HID conversions used to be really pricey (unless you're Leno). A while ago a place in San Diego started offering very nice kits and I converted my Tiger 1050. IMOP good mounting points for auxiliary lighting are as hard to find on a Rocket III as it is to find a good woman. (I have too much experience with both). So I converted over my Rocket III to HID yesterday.
I remember reading about someone else doing this conversion on this forum but didn't find it when I searched. Anyway I also think I remember they didn't include any pictures. We all like pictures of mounting points, er HID conversions so here you go.
This is the kit I decided to go with:
I Got this off eBay. Vince says "You know the German's always make good stuff."
You will get both sides with this kit.
First is remove the double buckets completely
Ready to start:
You're going to need to make a new hole in each bucket. I used a set of calipers to measure the grommet so I'd know how big a hole to make:
Turns out I could use the same hole cutter I used for my Tiger, but that was plastic and this was steel...
Now you need to lay out where your new holes will be
I used some tape to mark center lines. This won't be visible once it's all back together but might as well be as symmetric as possible:
Nothing you do when working on your Rocket III is complete without at least one screw-up. With luck once that one is past you won't have another. In my case one screw-up took me to the second one. I'll explain in a minute:
So the hole cutter has something like a drill bit down the middle to pilot the hole where you want it. Unlike my usually wondering mind this time I even center punched where I wanted the holes. This was of course necessary, but it also meant you could look at the buckets from the other side and verify the holes were going to be in the right place. In my experience it's usually unfortunate to drill in the wrong place.
The first hole, on the left, went pretty easy. When I went to drill the second hole the pilot bit snapped off. Now no way to pilot the whole cutter. Should be no problem. I have lots of bits. The torque of snapping the pilot bit had set the bit so hard against the set screw there was never going to be enough power to fix it. I tried to get the busted bit out for an hour.
So I got the largest bit I had (I'd already drilled a hole when I broke the pilot bit) and drilled a nice big hole. I now had a hole about 50% as large as needed. Half way there right? That's when I figured out an easy way to remove the busted pilot bit from the hole cutter... only now I couldn't use the whole cutter even if I had fixed it.
I used a conical grinding thingy to open up the whole so it would be large enough for me. Also removed any burrs from both wholes (It's good to do that.). This is where I made the new holes:
new holes:
You should be wondering if there is enough room inside the bucket for the necessary new wiring, especially the H4 plug adapter. I know I was....
The answer is yes, but it's a little fussy getting it all back together.
At this point it should be a simple job of installing the new H4 HID units into where the old H4 bulbs went. These things are 100% standard, ISO, NIST, etc... right? (Not hardly) It took me a bit to figure out exactly where they new HID units interfered with the Triumph reflector housings. The fit was really tight, so I flat filed the HID plastic bases a little. Once they would go in part way I saw the real problem. It was one of those square peg round hole problems. (Actually that's not how I remember Peg...)
side by side:
Ready to rock and roll?
There was no one there to take a video of me making my next real screw-up. The Triumph reflector housings are plastic and easy to cut as needed. BUT do not use your Dremel cutter like I did. Use ANYTHING ELSE. I spent two hours cleaning plastic dust out of the housings. I think an easy way would be to heat a flat blade screw driver and melt out the part to fit.
The next step is to install the new HID units:
Now the rubbers:
It's a real pain getting all the new wiring through the dust/moisture barrier but it can be done. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to work it through. The hole was too small and tight. but it can be done.
OK, now ready to reassemble the buckets!
Here is a quiz for you:
1) Do you need to refit the housing mounting ring before assembling the reflector housing to the bucket?
2) Do you remember how they looked when they came apart?
answer is yes and no.
One down one to go:
One more quiz:
1) Are the chrome reflector rings the same right and left? These are the things that hold it all togethere.
answer: NO one is for the right side and one for the left! :-(
Everything married back together again:
Back on the bike:
btw: That's my wife cleaning the Rocket She made me promise she would not be in any of the pictures I posted....
Another view:
So, how did it turn out?
H4s (as you know) are a high/low beam. In this HID kit the low beam is HID and the high beam runs as halogen. So when you switch low/high etc the color turns from really white (low) to really yellow (high). I don't know of any kits that do H4 HID high and low but hey, these were made in Germany... Still it would be nice to have both beams HID.
None of the wiring has really been changed, it's either high or low. You could change this so they'd both be on for high beam but I think there would be a lot more heat.
What I found when I tried them was that the high beam worked on both sides, but the low HID beam only lit on the right side. I hate it when this happens. So I switched the igniter around... what I found was that both eventually do come on, at least when you're driving. I'm not getting the amps needed to start both igniters through the ignition switch!
Usually by now I would have installed headlight relays anyway... but I'll do that next weekend. They cost about 5$ US, and would cost nothing for Triumph to put in to begin with... grrrr.
Once I install the relays the high beams will be a lot brighter too.
I'm terrible at adjusting headlights on a Rocket III and a Tiger.... hope I don't blind anyone. When I was checking out how bright the HID low beams where they left after images in my eyes for half an hour.
Cheers
Roy
I remember reading about someone else doing this conversion on this forum but didn't find it when I searched. Anyway I also think I remember they didn't include any pictures. We all like pictures of mounting points, er HID conversions so here you go.
This is the kit I decided to go with:
I Got this off eBay. Vince says "You know the German's always make good stuff."
You will get both sides with this kit.
First is remove the double buckets completely
Ready to start:
You're going to need to make a new hole in each bucket. I used a set of calipers to measure the grommet so I'd know how big a hole to make:
Turns out I could use the same hole cutter I used for my Tiger, but that was plastic and this was steel...
Now you need to lay out where your new holes will be
I used some tape to mark center lines. This won't be visible once it's all back together but might as well be as symmetric as possible:
Nothing you do when working on your Rocket III is complete without at least one screw-up. With luck once that one is past you won't have another. In my case one screw-up took me to the second one. I'll explain in a minute:
So the hole cutter has something like a drill bit down the middle to pilot the hole where you want it. Unlike my usually wondering mind this time I even center punched where I wanted the holes. This was of course necessary, but it also meant you could look at the buckets from the other side and verify the holes were going to be in the right place. In my experience it's usually unfortunate to drill in the wrong place.
The first hole, on the left, went pretty easy. When I went to drill the second hole the pilot bit snapped off. Now no way to pilot the whole cutter. Should be no problem. I have lots of bits. The torque of snapping the pilot bit had set the bit so hard against the set screw there was never going to be enough power to fix it. I tried to get the busted bit out for an hour.
So I got the largest bit I had (I'd already drilled a hole when I broke the pilot bit) and drilled a nice big hole. I now had a hole about 50% as large as needed. Half way there right? That's when I figured out an easy way to remove the busted pilot bit from the hole cutter... only now I couldn't use the whole cutter even if I had fixed it.
I used a conical grinding thingy to open up the whole so it would be large enough for me. Also removed any burrs from both wholes (It's good to do that.). This is where I made the new holes:
new holes:
You should be wondering if there is enough room inside the bucket for the necessary new wiring, especially the H4 plug adapter. I know I was....
The answer is yes, but it's a little fussy getting it all back together.
At this point it should be a simple job of installing the new H4 HID units into where the old H4 bulbs went. These things are 100% standard, ISO, NIST, etc... right? (Not hardly) It took me a bit to figure out exactly where they new HID units interfered with the Triumph reflector housings. The fit was really tight, so I flat filed the HID plastic bases a little. Once they would go in part way I saw the real problem. It was one of those square peg round hole problems. (Actually that's not how I remember Peg...)
side by side:
Ready to rock and roll?
There was no one there to take a video of me making my next real screw-up. The Triumph reflector housings are plastic and easy to cut as needed. BUT do not use your Dremel cutter like I did. Use ANYTHING ELSE. I spent two hours cleaning plastic dust out of the housings. I think an easy way would be to heat a flat blade screw driver and melt out the part to fit.
The next step is to install the new HID units:
Now the rubbers:
It's a real pain getting all the new wiring through the dust/moisture barrier but it can be done. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to work it through. The hole was too small and tight. but it can be done.
OK, now ready to reassemble the buckets!
Here is a quiz for you:
1) Do you need to refit the housing mounting ring before assembling the reflector housing to the bucket?
2) Do you remember how they looked when they came apart?
answer is yes and no.
One down one to go:
One more quiz:
1) Are the chrome reflector rings the same right and left? These are the things that hold it all togethere.
answer: NO one is for the right side and one for the left! :-(
Everything married back together again:
Back on the bike:
btw: That's my wife cleaning the Rocket
She made me promise she would not be in any of the pictures I posted.... Another view:
So, how did it turn out?
H4s (as you know) are a high/low beam. In this HID kit the low beam is HID and the high beam runs as halogen. So when you switch low/high etc the color turns from really white (low) to really yellow (high). I don't know of any kits that do H4 HID high and low but hey, these were made in Germany... Still it would be nice to have both beams HID.
None of the wiring has really been changed, it's either high or low. You could change this so they'd both be on for high beam but I think there would be a lot more heat.
What I found when I tried them was that the high beam worked on both sides, but the low HID beam only lit on the right side. I hate it when this happens. So I switched the igniter around... what I found was that both eventually do come on, at least when you're driving. I'm not getting the amps needed to start both igniters through the ignition switch!
Usually by now I would have installed headlight relays anyway... but I'll do that next weekend. They cost about 5$ US, and would cost nothing for Triumph to put in to begin with... grrrr.
Once I install the relays the high beams will be a lot brighter too.
I'm terrible at adjusting headlights on a Rocket III and a Tiger....
hope I don't blind anyone. When I was checking out how bright the HID low beams where they left after images in my eyes for half an hour.Cheers
Roy
