[mkeefe]

(Just an FYI this is a work in progress, was unsure if I can change the title later.. so didn't add "W.I.P.")

Hey guys,

I figured i'd start off by listing out the process i'll follow and will add more information, videos, images as applicable. I have included the sections found in the service manual [ ex: (2-16) ] and paraphrased the disassembly instructions. The majority of the assembly process is just the disassembly in reverse. You don't have to follow this, it just might help some new to bike work and/or mods. Though I can't stress this mod is NOT for the squeamish or timid. You will be disassembling much of your bike and placing your headlight assembly in your home oven or baking it with a heat gun!!

Do proceed with caution. I am not responsible for any mis-use, injury, death, pissed wives, burnt ovens,
melted headlights, severed fingers or any other undesirable results from following this guide.

For a quick recap. I will be installing the BKMoto 6000k HID kit for the 500r that was just released (in Late August 2013) with white angel eyes front/back. Blue led strips (maybe) and blue or white LED bulb in the forward upper light pod.

TIP: I HIGHLY recommend you buy the service manual, the diagrams and disassemly/assembly guides are priceless.

Editor Note: More images will be added

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Initial Steps

1. Remove the rear seat (2-6)

Put key in, pop off (simplest thing you'll do all day!)

Remove the front seat (2-6)

Remove two bolts and pull seat off

Remove side cover (2-7)

Remove the trim clip and socket bolt. Release the 2 grommets from the bosses of the rear cowl, and two tabs from the footpeg bracket and rear cowl

Remove the middle cowls (2-8)

Remove the trim clips, socket bolt and 3 setting socket bolts. Release the snap fit clip, release the hook/loop fastening. Release the meter panel and middle cowl from the bolt hole stud on the fuel tank. Press the meter panel inward and relase the 6 side tabs while spreading the the middle cowl slightly. Release the 3 front tabs and the turn signal light 3P connector.

Remove meter panel (2-11)

First, remove the mirrors. Remove the band clip from the meter panel. Disconnect the front sub-wire harness 4P (Black) and 12P (Black) connectors. Cover the front fender from scratching/denting!! Loosen the lower mounting nut of the cowl stay. Remove the upper mounting nut and the bolt then the rest the front cowl assembly on the fender. Position the front cowl assembly so the meter panel doesn't mess with the handlebars.

Remove front cowl (2-13)

Hold the front cowl assemlby and remove the cowl stay lower mounting nut and bolt. Then remove it.

Remove windscreen (2-16)

Too many steps to paraphrase, see image:

Remove headlight assembly (21-5)

At this point you should have removed the front cowl/windscreen assembly. If not, go do that now. Next, remove the headlight 4P (Black) connector from the stay and disconnect it. Remove the 6mm washer-bolt (lower) and two 5mm washer-bolts (upper)

Additional disassembly, not "required"

N/A

Be sure to keep all the bolts, washers, grommets, clips, fasterers and other parts in a safe location. I like to mark each section on a zip-lock and place the items in there for safe keeping.

As of right now 12 pm EST on Saturday August 31st 2013 i'm still waiting for my HIDs to be delivered. Once that happens i'll continue with this guide. Until then happy modding and let me know if you have any questions.

Matt

 

[mkeefe]

Updates time. The HIDs arrived from BKMoto. Once I had some free time I began the install process by disassembling the bike, taking out the headlights, baking them (oven method) and painting the reflectors. Here is each of those steps in more detail.

1. Take all the fairings, front, dash and windscreen off. See first post in this thread for more details on that procedure.

2. Take out the headlight from the front-end. Remove the bracket from the holder on the frontend assembly.

3. Remove all of the wires from the headlight assembly. Don't want to melt them in the oven. Just apply a little force and squeeze the rubber gasket to pull it off. Then feed the wires out and pop the headlight in the oven.

4. Turn on the oven and pre-heat to 225˚ Fahrenheit. Then turn the oven off, pop in the headlight and set a timer for 8 minutes. Its better to bake it multiple times at lower temps than less at higher. I did it about 4 times in total, though the first time I wasted "cooling time" by gathering up gloves and closing the oven, etc. In all it wasn't bad, just move swiftly but carefully. No need to rush.

5. At this point you should have the headlights pulled apart. Like shown:

6. Paint the headlight using High Temp spray paint, you can find it at most home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc...). I don't have any pictures of the headlight painting process as I was running out of daylight. If I get a chance once I take out the projectors i'll shoot some photos.

7. This last step should have been done BEFORE painting. Live and learn. Test fit the HIDs projectors and prepare for drilling.

8. Drill two small holes right below the opening in the back of the headlight housing on each side. Doesn't have too be too big, just enough to fit the angel eyes and projector wires.

Note: I did use the Ghost to record the fairing removal process and some other parts, once I get a minute i'll look over the footage and see if any of it is useful.

To be continued...

Matt

 

[Jakeisbill]

This is an awesome post Matt.

 

[SammyS]

Yes Matt, this is great. Watching closely for the rest of the project and finished product.

A question with regard to 'baking' the headlights; you mention that you did this 4 times? Did you let the headlight cool in between? Remove if from the oven at all? Or just reheat with the headlights still in there?

Cheers, and looking forward to more tips!

 

[mkeefe]

Thanks, I will be updating more soon.

A question with regard to 'baking' the headlights; you mention that you did this 4 times? Did you let the headlight cool in between? Remove if from the oven at all? Or just reheat with the headlights still in there?

As the glue continues to cool it gets stiff and the risk of breaking the housing is much higher. After each round of baking i'd work the glue and separate parts of the housing. Then once it cooled i'd bake it once again. I repeated this process about 4 times.

Don't be *too* afraid to pull it apart but use common sense and standard pressure. Don't use any jerking or quick movements. Also be careful not to break the clips off. While they are holding the entire housing together they do help!

Matt

 

[loserlazer]

thanks man.
good job!
after this thread, i feel like i will never touch my headlights though.

 

[RedLady]

No wonder this is going to cost me so much money to install! hah!

Looks great! So whats the update?

 

[bodessia]

Hey mate, got a photo of the projector by itself?

 

[NakdWhtnonABS]

Although I am sure this will be covered in your *update* How are the projectors held level, attached to the headlight and adjusted?

I have an F and this really doesn't concern me but I'm truly curious ;P

 

[mkeefe]

@bodessia - Not on their own, but I will take one.

Although I am sure this will be covered in your *update* How are the projectors held level, attached to the headlight and adjusted?

The projector sits flush against the reflector housing. There is a nut to tighten up the fit and you can spin the projector to align it more though on its own its about 95% good. You can also use the existing headlight aiming on the headlight assembly.

 

[mkeefe]

Video of fairing removal

Here is a quick video showing the process of removing the fairings and front-end assembly (headlight and windscreen). I sped the video up as the actual process takes more than 3 minutes.

I will be filming the HID test hopefully tomorrow but do have a ton of work so likely not until this weekend. Oh, btw. This process would normally take a couple of days but i'm fitting it in between work and trying to document as much of it as possible.

TikTV-rlvv8

Subscribe for more content. Thanks for watching!!

Matt

 

[WoA]

Peeled some of the plasti-dip off the brackets where the footpeg attaches I see. Nice video. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[mkeefe]

Peeled some of the plasti-dip off the brackets where the footpeg attaches I see. Nice video. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Yup, it started to peel as I imagined it would. Can't wait to powder coat those parts hopefully this winter.

 

[Genie]

Just ordered my HID BiXenon projector kit with angel eyes and LED strips :beers :motorcycle4

 

[mkeefe]

Just ordered my HID BiXenon projector kit with angel eyes and LED strips :beers :motorcycle4

Nice! Did you go dual-halos or single?

 

[Genie]

Nice! Did you go dual-halos or single?

Went with the dual halo's

 

[mkeefe]

Went with the dual halo's

Nice. You'll probably get them installed before me. We have been busy around the family and work so i've had about 30 minutes to myself per week. Thankfully its colder here so it doesn't suck as bad. I hope to get everything wrapped up this week though.

Matt

 

[mkeefe]

HID Install Update

Hey guys,

Back to it, here is more of the process. This will get you to the final re-assembly and cover mounting the CCFLs, ballasts, inverters and wiring up everything and routing the wires so they don't get messed up.

9. Drill the holes above or below the headlight openings in the reflectors. Probably should do this before painting.

10. Mount the CCFLs (angel eyes) on the projectors, use scotch tape or something to hold them in place. Use high temp silicone RTV and place it behind the CCFLs to the projectors.

11. Run the wires through the holes and tighten the locking nut for the projectors. Tidy up the wires to your liking.

12. Place the headlight together and either bake it (oven method) or use a heat gun to seal it up. If you killed the glue or feel it needs a little more, just pick up some Butyl glue and seal it up.

13. Take the old headlight wire and pop open the black boxes to expose the gold connectors. Alternatively you can cut the wire before the black box but I wanted to maximize the possible wire length. Strip this wire for the next step

14. Take the HID wires (white and blue) and twist them white/white and blue/blue. Take the CCFL inverters and twist the red/red and black/black wires together (separately!). Now using butt connectors do the following. Note this is just an idea, do it however you prefer. This utilizes a switch on the HIDs so the angel eyes can be run on their own.

15. Connect the HID blue wires you twisted together with the pink bike cable. Connect the HID blue wires to the red wire on the switch. Connect the black wire on the switch to the 2 red wires from the CCFL inverters. Connect the 2 black wires from the CCFL inverters to the gray/black cable from the bike harness (this is your ground), you don't use the other ground, just cut or tuck it.

16. Now take the HID ballasts and use some high strength double-sided tape (should have been included) to the top "shelf" of the headlight assembly. It feels like Honda made this for us. Then use more double-sided tape and mount the CCFL inverters on top of the ballasts. I used this 3M flex mount that has plastic ridges so you can move the position. You can use whatever you prefer.

17. Mount the HID boxes (not sure their name) located on the ballast assembly on the top left and right of the headlight mount. I used a little high strength double-sided tape to mount them up. Simple!

18. Now is the moment of truth, hook up the spade terminals to the battery, plug in the two bike connectors on the left side of the bike and fire up (just the accesory, no need for the engine) the bike. You should see the CCFLs come on and possibly the HIDs if the switch you wired in is on. Otherwise flip that switch and you should see the HIDs. Now flip the hi-beam switch on the bike and you should see the projector bulbs move up and hear a *click* up the assembly. At this point the hard work is done, now its time to put it all back together.

19. Once you start to put the front cowl back together just be careful to tuck and protect the wires, I broke one and it sucked!

At this point I have 3 final things to mount and run. Hopefully finish this project in the next couple days, if time coorperates.

Hope this is helpful and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

Oh btw, thanks to all the extra plastic and meter panel 99.9% of these wires/boxes/ballasts are hidden from view. Very clean!

More soon.

Matt

 

[jp^_-]

mkeefe,
next time im going to pay you to install these. they were such a pain in the ass! plus two weeks later one of my lights stopped working - dunno what the problem is yet, but im pissed.

do you feel like bkmoto lights are overpriced and cheap? you basically pay them so they can buy everything separate and stick it in one package. for example - the outer halos (which didnt even fit for me) i saw 2 for $5 on ebay. he charges $40. led strips same story.

o and customer service is some guys cell phone. =/

 

[mkeefe]

mkeefe,
next time im going to pay you to install these. they were such a pain in the ass! plus two weeks later one of my lights stopped working - dunno what the problem is yet, but im pissed.

do you feel like bkmoto lights are overpriced and cheap? you basically pay them so they can buy everything separate and stick it in one package. for example - the outer halos (which didnt even fit for me) i saw 2 for $5 on ebay. he charges $40. led strips same story.

o and customer service is some guys cell phone. =/

Oddly I would do this again, now that I know the various pitfalls and overall process. I would however have a helper because doing this alone was a bitch and a half!

I'm kind of torn by the BKMoto kit. On one hand its nice to have it all packed up, wires shortened and tested. However the lack of instructions, never posting the install video and marking up certain items is not good.

In all i'd recommend BKMoto if you want them to do the install or have no way to source the parts yourself. However its like anything, you are paying for previous work being done on your behalf.

Matt