| Motorcycles and Twowheelers: Bike maintenance - "Installing a Victory Motorcycle Jackpot Headlight" Wednesday, 7 January, 2009 | Home | Suggest a Link |
Motorcyclists, Safety and Bus Lanes
With one of the warmest winters on record, the little Groundhog from Pennsyvania decided that he would see his shadow and call for 6 more weeks of winter. We all laughed at the little furry rodent. Especially with 60 degree motorcycle riding weather in the middle of February. Fast forward a few weeks and the east coast gets hit with a Nor-Easter storm. This storm dumped record snow fall from Washington, D.C. to New York. So now you find yourself unable to ride your Victory motorcycle. You need to do something so you decide to add a new custom part.
What I decided to do was upgrade the stock Victory headlight bucket with the new Victory Jackpot headlight bucket. This headlight is a gem since it will fit on all late model Victory bikes. The following will explain how to install this Jackpot headlight on a Victory Hammer. But the same instructions may be applied on the Victory Kingpin, Vegas, 8-Ball, and Jackpot. Plus the Headlight is a cheap add-on. The wife will never know you spent the money.
So you do not think you're a skillful wrench? Well, hey there, to be real honest with you it is really easier than you think. I read the instructions for 2 days just to make sure that I did not miss anything. Then I finally got into it, the hardest part of which was putting all the screws back together with the new Jackpot headlight top and getting them to thread in. To be honest, that still wasn't that difficult.
The trick that I found was taking your time and laying the wiring out as you take it apart. Basically you will be "unplugging" the connectors and removing them from the bucket through the hole in the back of the headlight after you have removed the chrome ring by loosening the bottom screw and removing it. Be careful as the light is loose and there is a metal ring behind it to center the light in the bucket.
Unplug the high and low bulb connectors and make sure that the high wire is labeled. I believe that it is and you will not be using it on the new headlight. After this, unplug the left and right turn signal harnesses (black 2-cavity connectors) and the left and right control harness (blue and white 10-cavity connectors) from the main wire harness inside the bucket. They are labeled left and right.
Move on to your other connectors, tachometer, speedo (I took different color sharpie markers and marked each side of the connector just so I did not screw it up. Hey, it worked for me, just don't use the same colors). The plugs really only go one way and the left and right are marked. Once you have done this you can remove the bucket from the tree, pull out all the wires from the rear of the bucket and set the bucket aside, you are done with it.
Attach the new bottom half of the Jackpot headlight with the new bolt and nut loosely. Lay in the bundle of wires you removed from the bucket and I laid them out Left/Right, and start plugging in, turns, control harnesses and speedo/tach. Place the headlight assembly in position inside the headlight housing and loosely install the two top screws. They are gold, take a torx bit to put them in. Make sure they are in but loose, because you have to install the single bottom screw next.
Once you have all the screws in the light assembly I tightened them all, 2 top ones and the single one on the bottom. Clean up the wiring, there is more room inside the bucket now. This is where you hook up the headlight bulbs. Connect the lower lamp connector of the existing bike wiring harness to the lower headlight bulb on the new headlight assembly. The top connector of the main wire harness labeled "top connector" will not be reused.
Connect the wire harness included with the kit to the 2-pin accessory connector on the bike wire harness and to the upper headlight bulb on the new Jackpot headlight assembly. If applicable, connect the accessory driving light harness to the other 2-pin connector of the headlight kit wiring harness.
Once you have done all of this, and before putting the top on the new Jackpot light, turn the key on and make sure that all is good in the world and that you have turns and lights. If all is well place the top on and make sure that you are not pinching any wires.
The hole in the back is substantially larger, so it is easier to feed all the wires in there. Make sure that you place the headlight spacers into their spots on the top assembly. 36in. lbs torque. With this done, place the top on and thread in the 4 screws remaining to hold the top portion on, I seated the top half to the bottom half before tightening, and leaving the headlight a little loose will allow you to move it up to get those darn things started.
Once all is tightened down, tighten the main bolt lightly and adjust the aim and fully tighten 44 ft-lb torque. You should check alignment with the high beam on!
If you run into anything else email or call me anytime. I did mount some driving lights and man it is awesome. The JP headlight throws more light than the original bucket. You will be impressed.
You may ask yourself, what is a motorcycle fork stabilizer and why do I need one for my motorcycle? These are very reasonable questions to ask, especially since you have expected the motorcycle manufacturer to have given your motorcycle the highest performance suspension components available. I hope to answer these questions and many more within this motorcycle fork stabilizer article.
I first became aware of motorcycle fork stabilizers from the
Cycle Solutions (www.CycleSolutions.net) motorcycle
forums. Several members of the forum suggested that this was an
aftermarket part to install on your motorcycle. Being both
curious and ignorant I asked questions. Is this
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I strongly believe that knowledge is power. Especially when it comes to motorcycle maintenance. Why go to the stress and expense of having your local motorcycle shop perform your maintenance and upgrades when you can learn to do it yourself? And you know that if you do your own maintenance, that you will give the extra attention required to do a competent job. I doubt you can say the same for the underpaid and over-worked motorcycle service mechanic.
The other benefit of doing your own
motorcycle maintenance is that you learn more about your bike.
This has many benefits. You will be able to tell when
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The amp/hour (AH) capacity is the basis for rating motorcycle batteries. For example, a 12AH battery can produce one amp of current flow for 12 hours, or two amps for six hours. In order to calculate the amount of time needed to use up a fully charged motorcycle battery by turning the lights on, we have to take power in watts, and divide it by voltage, which gives us the current draw in Amps. Therefore, a 72 watts beam and tail together, divided by 12 volts equals a 6-amp draw. So in 2 hours, the 12AH
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Part and parcel of owning a bike is maintaining its appearance and its capability. Nevertheless, despite making sure that the parts and cables of the motorcycle give us maximum service, we cannot but accept that they have their own warranties and lifetimes.
Unlike artwork or antiques, motorcycles are made to be used and abused. With all the elements found in the environment, a motorcycle part will definitely have its final day. When that day comes and you don't have enough money to buy new ones, why not settle for used motorcycle parts, e.g. cables? With a little tinkering and proper installation,
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The tachometer or the rev counter tells the speed of the engine of the motorcycle in revolutions per minute (RPM). Common nowadays are electronic rev counters that can be installed by the dealers you get them from. But for used motorcycle parts, rev counters usually come in just any wrapping without instructions or diagrams. In cases like these, you may install your rev counter with the following instructions to help you.
The very first step is to move the headlight away. This is a great help later on in avoiding some mistakes and will definitely help you finish faster. If you
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