(Maybe stupid so take it easy on me) Wiring Question

[ShowBizWolf]

Hi everybody,

So I was wondering about the optional running light wires in the headlight... the brown and black/white stripe ones that have been asked about on here a few times before... are they beefy enough to support an H7 bulb?

If this is a really dumb question, please pardon!! Take it easy on me guys, k?

[user11235813]

As someone somewhere may have once said...there are no stupid questions, there are only stupid people. I'm sure someone will be along soon to tell you why it's a bad idea. Isn't the H7 a single filament bulb? Are you thinking of converting the entire headlight, to twin bulbs.

[ShowBizWolf]

If it's a bad idea then that's all I need to know. Thanks user!

[Big Rich]

What exactly is your plan Showbiz?

I "think" the brown wire is the same gauge wire as the headlight low / high beam, so it should be able to handle the load of a similarly rated H7 bulb. Now, if the H7 bulb is used as an additional running light (and running a similar load as the low beam) there might be too much of a load on your bikes charging system.

[ShowBizWolf]

Hi Rich!

I'm exploring the idea of adding the gixxer headlight to go with that nose fairing I added back when I bought my GS... to finally make it more complete. The model of headlight I'm looking at uses an H4 and below it an H7. Mounting the headlight isn't hard... plugging in the H4 isn't hard since that's stock for a GS... but I've been wondering what to do about the lower H7 spot.

I've already swapped over all the bulbs on the bike to LED... to decrease load on the charging system... but idk if that will help with this. After taking apart my headlight bucket earlier, I saw that the wires I asked about (as you said) look to be the same gauge as the wires going to the H4 plug. Simple solution would be to buy an H7 pigtail, wire it in to the brown and black/white wires and call it a day. But as I'm well aware... things are rarely ever that simple.

[Watcher]

Hi Rich!

I'm exploring the idea of adding the gixxer headlight to go with that nose fairing I added back when I bought my GS... to finally make it more complete. The model of headlight I'm looking at uses an H4 and below it an H7.

... why?

The H4 is dual filament, and presumably one is the headlight/running light and the other is the high.  Then they have an additional H7, which is a single filament bulb, for what purpose?  Two running lights and only one is the high beam?  One running light and two come on as a high beam?
That just seems weird to me...

[ShowBizWolf]

I honestly don't know Watcher, I was wondering that myself. Guess it's just the way Suzuki designed it... it's the 2004-2005 GSXR 600 / 750 stock headlight. The one I bought off of ebay came with both the H4 and H7 bulbs in it... and the diagram for the headlight on Motosport, BikeBandit, etc also shows this to be the stock setup. Maybe due to the shape of the headlight, the H4 needs the help of the H7? Maybe just for a fancy design? I've searched online a bit and haven't found much tbh

Edit: Now that I'm a little bit more awake lol and had a minute to search around, I can't determine for sure how it works on a stock gixxer of that year. Some youtube vids show only the bottom one lit up when the key is on... others show no light at all... others show both of 'em lit up but no high beam indicator is on in the dash... and I even read the owners manual for the bike and it doesn't say what is supposed to come on when the key is on.

Edit again: Finally found it in a motousa.com review... "The two-stacked headlights consist of a projector-type on the bottom for low beam and a multi reflector type up top for the main."

[Bluesmudge]

Do you have any way to figure out what the gauge of the wire is? Maybe using a pair of labeled wire strippers?

I'm going to assume those are 18 gauge wires.
A 55w bulb at 12v draws 4.6 amps.
I believe that brown and black/white wires also supply power to the tail light. The two 1156 tail light bulbs each draw 2.1 amps. Those wires also supply the parking light bulb on the F model but you have an E so no worries there.

With the new H7 light your total draw will be 8.8 amps. Even less with LED tail lights.

An 18 guage wire can handle 10 amps based on this table:http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/WireCapacityChart.htm

So, long story short, I think you are good to go if they are 18 guage. Just try and confirm the actual guage of those wires. If you want to be extra sure that you are OK get an LED bulb for the H7 as well. For example, the advmoster H7 LED bulb draws half as many amps as a 55W Halogen H7.

[ShowBizWolf]

Wow thanks so much Bluesmudge! I'm going to bookmark that table.

My wire strippers are at my dad's shop but he's gonna bring them up to my house this evening so I can confirm the gauge. Even if they aren't 18, I'll be able to look at the table and go from there. According to the sbl website, the LED tail bulbs I'm using draw 80 mA (390mA when braking cuz I have to keep that in mind as well, correct?) so I should be in really good shape there.

And it's awesome you were thinking the same thing... I was looking at the H7 on advmonster yesterday and also the H7 on superbrightleds... I can't be 100% sure but from what I'm seeing and measuring, I don't think either of them will "fit" correctly into the headlight housing. This headlight also requires a black spacer/adapter that fits onto the standard H7 bulb But we'll see...!

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out

[ShowBizWolf]

Looks like they are either 18 or 16 gauge (I didn't strip any of the insulation off just yet) but I now know they aren't 20 or 22. After doing the math it appears to me that if I install a regular H7, and it's on all the time, when the tail lights are just "on", I'll be using 4.76 amps and when I hit the brake, I'll be using 5.38 amps.

Even if they turn out to be 20 gauge, which according to the table can handle 8 amps, I'm still OK !!

Also, after doing a lot of other math (and reading, and googling, and studying etc) I'm pretty sure I've determined that it will not be too much for the charging system... not even really close truthfully because of all the LED swaps.

Finding and examining this thread helped a bit too: http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=24420.0

EDIT: Just wanted to update for anyone in the future doing a search or is curious about what I found. 16 on my wire strippers will remove the insulation perfectly and the bare wire fits perfect in the 20 slot.