The Weirdest Thing Happened To Me The Other Night

[SkooterG]

The other night I was on a nice little jaunt to Bartlett Lake, a nice little local ride. Full moon and in the low 70s. All was right with the world. The purpose of this ride was to officially *kill* my rear Avon Storm, as I was doing a tire change the next day. Mission accomplished. I got 9618 miles out of that Storm, and the rubber started doing some strange stuff those last few miles.

But this story is not about my tires dear reader. No.......this is about my dash lights.

You see, I had one of my dash lights go out many months back. At about 131,000 miles or so. I wasn't too upset because, one, that is the first dash light to go out and I figured I have gotten pretty good service out of them, and two, it was the light for the right side of the LCD display. Since the left side light of the lcd display was still working I could still read it though the right side was fairly dark.

Well, I have never had the front cowling off my bike and was in no particular hurry to perform that excercise to replace the bulb, even though I have had all 9 or so replacement bulbs on hand now for a while. I figured I would definitely get to it if another burned out, or sometime in the future if I had the time and I was feeling up for a challenge in the garage.

Well this brings us to the other night. Now, at 139,000 miles, about 8,000 miles since bulb burnout, as I am cutting up the chipseal to Bartlett Lake................. I look down at my dash and Voila!!!! All dash lights are a go! That frigging thing is on!

What the heck?!?!?!?!

It has stayed on for the past few days since being re-born. I don't get it. Not that I am complaining or anything. But how does a bulb come back on after several months and several thousand miles of being out?

Some weird filament thing going on, and impending permanent doom just around the corner?

Dirt/dust/corrosion causing initial problem with contact, and the bumpy road I was on solved it?

Weird. Just weird.

Wish my limited amount of brain cells would regenerate like that.

 

[Ignacio]

I had that happen too with one of my lights on my middle-aged equivalent to your bike. I had a light come and go about three times before it finally permenantly gave up in The Show. At first I thought it was an intermittent connecter because it seemed like jostling fixed it (it worked mysteriously again after Grosvenor Arch)

My theory is that the filament breaks, but when jostled it arc welds itself together.....at least for a while.

Might still want to crack in there because I bet your bulbs are black like mine were.

 

[GunMD]

So what yer sayin' is that much like its owner, that bulb only recently started working after a long period of time off?

Hmmm.

Strange.

Must be a squid thing.



:****:

 

[03silverbullet]

Thats funny, I had the same thing happen to me a while back.

The lights stopped working, then started working, then a couple days ago stopped again.

 

[Toecutter]

Wish my limited amount of brain cells would regenerate like that.

Woof!

Killing them the first time was such a blast, I'd sure like the chance to do it again....

 

[twowheelnut]

So what yer sayin' is that much like its owner, that bulb only recently started working after a long period of time off?
Hmmm.

Strange.

Must be a squid thing.



:****:

:rofl: OK, that ones buys you a beer at NAFO!

Oddly, my recent episode with the headlamps prompted someone to suggest I replace the dash bulbs while I was in there. Should have done that as the right side speedo bulb is out. Again. So, skooter, I had the same symptom as you, but my bulb went out at, oh, 12k or so, stayed out for 5k or so, then came back to life until now. Of course, I've yet to see if a good swat of the hand will knock it back to life...

Pending that, I'll send my mini-tech, Gerry the Gerbil, in there for a looksee. :****:

 

[RenoJohn]

LOL,

OK so now I'll tell my story that I figured would never be believed.

had two tachometer lights out .....and like you didn't want to screw with messing with them, but it was on my list of things to do..

Coming Back from the Pinks RTE(clicky here), at about 01:38:21am ..they came back on ...and now a fair amount of miles later, they've been on ever since.

Sidenote, on the way *to* Pinks, i lost not one, but two Silverstar headlights. That ride was a weird one for bulbs.

 

[Ignacio]

LOL,
OK so now I'll tell my story that I figured would never be believed.

OK, so this is the fourth person to share this similar bit of a seemingly crazy observation. Sharing a delusion in common with this crowd makes me feel like Spenny not knowing what Kenny is doing.........but is my theory of arc welding the filament and restarting possible?

I've seen it happen in house bulbs on a couple of occasions, but they never lasted long. I'm wonder if the miniscule nature of this bulb lends itself to self-healing more easily.

Or am I about to perform a humiliation?

 

[FJRMGM]

suggest you guys with intermittent dash lights check out this thread and the connection that was loose on my '05 FJR.

Mine have worked fine since I snapped the connection together completely.

Its under the gas tank and I have a picture with a screwdriver pointing to it - might save you some time I spent.

Intermittent dash lights

 

[Ignacio]

suggest you guys with intermittent dash lights check out this thread and the connection that was loose on my '05 FJR.

I don't think this applies to when just certain backlight bulbs are out. If it was a matter of all the backlights out I could buy it, but I can't imagine each of those four tiny bulbs being on their own dedicated circuit.

 

[Fred W]

LOL,
OK so now I'll tell my story that I figured would never be believed.

OK, so this is the fourth person to share this similar bit of a seemingly crazy observation. Sharing a delusion in common with this crowd makes me feel like Spenny not knowing what Kenny is doing.........but is my theory of arc welding the filament and restarting possible?

I've seen it happen in house bulbs on a couple of occasions, but they never lasted long. I'm wonder if the miniscule nature of this bulb lends itself to self-healing more easily.

Or am I about to perform a humiliation?

I are a Electronic Engineer, well, at least I sometimes play one at work (when I'm not too busy posting here...)

What you describe is not only possible, it is most likely exactly what happened. In fact this sort of thing happens all the time, especially with relatively long filament light bulbs.

Sometimes, when they re-attach, the sum of the two sections is significantly shorter than the original was. Lower filament resistance = more current flow = higher wattage output. So, that is when you notice that the "self-repaired" lamp is suddenly noticeably brighter than it originally was. Of course that also means the filament is taking more heat abuse and is even more likely to blow (again) soon.

 

[twowheelnut]

Of course that also means the filament is taking more heat abuse and is even more likely to blow (again) soon.

That's contrary to bulbs going out, going back on and lasting for further 10's of thousands of miles. What else is involved in that bulb/circuit?

 

[Fred W]

Of course that also means the filament is taking more heat abuse and is even more likely to blow (again) soon.

That's contrary to bulbs going out, going back on and lasting for further 10's of thousands of miles. What else is involved in that bulb/circuit?

That quote was regarding filaments that joined together somewhat shorter. If the very tips of the ends of the filament pieces re-fused together resulting in the same / normal length, then who knows how long they could last?

 

[twowheelnut]

That quote was regarding filaments that joined together somewhat shorter. If the very tips of the ends of the filament pieces re-fused together resulting in the same / normal length, then who knows how long they could last?

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[Malve]

Ok so the lights are on....

but no-one's home.

:blink:

 

[twowheelnut]

Spenny not knowing what Kenny is doing

Man, you're a international kinda guy, ain'cha?

 

[CigarGuy]

I am so cunfused as to whether or not his actually even happened or if you all are just messing with me! If you are all collectively messing with me, that is jacked up! if not and this did really happen to all of you, than it has been confirmed that you all are much smarter than I am to have figured this out. That is cool! I am glad I read these posts!

 

[ionbeam]

I am so cunfused as to whether or not his actually even happened or if you all are just messing with me! If you are all collectively messing with me, that is jacked up! if not and this did really happen to all of you, than it has been confirmed that you all are much smarter than I am to have figured this out. That is cool! I am glad I read these posts!

Fred W sez:

I are a Electronic Engineer,

Ya have to know that what he says is fact, there is no room in his life for 'messing' with people 'cause he is an Electrocutional Engineer with a capital E's.

Fred, JK, I use this Dilbert catoon on my personal web site.

Oh ya, Fred is right too.

 

[twowheelnut]

I am so cunfused as to whether or not his actually even happened or if you all are just messing with me! If you are all collectively messing with me, that is jacked up! if not and this did really happen to all of you, than it has been confirmed that you all are much smarter than I am to have figured this out. That is cool! I am glad I read these posts!

Honest, we ain't bullshittin' ya. If you don't believe me, just search for: +muffler +lubricant