How to install HI/Low HID bulbs into a pregen ninja

[saber63]

alrighty, so im first going to post pics and links, and ill add text as i have time

i suggest these HIDS
http://www.ddmtuning.com/index.php?p...=106&parent=61

as its what i used on the install. i can not offear help on installing any other kits, as im not sure how they work or there problems etc.... also i should note that i actually bought a car kit so a few things wont look the same in pictures(but ill explain everything )

it is also possible this modification is illegal, and i suggest it be used only offroad blah blah blah could blow up your bike if done wrong, not my fault blah blah blah ok good thats out of the way

4.5K at 35W or 5K at 55W will give the clearest whitest light. the kit above is a low/HI beam and works great! bigger numbers make the light more blue(untill 10Kish where it starts to go purple then red), smaller numbers make it more yellow. heres a chart to give yo ua visual idea

now to install these, your going to need
wire cutters/strippers, (hell pliers and a knife will work)
razer/box knife etc...
soildering iron, or crimp connectors(use what you know)
etrical tape,
some way to mask the headlight( E-tape works well, or vynal)
a screw(details later)
some zip ties.


alrighty on with the show!


first you need to strip the bike down enough that you can ca ntake the tank off, and then take it off, youll also want to pull the headlight off as well, as it will make things eaiser.

as such



SO as you can see i nthe picture, the headlight bulb plug has a pretty short tail, so you need to very carfeully cut the tape back so the 3 plug wires can be pulled back futher on the bike, as shown below.


so i would suggest wrouting the wires as such above, you will also want to length/shorten them depending on how the harness is. made. so todo this youll need to know where the wires are going to go to.


This is my suggested location for the conrol box (its used ot keep the ballist on all the time, and activate the solinode for the hi/low. it also makes the wires for power short and the fuse easy ive been ridign around some without mouting it, however i dont suggest that. i would suggest using a short self tapping screw, or a screw and lock nut or lock washer and nut, to mount it to the under tail. you are free to mount it where every you can find room though.




this is the wiring harness, it actaully ment for two sets of ballists *DOH* however it SHOULD look the same as the motorcyle kit, accept you wont see 2 wires coming out of the same spots in the harness. i do however suggest removing the black covers , this will mae it easy to splice the wires, and you also most likell run more wires togther, so removing the covering will make it simpler.




so the HID kits linked above have a ballist and an ignitor, so hiding it somewhere can be abit tricky, the best way i found was to place the ballist on the left side of the bike( left and right will be from a seated riding postion) and route the cable conecting the ballsit and ignitor, under the frame's center tube, placing the ignitor on the right side of the bike,

this will also make connection the actaul bulb pretty easy. also shown in this picture is the high/low swap wire, it should be ran from the control unit with the other wires and cross under the framerail with the ignitor. then run to the bulb.


currently i dont have any pictures of the bulb, however the install is pretty straitforward and covered in the instucions with the kit, if needed, ill add that section here.




so this shoot is showing how i clliped all the wires to shorten/lengthen them, (i can get pictures and details on which needs what if anyone needs them, however its pretty strait forward, if it to long, shorten it, if its to short, lengthn it.) i used the chunks of wire from the to long pieces and extra pieces, and spliced the minto the short pieces. NEVER splice the wires going from the bulb to the ballist!!!



so above is the location forthe fuse, i mounted it on the right, withthe oem fuses, right next to the brake res. . you can ziptie /epoxy, or plastic weld it to the tray piece. this keeps all the bikes fuses behind one panel.


And now, pics of the needed headlight masking, it should be noted that is not "perfect" however it does the job, you can check for nasty scater by using a piece of white paper with the lights on, and see where the paper is lite(that shouldnt be)

the oddest ones in the middle part... but its the most important! as it adds a very bright area pretty much in peoples eyes when the low beams are on...



Alrighty, so thats the first draft :P i know its not a step by step... but it should help those who need a nudge in the correct direction to get started and finished. for those who still arnt sure you want to undertake this project, DONT FRET!

im going to post better step by step in the next few weeks, more pics, etc... if theres anything that is very foggy for you on this, let me know below, and ill be sure to grab pics from that angel etc....

-Levi

p.s. sorry the speling sucks, im just fleshing this out, i plan on editing it alot, and then putting it into the wiki also is there anyway to add hi resish photos that are hosted here? (so the links dont break)

[saber63]

place holder, incase i run out of room above.

[saber63]

and another, for if/when other add info etc... that should be on top...

[ashish87]

Thanks for this writeup, i'm probably going to attempt it. Thanks again!

[saber63]

perfect! if you have ANY questions abou tthe install, need ANY help at all, please PM/post/email me

i want this to help walk people throught all the issues they may have. (do you have a airbox or pod filters?) cause i think i found a better place to installe the ballast, but im not sure its compatable with the air box...

sense it was abit after i installed mine, im not sure of the spcfics, like X feet of wire etc.... so if you could also take a few wrtien notes(ill help dont worry ) that would also be a big help!

Good luck, and i hope this write up helps!

-Levi

[Snake]

Great DIY thanks for posting. I look foward to pics of your light shining down the road.

[ashish87]

my bikes stock and i'm thinking of going 35w 6000k. http://www.poweredbygt.com/HID_files/colortemp.jpg looks like the clearest white. Also, which bulb did you get the h4 hi/lo or the 9004?

My bikes stock so once i play around i'll find the best place for the wiring. It won't be till probably end of may because of school but i definitely am researching it now!

[saber63]

heyo,

(EDIT: i didnt post the info below in my first post, i only thought i had, i spoke of this on a Diffrent fourm, sorry!)
im going off what ive seen with 6K bulbs and 4.5K bulbs from DDM tuning, as posted in my first post true clear lights will be 4.5k at 35W or 5K at 55W (for DDM tuning bulbs) the 6K bulbs at 55W i have are quite blue to look at, and give a Very noticable blue color on white street signs, white lines or other lightly collered stuff.... and i find the 4.5K at 55W to look brighter ar night then the 6K at 55K (again all DDM tuning ballasts and bulbs)

heres the color chart from the DDM tuning website (also editing it into the first post)



also to note 4500 kelvin lights (HID, LED, Floursent, or any other bulbs color rated in kelvin) are supposed to be almost true white with 4300Kelvin to be real white (or the other way around i cant rember which is which )

also i do hope you dont plan on buying from the company your color chart came from, $115 for a pair of lights is absord, i also have no idea what comes in there kit and how to modfy it to fit,

however you indeed want the H4 HI/low bulb as the 9004 are like a H1 bulb...(only hi/low i think) i have these in my car, and they will NOT work in a pregen ninja housing. also be sure to only get H4 HI/LOW, and NOT plain H4... as you will probly only have on/off instead of lo/hi

so to sum it(incase you dont want to read ^that book)

if you DONT grab the ones in the link in the first post, i WONT be much help installing them... (i have only bought lights from DDM tuning)

the 6K bulbs at 35W from DDM tuning (that i have) are a light blue color, and there 4.5K bulbs at 55W are just a hint yellow and i suggest 4500K at 35W and 5000K at 55W for best clear/white light

you want H4 hi/low bulbs ONLY

[ashish87]

Saber63, thanks a lot for the info. I wasn't aware that different companies have different lighting specs i guess you can say. I am indeed going to go with the ddm's because the price is just great. can't beat 35 + 15 shipping to nj. thank's for clearing up the confusion. I will look at ddm's chart and go from there. I'm probably going to go with the 4500k 35w ones, i'll definitely use the right size as well.

Do you remember how long it took you to receive and the quality of the product? I've heard horror stories of the ballasts melting, not on the 250's but just in general.

[saber63]

ive never herd of an issue from DDM's stuff. personaly i have never had any issues either. ive had there 55W name brand ones, in my 600 for about a year now, ive had there 55w cheaper onees (not suggest for ninja due to size, great for cars though) in mar car for about 5Kmiles...(havethem on ALWAYS) nad havent really put any time on the ninja.

however they had a spotless record (last i checked) over at 600RR.net, and they have ran 2 or 3 difrrent group buys there....

also they offear a lifetime warranty on all there stuff (sept for bulbs burning out ) no way they could offear a lifetime warranty and THAT low of cost, if they had any real failure rate! (freak accidents do happen)

i normal get stuff withen 2-3 bussiness days, but im only 2 states away... they do also get backed up on order every now and again... but they run a talley on there home page about which orders numbers have shipped, and which ones are delayed. they are also supper fast to reply to email, and you can call them!

i should note, i have never bother with 35w HIDs however having seen other bikes with them, i dont think theres a hudge difreance, but at long range on pitch black nights.... im happy ive got 55W! if you can afford the extra $8 i would go for it, UNLESSS your local cops like to harass motorcycles for EVERY little thing(or your parnoided). (ive never had or herd of this issue where i live)


let me know when you get them! as i want to know everthing you have questions about, or need help with so i can make this write up spot on!

Thanks!

-Levi

[ashish87]

I'll let you know by end of may as long as rotations don't screw me over! I'll try the 55's out if i can. Thanks!

[iceman.kcmo]

Month old thread, but.... I am about to buy this hid setup. Which do you recomend?
35w or 55w?

[saber63]

its suppossed to be a DIY type thing, so it never matters how old the thread gets

wattage....

theres really no reason to get 35W over the 55W... unless the racing you do regultes you todo so. (some eduro stuff) just be sure to take aim them lower then you think, and take a screw driver with you to adjust them on the fly.

no matter which you chose, you will have to mask the headlight to remove the blinding scatter,(its there with halgeons, buts its only anoyying bright)

the extra $10 or so is worth EVERY penny.

when you do the install let me know what you have issues with, as i would love to get it covered in the install info!

-Levi

[iceman.kcmo]

Where do you have to mask?

[saber63]

i guess i never did get pictures of that :tard:

ill snag a picture of it today and post it up this afternoon, the most important is aroudn the top and anit of the sides. but theres also an area just below the middle.

oddly i used black eltrical tape and i noticed 0-5% loss of light in the road areas, and sides of road etc...(you know, the areas that matter) on both low and high beam...

ofcourse you can make a vynal sticker that matchs your bikes color,

[Verus Cidere]

Can you also get some pics of the beams so we can see how bright they are, and the difference between low and high beams? Thanks!

[saber63]

YEah thats been on my todo list for awhlie now.... however due to the bike getting track preped....(taped lights, and yanking the power to the build) it might be abit...

i can try and find the spare ballist and bulb i got and do an out of biek test... but that wont happen for another week or so.... but i will also have a halgoen Vs HID pic in there also

track day tommrow, still mroe prep todo, will have masking pics up sometime soon...

i will say this much, if you ever ride at night, HID's are the best $50 you can spend

[saber63]

well the trackday got canclled due to weather.

however i did update the first post with pictures of the headlight masking.

do note that its not perfect, and i would use E-tape to play around with it, once you get it right, then get some vynals made

-levi

[iceman.kcmo]

Is there anyway to do that cleaner? Maybe something like silver paint?

[saber63]

of course you can! i just use'd E-tape cause it took a fair amount of trial and error. because its glass, im not sure paint will work to great from a long term side (chiping and flacking)

however window vynal is what i plan on using, get a color that maches the bike, or is like you said, silver, to match the back of the headlight.

you can try paint ment for glass, but thats alot more perminant then vynal.

-Levi

[iceman.kcmo]

can you post a picture on the light shining on a wall?

[saber63]

i will as soon as i cna find my spare housing/ballist etc.... the bike is sitting on a trailer track preped.... (tapped up lights etc.... plus a dead battery )

but i have a spare light set, i think it my clossest.... but it might also be down with the bike :\

one of the many thing's on my todo list

-Levi

[NYC Diesel]

Hey Saber, great write up, I am planning to install a similar kit on my pre-gen as well. I have a quick question if you could help me out. Did you take off the gas tank and fairings because you wanted to route the fuse box next to the kawasakis ? Would it be possible to mount the fuse, ballast and ignitor all near the headlight, under the headlight fairings perhaps ? Also beside the soldering to extend your wires, you never spliced or soldered onto the main harness correct ? Thanks for taking your time to answer, I'll add pictures to this post when I install mine.

[saber63]

So the reason for pulling the tank... the kit i got required a tap off the battery. this is because its a HI/LOW buld.

This is because on the Ninja headlights the Low wire has its power turned off when the Hi beams are on and the HI wire turned off when the low wire has power...

So whats that mean for HI/Low HID's? they need power all the time to keep the bulb on, then the HI/LOW is done by moving the HID bulb (they use a solenoid like coil).

so if your using just a low beam, you should be good,

which ever route you go, remember to mask the stray light! that **** can be bright! hopefully if you have a good bulb it wont be very bad, but be sure to double check!

-Levi

[NYC Diesel]

I gotcha, my next question was what did you end up doing with the battery connection that is included Thanks for breaking it down for me, I was a bit confused with the wiring but you have clarified all my issues and I appreciate it greatly.

Since I'm going to be doing this in the city, I want to be as least invasive as possible to the bike. I'm gonna see if theirs any other way to route the cable by just removing the fairings. Sabre do you recall roughly how long the battery terminal wire was ? Thanks for all your help.

[saber63]

there is a gnd and power wire both, but if i remember correctly they are rather long. however things may have changed sense... it may be possible to snake those two wires (remember to fuse it close to the battery in case a wire rubs/pinches some day) without pulling the tank off.

there should be a fair amount of room around the front turn signals to mount stuff to... not sure about where to mount it...

for the record that bike was ran naked, accept for its track day... so im not sure about hiding it up front by the head light...

-Levi