Just wondering if anyone else is having problem with them lasting a short time.? Or how long had Urs lasted.?

First head light (bought new)lasted about 12K miles, a little over a yr and a half, since then they are burning out ever 2-3k miles.. 2-3 a yr.

Tried on this one to use only high beam, thought it might last longer,,, no nite time riding,,, and it burnt out already.

This will be 6th new one in last 2 1/2 yrs. and summer aint' over yet.

I've bought 4 of them at the HD dealership, and one even at our local Honda dealer,

No other issue with wiring.

only mod is I do have the HD brake/stop/turn unit for the rear lights.

 

Never had that problem. I wipe them with Isopropyl alcohol prior to installing just incase someone at the factory had butter fingers.

 

Haven't tried that one, I am really careful that only a clean cotton rag touches the bulb.
Nor have I cleaned the contact wiring points..

I'll try the ISP alcohol on this one

 

Have the HD module too and no problem with headlamp here. 15k and still going.

 

The ISO trick is a good idea, you"ll know for sure no oil on the bulb that way but a trade secret a good friend taught me comes to mind. I was told not to give it away but I've learned so much in these forums it seems bad karma not to put back into it and help another rider out when I can, so f-it.

See how it fits into the back of the headlight housing and locked down, chances are it sits there quite loosely. As such, and being on a Harley the vibration kills it in relatively short order. Snoop around wherever you need to to find an appropriate size (diameter and thickness) o-ring to go between the bulb and housing. get it in there evenly and lock the wire down over the bulb. This will greatly dampen the vibration of the bulb and increase it's life (usually substaintially)
Try to use a good quality o-ring because the bulb does get very hot.

Hopefully this cures your headlight woes cause a burned out headlight while whippin along a twisty highway at night is a terrible thing to happen on most bikes since you only have one headlight to begin with. In your case I'm guessing thank goodness for the 2 spots hey?

 

Great tip, TheBikingViking.
After I posted, I started wondering if maybe oct1949's mounting was transferring vibration through the headlight shell to the bulb.

 

I had one do that it was the ground wire insde headlight was a little loose in the solder took it and bolted it solid never blew another bulb

 

mine does the same as yours. i get about 10k on the bulb, i tried the silver star for the cars but it get maybe 2k so i wont count them. i run the high most of the time unless i am riding at night

 

Thanks for the tips,,,,,I'll look the see bout the fit, and ground wire.
Also going to try the alcohol to clean the bulb. Ive always made sure to never touch the bulb, but do use clean cotton cloth to hold in place to install.

 

Hold the bulb by the metal only.