and see if that makes any difference, but to me it is a huge improvement on the incandescent bulb which looked like I had a chipmunk in the lens holding a match.
 
#21 ·
Okay, I have rotated the LED driver every which way, and the beam looks the same as before on low and high, but after having my buddy drive at night with it on he says; and I quote "HUGE IMPROVEMENT over stock sealed beam"

I am still unable to ride "lil red" as she is now affectionately known. Once I can bend my knee 90 degrees I will test for myself, but for now I have to take his word on it.
 
#23 ·
longdistancerider said:
Trust when I say "follow the doc's advice". This comes from someone with no cartilage in either knee.
you need to talk to a good surgeon as mine did the open OATS which transplants cartilage into the spots you need, hurts like heck, but he says it will give me another 10-15 years without replacement. I'm only 38 so it was a good gamble on my part.....
 
#24 ·
Left was done in 1971 and right in '79. Bone chips on the left removed in '90. They've tried to talk me into replacement since '75 and until they don't work anymore I'm keeping what little I have. I was told 20 years ago to just keep them moving
 
#25 ·
Impressive craftsmanship, but I would be concerned about glare for oncoming motorists. It isn't easy to put light in the right place, and the headlamp lenses are built with a type of light source in mind.

Is there a reason you didn't just go with something like the Truck Lite Phase 7? 2A draw with higher light output than HIDs...The only downside is the $200 price tag.

I guess anything is better than the stock lamps.
 
#26 ·
Tremelune said:
Impressive craftsmanship, but I would be concerned about glare for oncoming motorists. It isn't easy to put light in the right place, and the headlamp lenses are built with a type of light source in mind.

Is there a reason you didn't just go with something like the Truck Lite Phase 7? 2A draw with higher light output than HIDs...The only downside is the $200 price tag.

I guess anything is better than the stock lamps.
Hard decision, $23 shipped vs $200......Plus the Phase Seven doesn't fit a stock CB360/350 headlight pot. So factor in some new parts.

The pattern on the door looks pretty tight....Less stray light than those retrofit HID kits.

Low beam is 8 watts....Not burning retina's at that level.