Topic: Wiring colors on a after market headlight

[gbal06]

I bought this headlight(that came with no instructions) https://www.speedmotoco.com/product-p/048-21-01.htm for my cb550 that had no previous harness in it.  I contacted the place i bought it and they didn't know.  Can someone tell me what color goes where? Thanks

Black
Yellow
White
Brown

[bryanj]

4 wires for a two fillament bulb? Or has it got a pilot light as well.

[gbal06]

it has a hi and low beam

[bryanj]

So why 4 wires it just dont make sense,  one for high, one for low and one for ground. If the people that sell it dont know what is what tell them its junk and you need your money back!

[Deltarider]

Am I right to assume the headlight came with 55/60 Watts H4 fitted? If so, what you could do, is use an Ohmmeter. Hold probes to two wires and take notes of the resistance. The lowest ohms is the high beam, the then lowest is the low beam, the highest resistance will be the pilot lamp (if it is fitted at all). The one you need for all is ground.
I don't know if the following is of any use for you (probably not), but on Honda CBs: blue is high beam, white is low beam, brown is pilot lamp and green is GND.

[gbal06]

its a 60/55W H4 bulb. does it need to be connected up to the battery? What do you mean "Hold probes to two wires and take notes of the resistance. The lowest ohms is the high beam, the then lowest is the low beam

[Bodi]

I see what's likely a running/daylight/parking lamp in the picture linked.
So you have ground and three lamp wires. H4 Low beam, H4 high beam, and the little extra parking or whatever bulb.
It's not super easy to tell which is which, since the lamp wires will all have a connection to ground (through the filament).
If the ground wire connects to the metal reflector, you will get a resistance measurement from all 4 wires to the reflector metal. The one with the lowest resistance reading to the reflector is the ground wire. There won't be a huge difference but it will be fairly obvious - the H4 60W high beam filament is less than 2 ohms when cold, not much different from zero ohms.
Next lowest reading is the H4 high beam.
Next lowest reading is the H4 low beam.
Highest resistance reading is the "parking" bulb.
Some of the SOHC4 bikes have a brown wire in the shell for a front "parking" light, that comes on with key ON and (if you have such a switch) the lighting switch ON. And also with key in "P". It might pass as a DRL if that is required by law in your jurisdiction. Maybe not.  If not, it's just an extra load (you don't have much extra power available if you use a 55/60W H4 headlight) and I would leave it unconnected - or add a headlight on/off switch that powers it when the main headlight is off. Turining the H4 off for load reduction will really help with battery charging if you're riding around a city in daylight.

[gbal06]

Bodi,

This is going to sound like a stupid question, one of the prongs to the wire and where would I put the other prong to get the reading on the meter for the resistance?

[Deltarider]

See my post (reply #4). You can't do anything wrong. If you get frustrated with it, I'd send it back. That will teach them. My impression is, it's one of those products that only have to do well in advertisements...

[Don R]

 Assume black is the ground on the headlamp, on your bike black is 12 volts. Don't connect them to each other.  We don't know what country you are in or what year your 550 is, so we are guessing. If US, the headlight wiring to the right control isn't set up for the parking lamp. You may choose to not use it at all. If the right control has off/ park/ on then you are in luck. There may not be a right side headlight switch at all, that's a US newer bike.
 

[Bodi]

"where would I put the other prong to get the reading on the meter for the resistance?"
I can't see what's inside the headlight bucket but most of these lamps have a metal reflector. Casting and silvering a glass one is rather tricky compared to stamping and plating a metal one, and having only 4 wires suggests it has a metal reflector connected to each bulbs' "common" (the barrel not an end contact).

Opening the bucket and looking where the wires go would be a great start.

If the wiring isn't obvious after looking inside the bucket, my post meant one meter lead on the metal reflector measuring resistance to each of the 4 wires.

[gbal06]

I will take a look this weekend and report back

[gbal06]

I got it open and found these wires.  I spoke with Brian@speedmoto.com who said the wires are

Let me see if we have a contact # for them

 But i pulled one off the shelf and the

 Purple is a passing light
 white ground
 black positive
 yellow positive

What do you guys think?  Why two positives? I tried contacting him back and no reply

[bryanj]

High beam possitive and low beam possitive

[Bodi]

Brian is wrong.

Black is ground.
Yellow is low beam.
White is high beam.
Brown is the parking/running lamp.

The first picture tells the whole story.

[bryanj]

The man asked why 2 possitives so i told him!

[gbal06]

Brian is wrong.

Black is ground.
Yellow is low beam.
White is high beam.
Brown is the parking/running lamp.

The first picture tells the whole story.

Thank you sir!

[gbal06]

Brian is wrong.

Black is ground.
Yellow is low beam.
White is high beam.
Brown is the parking/running lamp.

The first picture tells the whole story.

What would the brown hook up to on a new harness

[gbal06]

Here is the wiring diagram I made

[Deltarider]

gbal, as soon as you've sorted out what's the ground wire, why not connect it to the minus of a 12V source and see what light will be on when you connect one of the other wires to the plus terminal?

[Bodi]

I"What would the brown hook up to on a new harness"

Up to you. You can just not use it, although I would keep the bulb in there to plug that big hole.
Or add a switch somewhere to select either the low beam or that bulb: use it as a daytime running light although it's likely to be rather dim.

I'm not familiar with the m-unit so I don't know if any other connection makes sense with it.

[Deltarider]

I"What would the brown hook up to on a new harness"

Up to you. You can just not use it, although I would keep the bulb in there to plug that big hole.
Or add a switch somewhere to select either the low beam or that bulb: use it as a daytime running light although it's likely to be rather dim.

I'm not familiar with the m-unit so I don't know if any other connection makes sense with it.

In European style reflectors we also have that ba9s 'city light' socket. I replaced the 4Watts bulb by a 20 Watts Philips halogen (around 450 lumens) to create a useful DRL. If your model does not have the handlebar switch arrangement we have here, you need a separate switch ofcourse. Or have it switched by the neutral indicator via a break relay.

[gbal06]

Well this is weird, I got it to work but not like any recommendations.  Yellow= Neg, Black= HB, W= LB, and Brown= RL.  Does that seem right?

[Deltarider]

Nobody can tell. Honda's code for our bikes is: white for lo beam, blue for hi beam, brown for pilot light and green for ground. Anyway, you've tested it and as long as you take good notes of what you connect to what, you'll be OK. Just curious to know, do you read continuity from the yellow wire to metal parts of the lamp, like the holes in the side where the bolts go?

[gbal06]

Ya these are the readings y=.1, blk= .2, w= .1