HOW-TO: Install BKMOTO BiXenon HID projectors with angel eyes halos 2008+ Ninja 250R

[choneofakind]

^^ still hella better than drop in kits! Good work.

[Sonofswin]

I finally got this kit installed on my bike. As others have said, the difference is amazing. I totally recommend it.

Here are some before and after pics of the light spread. The wall is about 12 feet in front of the bike. The drainage pipes in the wall give a good indicator of height for comparison.

Here are the lo-beams. The one on the left is an HID in the stock light.
IMG_1137.jpgIMG_1262.jpg

Here are the hi-beams. Again, the left is the stock light with stock hi-beam.
IMG_1138.jpgIMG_1261.jpg

There are more details on my blog, here if you are interested in where I put the hardware and what-not. Not the greatest walk-through, but more specific than most out there for the Ninja 250.

[CZroe]

Well, my Rustoleum High Heat Matte Black grill paint didn't hold up on the reflector. What prompted me to install HIDs in the first place was that my reflector was damaged, so of course I planned to paint it. The heavily damaged side was flaking off, so I spent forever with a water hose and fingernails, scraping until I had that side completely flaked off. I washed everything with dish soap and dried thoroughly before spraying. I laid on coat after coat but when I came back there were bits and flecks of chrome showing through everywhere but where I scratched it all off.

Instructions were very clear about "no primer" needed (do they even make high heat primer?). Granted, it got rained on while it was outside after drying, but it should have been plenty dry enough by that point. I think I should just try again and make sure that NOTHING touches it even once dry.

[headshrink]

Do you need to scratch up the reflector really good for the paint to adhere to it?

[CZroe]

Perhaps, but my experience with this stuff on the exhaust tells me that it'll show through. My worries are that scratching it up will leave tons of partially adhered flakes between all the ridges. Even if they don't show under the paint, they are likely to go ahead and flake off with the paint from vibration or changes in humidity, then that will surely show.

Other than one fleck in the collector, almost all of the places it flaked off were places the would contact a flat surface when set face down, which I will attribute to the family member who secured it for me during the rainstorm while I was away. I guess I'll try layering it all on thick and making sure that NOTHING touches it before it's sealed in the headlight assembly. I'll get all my fitting and drilling done first this time.

[Sonofswin]

Yeah, I had the same kind of problem when I painted mine.

Looking at all the high heat paint in the store, most of them had, "Don't use on chrome" written on the can - so I picked one that didn't. It still would 'crack' when it dried, showing bits of reflector here and there. (I hung it up in a shack for painting and drying, so it wasn't touching anything.) I eventually ended up putting 4 or 5 coats on it - letting it completely dry between each one and there are still some very small cracks in the paint. Fortunately it isn't obvious unless you stick your face right in front of the light.

I'm not sure if it would work or not, but if I did the project again I would use a really light grade sandpaper to score the reflective surface before painting. You wouldn't want to go too deep or you'd end up with the chrome flaking off, but if you put a couple layers of paint on it I don't see why humidity or what-not would cause flaking.

[headshrink]

Is there a safe and effective way to strip chrome off plastic?

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by headshrink

Is there a safe and effective way to strip chrome off plastic?

Well, sheets of it practically fell off on the side where I made the first flake while trying to "clean" the damage, but YMMV... mine was full of rotting sludge for over a year and the black spots were actually clear spots on the chrome film. A few more bubbles forms when I put it through wet/dry cycles. I think maybe soak/dry cycles might do the trick once you compromise the film in the first place. It was still a real chore to scrape it all off on the side that had flaked already (only went up to the walls).

[Daakuryu]

I apologize for the necromancy ritual I am about to perform, but it's either that or start a new thread.

I'm getting ready install this kit (expecting the package to arrive by the end of the week.)


Only thing I haven't been able to find locally is silicone glue or Ribbon Sealer, what I do have however is plastic bonder glue and I am wondering if it's a bad Idea to use that or not.

[choneofakind]

Don't use that. You want to be be able to reopen the light afterwards if needed. You want butyl, not silicone or adhesive.

[Sonofswin]

Granted, you may not ever need to open the light again, but better safe than sorry.

Worse case scenario, use silicone. You should be able to find it in the bathroom or kitchen areas of a local hardware store. Just make sure you choose one that can handle the temperatures.

Not related, but the link posted above for my walk through is broken, it should be THIS.

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Don't use that. You want to be be able to reopen the light afterwards if needed. You want butyl, not silicone or adhesive.

Originally Posted by Sonofswin

Granted, you may not ever need to open the light again, but better safe than sorry.

Worse case scenario, use silicone. You should be able to find it in the bathroom or kitchen areas of a local hardware store. Just make sure you choose one that can handle the temperatures.

Not related, but the link posted above for my walk through is broken, it should be THIS.

Cursory googles only give me chemical formulas and I left my chemistry set in my other pants, where can I find this?

[Sonofswin]

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

Cursory googles only give me chemical formulas and I left my chemistry set in my other pants, where can I find this?

Here's what you need.

Try to find someone selling some used because you don't need 15'. I'd sell you what I have left over if I lived on that side of the ocean.

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by Sonofswin

Here's what you need.

That's the ribbon sealer i mentioned I couldn't find :P

[Sonofswin]

Try Amazon

[ninjagaiden09]

Here is where I got mine. OCI Butyl rubber

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by ninjagaiden09

Here is where I got mine. OCI Butyl rubber

Thanks but I'm trying to find some local, with all the stuff I've ordered in the past 2 weeks those shipping rates and exchange rates are really adding up

[Sonofswin]

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

Thanks but I'm trying to find some local, with all the stuff I've ordered in the past 2 weeks those shipping rates and exchange rates are really adding up

I can understand that. (I had to pay about double what amazon.ca is asking.) Try a local automotive glass repair shop. See if they would be willing to sell you a couple feet of it. Don't see why they wouldn't.

[ninjagaiden09]

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

Thanks but I'm trying to find some local, with all the stuff I've ordered in the past 2 weeks those shipping rates and exchange rates are really adding up

OK well try this I believe he's local. HID Retrofit He is in 416 area code.

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by ninjagaiden09

OK well try this I believe he's local. HID Retrofit He is in 416 area code.

Thanks,

Ordered one from there yesterday, showed up today. The power of local purchases

[Daakuryu]

Just got my HID Kit, wiring is completely different than the tutorial (single harness with one red battery lead, two black ground and a sort of relay splitting off into a set of connectors for each ballast and projector . I'll post pics later.

Not sure if they sent the right kit and they just streamlined things or sent the wrong kit, I WAS able to hook one and get it to light up.


Also I think they forgot to send me the halo's I requested but I'm not 100% sure since I ordered the XcLED ones instead of the standard CCFL ones.

send them an email with pics to verify, really hope they can either tell me how to get them to work if they are there or rush ship me if they are missing because my mechanic is picking my bike up in two weeks and that's about how long it took for the kit to arrive.

[Daakuryu]

It's been over 24 hours since I emailed BKMoto about the potentially missing halo, still no word. I am mildly annoyed.

Anyway picture time.

This is the wiring harness that came in the box, compared the the tutorial version there is a single harness instead of two but it splits off into two ballast connections, there is only one red wire but each "side" has its own black wire the other thing I'm not sure about with this harness is if it needs halo inverters like the tutorial model. Could be they forgot to ship those too or that it's been integrated into this new harness.



After a bit of dicking around I found this was the configuration of wiring I needed to get the lights to turn on and switch between high and low beam.



I'm not really sure what this is for, there's a matching set of green and black wires on the projector so I assume it's either for the halo or for the demon eyes which I opted out of.

Not sure where the red and black ones go though, You can also see the projector in the background and the front looks different than what I was expecting.




Anyway time to go crack open my headlight assembly and put what I can together.

[Sonofswin]

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

Also I think they forgot to send me the halo's I requested but I'm not 100% sure since I ordered the XcLED ones instead of the standard CCFL ones.

The halos you ordered are already installed on the projectors. (The white ring with all the LED lights on it) Everything looks fine to me. Without seeing the wiring coming from your projectors, I can't give any advice about the setup but since you are going to have a mechanic do it for you, what are you worried about, anyway?

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by Sonofswin

The halos you ordered are already installed on the projectors. (The white ring with all the LED lights on it) Everything looks fine to me. Without seeing the wiring coming from your projectors, I can't give any advice about the setup but since you are going to have a mechanic do it for you, what are you worried about, anyway?

Mechanic is only installing the finished product and running the cables cleanly, he's not putting the headlight assembly together so I want to be damn sure everything works before I seal the assembly back and hand it over to him.

Other than the two ballasts what I showed in the post after the one you quoted is all the cabling I was sent

Projector connected to ballast and harness


On the other projector as a test I tried finishing that green black connector, hooking up the thing to it and then hooking the red and black to the wire that hooks into the harness. Probably not the right way to do it but I tried.

[Sonofswin]

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

Mechanic is only installing the finished product and running the cables cleanly, he's not putting the headlight assembly together so I want to be damn sure everything works before I seal the assembly back and hand it over to him.

The only real wire to 'run' is the cable to the battery. The rest of the the wiring is just quick tied up behind the gauges. The ballasts are installed on the inner fairings on either side and the black box on the main harness can be quick tied to the horizontal headlight stabilizer on the left side of the bike. (The battery cable runs up the left side of the bike as well.)

The headlight assembly is the most difficult part of the job - so you're paying a mechanic for the easy part.

Originally Posted by Daakuryu

On the other projector as a test I tried finishing that green black connector, hooking up the thing to it and then hooking the red and black to the wire that hooks into the harness.

Looks like on your set up, the thin red and black wires coming from the projector are probably for the hi/lo beam switch. The other ones would be for the halos.

Anyway, if a mechanic is going to do the install, just follow the instructions on the projector install (headlight assembly) up to the point where you run the wires through the dust caps and reinstall the plugs. The mechanic should be able to take it from there.

[Daakuryu]

Originally Posted by Sonofswin

The headlight assembly is the most difficult part of the job - so you're paying a mechanic for the easy part.

I'm not paying the mechanic to do the headlight install specifically I'm paying him to do a full tune up + a couple of extra bits and bobs. which will cost extra depending on how much time they take to do. so if I can have the assembly ready and all he has to do is plonk it in when he is putting everything back together then I've saved a bit.

Originally Posted by Sonofswin

Looks like on your set up, the thin red and black wires coming from the projector are probably for the hi/lo beam switch. The other ones would be for the halos.

I figured that was the case and that it's what the other piece with green, black, thin red and and thin back is for but I don't know where the thin black and thin red are supposed to go.

as I showed in one of the pics I tried adding them to the hi/lo switch cable but that obviously didn't do squat.

Edit: never mind, figured out where they go

[Daakuryu]

Well ****...