low beam dim

Hello all,

My low beam started going dim last week. When the light dims the

Headlamp out indicator comes on. I replaced the light with 2 different new

Bulbs. They do the same thing. The high beam works fine including the

Original bulb. I have been trying to narrow down the culprit. I am thinking

It is the CMS needs resoldering. Do you redo all points on circuit board or

certain ones? I looked up the CMS removal and repair in tech library and

would like a little better detail.

Thx, Mike

Yep, most likely the CMS. The most likely points that need to be resoldered are the row of contact pins that connect to the wiring harness. Usually you will be able to see cold solder joints, but not always. To me, the pencil type soldering irons work best and make sure it is very hot before you start. You want the solder to melt quick and then remove the heat. To me, the electrical soldier that is small in diameter and comes in the small tubes work best.

One suggestion is after you get the dash back in, take a plastic wire tie and wrap it around the wiring harness and one of the bars and pull it up slightly to take the weight off the points in the harness connection.

RandyA

Thanks Randy, my winter project just got pushed up. Was planning on converting dash lights to L.E.D. plus converting headlight to H.I.D. Trying to free up amps on the bike as best I can. Now I will just do it all at once. Don't want to take the old girl apart anymore than I have too. Anyone converted to H.I.D. and figured out how to keep alarm off of cms?

Thx, Mike

I went to HID on my 89, there is a lengthy writeup of soldering and jumping to bypass the stock Yamaha safety equipment.

I just cut a small piece of electrical tape and placed a piece over the white reserve light and the blinking LED for now.

the problem is that the reserve lighting needs to meet a resistance value, the HID or LED lamps are below that value thus it tries to correct a non existent problem and to notify the rider.

I am not sure if the RLU is the same on a MKI vs a MKII.

Here is the writ up on the HID conversion for an 88.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45603

It is a lengthy write up but it almost took longer to type than it did to actually do.

The CMU light control needed to be resoldered on my '83 when I first got her. Being a lazy sort, and since I didn't do a lot of night riding, I just left the switch on high beam and adjusted the beam down to low. About a year later I found a mint lo-mile dash assembly on eBay for a few bucks and did the R&R. Head light went back to normal... .

Finally got around to taking cms out. I could not find any cold solders. I went ahead and added the jumpers for the brake lights, turn signals and low and high beam. Waiting on L.E.D. s to come in for dash lights. While I am waiting on dash lights, I was thinking about taking hi/lo switch apart since I didn't find anything wrong with cms. See if I can find anything wrong in there. I do ride in all weather. What do you all recommend for lubing speedometer? I also installed an HID headlight using a on/off switch mounted on handle bars to save ballast..

Finally got around to taking cms out. I could not find any cold solders. I went ahead and added the jumpers for the brake lights, turn signals and low and high beam. Waiting on L.E.D. s to come in for dash lights. While I am waiting on dash lights, I was thinking about taking hi/lo switch apart since I didn't find anything wrong with cms. See if I can find anything wrong in there. I do ride in all weather. What do you all recommend for lubing speedometer? I also installed an HID headlight using a on/off switch mounted on handle bars to save ballast..

The bad connections are not visible to the eye. It is usually a microscopic crack in the solder. Just reflow the solder on all of the connector pins adding a little fresh solder, preferably a silver bearing solder.

If you installed a HID did you also disable the RLU (Reserve Lighting Unit)?

I went ahead and added the jumpers to the back of the cms. I put a good bead of solder on all the connections involving the tail, brake and headlights. I understood that once I put the jumpers on the reed switches and switched to h.i d that the reserve light would not come on. Did I get it wrong?

Jumping the reed switches in the CMU only stops the warning light from coming on.

I know there are some differences in the RLU between the MKI and the MKII like I have.

The RLU is completely independent of the CMU, the RLU is what will switch to the good element if one headlight element burns out.

Depending on which HID you have You may or may not have to remove the RLU.

If your HID is pulling its power from the headlight connector then the RLU will probably work ok. If your HID has a separate fused power wire, then the RLU will need to be disabled.

I have the separate power type Bi-Xenon HID. What it did was, because the current draw was not enough in the bikes headlight circuit it decided that the low beam was burnt out so it would switch to Hi beam, but then the hi beam current was to low so it would switch to lo beam, but then the lo beam current was to low so........................... It would just keep switching between hi and low at an extremely fast speed. the switching speed is faster than than you can see and is faster than the HID can react. so the motor that moves the bulb is going to burn out quickly.

With the bike not running but the key in the run position and the HID turned on, listen to the bulb, if it is buzzing you need to work on the RLU.

OK. Thanks for the clear up. My HID is powered seperately so I am going to look up how to disable the RLU. I remember reading on it somewhere on here. Thanks for the help.

Here is the write up I did for my 88. Not sure what needs to change for an 83.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45603

Thanks for the thread. I looked up what you wrote and looked up the wiring schematics for my 83. The color codes are the same, and looking at where the wires are going too it looks like it should work. Will try it tomorrow. Led lights will be in tomorrow too!!!