Harley headlight problem, any ideas on the cause?

I have a 2002 Super Glide. Last night when I was out riding it I put on my high beam. I switched back to the low beam, no problem. I turned on the high beam again and not only did I not have a high beam, I lost my low beam as well. That's right, no headlight at all. When I switched back to low beam the low beam did come back on. This morning I was riding my bike and the low beam was on. I got home, turned off the bike. A few minutes later I decided to investigate. When I turned the key on I found I had neither a low or a high beam. I took off the headlight. I found the connection the light plugs into was melted in the area where the black wire connects to the connection. I spent the afternoon trying to chase down a possible short but came up with nothing. By the way, all the other lights on the bike continue to work. Any ideas on what caused this? I try to do as much repair work on my bike by myself, but electrical is one of my weaknesses.

Firecracker .2008-05-18T20:44:48Z

Favorite Answer

Sounds like you had a bad connection at the common terminal of the socket. A bad connection = resistance, which creates heat. Hot enough to melt those connectors. You may (probably will) want to replace that socket.

Seen it before. Replacement sockets can be gotten at any auto parts store.

Anonymous2008-05-18T12:52:25Z

clean off the wire with a little bit of steel wool, or could be your running lights are too high a voltage. i did that with the fatboy and the lights all went off for about 15 secs. on the freeway here in LA, scary. the relay came back on. i changed to lesser voltage bulbs and that solved the problemo.

vladoviking2008-05-18T00:29:34Z

It may just be the connector itself got old, loose and built up a resistance which caused the heat that melted it. replace it now irregardless also check for a good ground for the headlight.

lingo bingo2008-05-17T22:17:53Z

short in switch? maybe a loose wire? maybe a bad fuse? all problems in headlight shoud!