83 venture royale lighting issues

[jrockstangs]

hey guys, i was having a problem with next to no light at all coming out of the headlight on either low or hi beam, along with the warning indicator light. well this afternoon i pulled the cmu and resoldered the connectors as shown in one of these write ups on here. I now have a highbeam that is bright as bright can be, but still next to no low beam....also i have a sony head unit in the big red machine and with that on, the fan on(its on a manual switch),the 55w driving lights and the headlight when i come to a stop it stalls...now when i leave the tunes off or the driving lights off that problem seems to disappear. Also, i feel like a moron or even asking this considering i have a pretty decent background in automechanics, but how in the hell is the easiest way to swap out the plugs...lol i was going to change them out today with some new ngk's and neither of my normal swivel spark plug sockets would work no matter what i did...lol... thanks guys, this site is awesome!

[KIC]

Plugs ... you need an 18mm thin wall socket. I use the one that came with my KLR650. Some have said that Lowes sells the thin wall.

 

As for the electrical....sounds like the old stator is not handling the load, but that will be left to the many much smarter electrical minded gurus on here..

 

Good luck..

 

Or yea ..and welcome to the asylum.. you can check out , but you can never leave...

[bongobobny]

Yup, thin wall socket and a U joint!

 

Yes, what you need to do is monitor your battery voltage under each condition. The battery may not be up to snuff, the stator could be weak (there was a cooling issue with the '83 and '84 so make sure the stator cooling kit was installed on yours) and you could have corroded connectors on the stator wires. Many of us solder the wires and eliminate the connector. Corrosion on the Rectifier/Regulator connections could also be an issue.

 

Here's a couple of ideas for the headlight. First check your fuse holder, they have been known to go bad. Many of us have converted the fuse holder to a more modern blade type fuses. Check your headlight connector for corrosion. Also there is a device called a Reserve Lighting Unit that may be going bad. The RLU senses if the headlight goes bad and then switches over to the high beam and lights up the warning light on the dash. It also monitors the tail light so make sure both bulbs there are good.

 

If and when you replace your battery get a Deka gel battery and do the mod to eliminate the battery fluid sensor, it's an easy fix. The Deka is a good strong long lasting battery. Member Skydoc_17 is a distributer for them and he will give you an excellent price...