world smallest replacement HID ballast super slim HID

[LDRydr]

If I decide to convert to an HID setup do I need to buy one or two conversion kits?Would that be H-4 kits?Plus the slim ballasts.

The e-bay site in this thread sells the kits for $39.95 plus $40 for shipping.

The slim ballasts are $39.99 plus $15 shipping.

I don't really know much about this setup,anyone that can tell me exactly what I need I'd appreciate it.

I've read the other comments of whats needed but would like to make sure.

It might not hurt to send him an email and ask if he has any H4 hi/low telescoping kits with the slim ballasts. Perhaps he can sell you parts and save you some cash as opposed to buying a full kit with fat boys, and then buying extra slim ballasts.

I asked him for a price for a pair of low-beam only 4300k H4's with the super small ballasts and needed wiring, got a reply for $149 but he didn't say if it included shipping so I emailed him back asking. I also asked him about a price for a package with the small ballasts and Bi-Xenon's. No reply yet. And it sounds like he's legit if IndianaTom got goods from him.

Dennis

Just got the reply from the seller on the shipping. A pair of low-beam only H4, a pair of compact ballasts, all needed wiring, $149 delivered. He didn't respond on my question of pricing for the High/Low setup. Guess I'll be ordering a set of the low-beam only to be used with my Soltek's. Now if only my brackets were here

Dennis

 

[Lake Powell]

I recieved my mini ballasts today and they should fit with no problem. What is the small black case attached to the silver metal case for?

I am far from an expert on HID ballasts, but I gather it's an ignitor, or something. As far as ignitors go, I GUESS it's a burst up transformer of some sort, like a higher voltage for a moment to get the fire going. I'm guessing that because the wire from the ignitor to the bulb is thicker (more insulated) than the wire from the ballast to the ignitor.

BTW if you give me a ride in your avatar, I'll let you fly mine! :clapping:

I wasn't ignoring that, jut too ashamed/ hurt to admit that it's only a picture of a childhood dream that appears will never be... My therapist says it's good to talk about it... so thank you... I guess.

Thanks for the info Tom. A flight in a P-51 has always been a dream of mine too, a few years ago I came very close to getting a ride but a fuel leak noticed at the last moment dashed that hope. After 30 years of flying my desire to hang out at airports has waned and unless I feel like dropping alot of cash to make it happen, a P-51 ride will remain a hope.......

 

[BrunDog]

After a few e-mails back and forth, I ordered a kit made up of the telescopic bulbs from and the slim ballasts above. It was $170 shipped, and I should get it in a few days. Once I receive and test them out, I will post up some pictures and impressions and provide the contact information (email address and phone) for those who want to order the same kit.

After much consternation, I ordered the 6000k bulbs. I certainly wanted more lumens, but the difference was 2900 vs. 3100 for the 4300k which is not much of a difference. Either way, its MUCH more than the halogens. Since I don't really ride at night, and just like BMWHD I am more interested in the daytime conspicuity, I decided for these. On our group ride, I got to see taterides' 6000k bulbs. They were BRIGHT and TWINKLY!! Mr. Magoo couldn't miss these things. I could give a rat's ass if a cop wants to harass me about these - if it saves the possibility of some fuckleberry pulling out in front of me, it'll be worth the LEO attention.

If I don't like them, no problem, I'll purchase the other bulbs for $50 or whatever they cost. I can easily justify safety items anytime!

-BD

 

[BrunDog]

OK, got the kit:

Two super-slim ballasts, two 6000K bulbs with solenoids, and the unexpected wire harness with "power stabilizer", whatever that is. The harness is not built to draw power from the original bulb connector - it has two fused links that appear that should connect directly to the battery, assuming they don't draw power full time. The bulb connector is, I assume, to provide a signal to the lights to be on, and whether the solenoid should be activated or not:

The provided documentation is a joke. The picture shown does not even make mention of the ballasts and acts like the power is drawn simply from the bulb connector. Not only that, there is some chicken scratch in the upper corner showing bulb connector polarities, as if this I could possibly mess this up with keyed connectors!?!. Oh well, I guess I am on my own, but if anyone has some experience here, please post up.

-BD

 

[ngarider]

It looks alot like my kit, and there was literally only one way to hook everything together. Hardest part was dealing with my ginormous ballasts. BTW, I know its been buried in the other thread, but the hot ticket to putting the bulbs in with the stock rubber boots is to invert the boot for installation. Makes that part of the install REALLY easy.

 

[BrunDog]

Right, but it doesn't look like I need to take the bulb apart like bmwhd. The shield twists off (unlock) to provide room to get the (inverted) boot on.

Was your harness the same, with the power stabilizer that mounts to the battery or ignition?

-BD

 

[mdisher]

Brun Dog...

Take pix, cause after looking at some of the bikes this weekend in ST. Louis I think I'm ready to go this route.

-MD

 

[IndianaTom]

Right, but it doesn't look like I need to take the bulb apart like bmwhd. The shield twists off (unlock) to provide room to get the (inverted) boot on.
Was your harness the same, with the power stabilizer that mounts to the battery or ignition?

-BD

Yea, just like mine, twist off shield, and same harness.

I think that black box looks at the signal from the headlight plug and tells the solenoids to go forward or back.

Also, on one eBay site I saw they had "Motorcycle" kits, which I ASS-U-ME means the wires are shorter. i had to wad the long wire up and tuck it in place under the tank. On occasion the light on that side doesn't fire, and I wonder f it has to do with the EMF of the coiled wire. I've only noticed it 2x out of 50 starts or so, maybe it's not EMF, but it has me wondering.

I'd hate to think of cutting the wire and shortening it with the 23kv or 38kv, or what ever it was.

 

[FJRocket]

Also, on one eBay site I saw they had "Motorcycle" kits, which I ASS-U-ME means the wires are shorter. i had to wad the long wire up and tuck it in place under the tank. On occasion the light on that side doesn't fire, and I wonder f it has to do with the EMF of the coiled wire. I've only noticed it 2x out of 50 starts or so, maybe it's not EMF, but it has me wondering.
I'd hate to think of cutting the wire and shortening it with the 23kv or 38kv, or what ever it was.

Usually, "motorcycle kit" means single headlight, not dual. Usually.

 

[ngarider]

Nope, no bulb surgery. I don't recall having that big black heatsinked looking thing.

This slim-ballasted kit is clearly the way to go, provided it's watertight (or out of the path of any water, ever) and has no vibration problems.

Also, MC light kits typically come with just one bulb, as FJRocket said.

 

[Grumpy]

I spent more time shortening up leads so that it would all fit under the faring.

Jim

 

[BrunDog]

You'll notice that the ballasts have waterproof connectors and have very short leads. The "power stabilizer" has long wires, which have waterproof connectors at the end.

ngarider: does your power go straight from the headlight or battery into the ballasts, then to the bulbs? What controls the solenoids? As far as my kit is concerned, there is no other option, as everything connects serially like this. Power -> power stabilizer -> ballasts -> bulbs.

So, red ring to power source ( I have decided that I will absolutely connect this to my BlueSea fuseblock, not to the battery), black to GND (also the BlueSea), bulb connector to one of the headlight connectors, and wrap up the other. Nothing gets modified on the bike, so reverting back to stock will be easy-peasy, if needed.

Looking forward to the install, but it may be a little while, as I have other projects on the burner...

-BD

 

[BrunDog]

I just noticed Indiana Tom's post up top - the ballasts normally come with a simple 12V lead!?! Then why the hell did I get a fricken "power stabilizer"??? WTF is that? Perhaps it has to do with why his bulbs don't sometimes light off, though I hear this is a common possibility with HIDs.

-BD

 

[drew231506]

Keep asking questions Brun...I'm going to get these sometime soon...and I know I wont have a clue as how to install. I'll be keeping an eye here.

 

[IndianaTom]

I will say this, the HID is brighter, but it seems like a narrower beam. I was eyeballing the light on my bug encrusted headlight lenses and noticed how full the beam was with the yellow conventional bulb. The brighter white HID light takes up a narrower beam of bug carcases. I had one of each at one time, and it was noticeable. I'm not saying that the HID isn't better, but how much better it would be if it took up the whole lens.

Hmm.... i wonder if I have enough room for 2 more ballasts for one of those kits that uses the 2 element bulb like the conventional bulb.

OR..... Anyone notice all the light being blocked on the bulb shield? anyone try taking the shield off?

 

[ngarider]

If you take the shield off, you'll end up with light scatter... nothing to aim the beam, and thus terrible light for you, a blinding experience for oncoming traffic.

I'd say if you need any more light than the telescopic kit provides on the highbeam position, you might look into aux lighting. I recommend this:

Better than Soltek

 

[IndianaTom]

If you take the shield off, you'll end up with light scatter... nothing to aim the beam, and thus terrible light for you, a blinding experience for oncoming traffic.
I'd say if you need any more light than the telescopic kit provides on the highbeam position, you might look into aux lighting. I recommend this:

Better than Soltek

I've got the soltek on order, and i'm not saying that the HID isn't alot of light, just that the beam seems narrower thru the headlamp lens.

 

[BrunDog]

Alright fellers. An hour a day or so for a few days gotter dun.

My bike is an '05 (you know, the fastest year made), so Gen II owners will have to figure some things out on your own.

The models I got have a twist off shield. This makes things much easier. I think this is common, but BMWHD's didn't seem to have it.

The shield then matches the original H4 shape.

A very good thing is that the rubber boot goes *perfectly* over the shield outer housing. You simply unclip your old H4 bulb, clip the shield in, put the rubber boot on, and push it over and around the shield in the center. I didn't find any need to invert the boot as I have read elsewhere. You are then left with a hole for the bulb/solenoid housing to slip in. You push it in, then twist to lock it in place. EZ PZ!

I removed the A,B,C,D covers and the right upper fairing plastic. Getting to the hidden screws down low was a royal pain in my pimpled, hair ingrowned ass. I would love to find the CAD engineer who designed this thing and take a hammer to his mouse hand...

Anyway, once removed, the right side looks like the Terminator in the first movie where half of his face is missing. Also removed the plastic cover on the right side which goes between the radiator and the fairing. No need to remove the windshield or other fairing pieces.

Pretty straightforward process once I decided where to put the ballasts and "power stabilizer" shown above. I have no experience with the bigger ballasts, but I will tell you, with these little babies, you can put them ANYWHERE. In fact, they fit in so many places I couldn't decide which one to pick!! Ultimately, I decided that if my belief about chinese product quality proves true, I'll need to access them easily. So, I didn't bury them into the nose as could have easily been done. I put them where a quick swap would not be impossible.

In this picture, you can see the ballast on the left. It is sitting just over the coil and is nylon tied (like everything else) into place. It won't move, will breathe, and can be ripped out quickly if needed. On the right is the power stabilizer and it's cabling just below it. The yellow fuses are for these lamps. I decided to wire it directly to the battery rather than my Blue Sea fuseblock which is in the other side of the fairing.

The left side ballast is tucked very neatly in front of the glovebox. You'll have to look for it. I am telling you, these things are tiny!

Continued...

-BD

 

[BrunDog]

These are the 6000K color temp. I, like BMWHD in the other post, wanted a tinge of blue for daytime visibility. I don't really see blue, just bright white. A VERY NOTICEABLE bright white. I am thrilled I picked this color and really think it will make a big difference in visibility. Here is the Xenon compared to the original Halogen.

Once the bulb is installed and the wires routed, this thing looks as factory as you can believe.

Wrap everything back up (which again, was a real hump considering the fairing screw locations), and here are the finished goods.

Much brighter than the halogen bulbs:

And the requisite low pattern.

And high pattern.

I think I will need to make some height adjustments, but as you can roughly see, the cutoffs are very good.

I am pretty happy. Now, time to put some SERIOUS miles on this thing to test it out. (Yeah right, who am I kidding?)

-BD

 

[BrunDog]

One other thought this is independent of the install posts above. This is an observation, not a perceived problem, and I wanted to get your thoughts.

The original H4 shines light upward in LOW beam mode only, and shines light both upward and downward in HIGH beam mode. These xenons, on the other hand, shine light upward in either mode. The big shield has a hole in it as can be seen above, which I would have thought allowed the light to escape downward in HIGH beam mode, but it doesn't!! In fact, the light can never go downward, because the hole in the shield is too close to the solenoid end, and the arc never gets close enough to it to allow the light out. Does anybody have any idea why? Why didn't they allow the hole in the shield to be closer to the end so light can get through it in high beam mode?

-BD