I bought my 04 950 used with 23,000 miles last April and sometime in late July My headlight bulb needed replacing. At the time I thought nothing of it but when I replaced the bulb (stock specs) I noticed that the previous owner had a piaa higher wattage bulb installed. I also noticed that the bulb must have been burning hotter than normal because the wiring harness quick connect appeared that it had sustained some heat damage from running the higher wattage bulb. The new bulb I installed lasted until October when I was ready to store the bike for winter and I haven't dealt with it since. Yesterday when I was getting my bike ready for spring I recalled this incident. After looking into the problem a little more The Harness seems intact. From experience I am under the impression that water/moisture in the quick connect harness will cause this problem. I'm pretty sure that there has been no moisture in my harness. With all this being said I'm not sure where to even start investigating this and would love any and all reccomendations pertaining to the solving of this riddle. Thanks...
Make sure the charging system is within spec. Should be 14.5 VDC or so at cruising RPM if I recall correctly.
Couple things- first, the wiring is made for the stock wattage. Wattage is a term used to designate the electrical power consumed. If the power consumed notably exceeds the wiring and connector, you can expect it to melt the insulating cover. Where I do contract work, all wiring is built to 20% over rated load, so 20% extra wattage is still OK. I don't work for the mighty KaTooM, tho, so their spec may be different. The other thing- a connector is supposed to be a way to conveniently assemble/disassemble an electrical component. Ideally, it should have no resistance. Of course, they all do, but usually it is minimal. If the connection is poor, it becomes part of the electrical load, and is them a heat source. Many connectors melt/burn when they get resistance in them, and become heaters- temporarily. If your hi-wattage bulb is no more than 20% over stock, I'd blame the connector. If it is double- and you can buy 'em double- you may want to rewire with larger gauge wire and/or a relay. BTW, the headlight housings I've seen with really hi wattage bulbs in them for any length of time have melted the housings. I'm in the US, so don't know what the Euro headlight housing might do.
Blowing bulbs are a sign of excessive voltage, so put a meter on your electrics and rev the engine a bit. Around 14V is normal, but if it's going up to 15 or 16V then it's a sign your rec/reg unit is on the way out. The overheating is likely to be caused by a poor connection - maybe it wasn't pushed all the way home, or there's dirt/corrosion in there. The wiring is mostly 0.5sq mm, which isn't that great, but the fuse should blow before it gets excessively hot. It'd be worth checking the person who put the higher wattage bulb in didn't put in a bigger fuse as well.
Mine burned a bulb after turning the steering to the lock. Then I had to drive in the night with only high scale on... I am not very electrically inclined so I cannot explain why a short in the wiring should burn the bulb, but it happened to me twice. Since the wiring in the KTM950 is messy, I suggest you replace the wires to the headlight and restrict the steering turn slightly. I would also suggest you install xenon light. Uses lower power (33Watt) and outputs three times stronger light. Cheers.
Simplest first: bad ground. You saw signs of heat. Likely from resistance -- corrosion or a borderline connection. Correct the visible first.
Thanks for all the imput guys. I'm now in the process of cleaning everything out and double checking the wiring harness. I'll update you with my turtle paced progress as it is still snowing here and snowboarding is still at the top of my priorty list of things to do.
