Hi everyone I have owned the above bike for about 2 weeks now and am somewhat puzzled with the lighting system the first thing I wish to do is change the main and dip to LED as the current light is as much use as a candle would be, anyway this is what I have found so far, the existing lamp has a pilot bulb but apparently no switch to turn it on the light comes on as soon as ignition is turned on and my only option appears to be dip or main beam even in the day can anyone advise on this as I have purchased an LED headlamp with a halo (illuminated ring inside the lamp itself) and would like to run during the day with the running light being the halo, this is the lamp I bought from eBay uk item no 175570302852, I really would appreciate some advice here as my experience is mainly classic british bikes. Many thanks everyone Chris
LED Headlight 2001 Softail Deuce
- Thread starter Chrisf-1
- Start date
SJC69
Club Member
Around '98 on H-D HDI models (basically European supplied models) were supplied with the lights hard wired, i.e. there is no light switch to turn the lights off.
So ignition on, lights on, now here's the anomaly, the pilot light on HDI models.
Ignition on, pilot light on, however it is not fed by the lighting circuit, it is on the accessory circuit along with the rear light, why?
Well it is really a parking light, so if you turn the ignition switch to ACC (Accessories) it will turn the ignition and the rest of the lights off but leave the 'Parking' lights on, so basically your Pilot light and rear light, you can then lock the ignition switch in this position and in the case with a key remove it so it can not be moved from the ACC position.
To fit the led head light, my dealings with a few of these Chinese supplied lights has shown that often the wiring is not connected up as the instructions say or correctly on the supplied 3 pin headlamp socket connector, so I recommend you test it all out on the bench first, to know which wire actually does what.
You generally have a 3 pin head lamp socket connector or adapter lead to connect your main head light wiring to the LED lamp.
The three pins give you, Main beam, Low beam & Earth.
You may well then have another two other spade connectors, (In your case it could be three as there appears to be a skull center light too)
The ones I have dealt with, had two, one for the Halo in white, the second for it in Amber, you did not needed another earth supply they were earthed internally from the head light wiring earth.
So you can use the wiring to the pilot light, the orange/white and connect this to the one you want, then everything should work as before!
Then if you do want to run just on the Halo in the day you would need to rig up an extra switch in the headlight wiring circuit, before the High/Low switch which will not be very easy to do!
So ignition on, lights on, now here's the anomaly, the pilot light on HDI models.
Ignition on, pilot light on, however it is not fed by the lighting circuit, it is on the accessory circuit along with the rear light, why?
Well it is really a parking light, so if you turn the ignition switch to ACC (Accessories) it will turn the ignition and the rest of the lights off but leave the 'Parking' lights on, so basically your Pilot light and rear light, you can then lock the ignition switch in this position and in the case with a key remove it so it can not be moved from the ACC position.
To fit the led head light, my dealings with a few of these Chinese supplied lights has shown that often the wiring is not connected up as the instructions say or correctly on the supplied 3 pin headlamp socket connector, so I recommend you test it all out on the bench first, to know which wire actually does what.
You generally have a 3 pin head lamp socket connector or adapter lead to connect your main head light wiring to the LED lamp.
The three pins give you, Main beam, Low beam & Earth.
You may well then have another two other spade connectors, (In your case it could be three as there appears to be a skull center light too)
The ones I have dealt with, had two, one for the Halo in white, the second for it in Amber, you did not needed another earth supply they were earthed internally from the head light wiring earth.
So you can use the wiring to the pilot light, the orange/white and connect this to the one you want, then everything should work as before!
Then if you do want to run just on the Halo in the day you would need to rig up an extra switch in the headlight wiring circuit, before the High/Low switch which will not be very easy to do!
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Don't take this as gospel. 
.
Perhaps someone else could comment.
I found the 2001 wiring diagrams
serviceinfo.harley-davidson.com
I think that the blue wire into the left cluster provides power for the hi/lo switch. The yellow wire and white wire go to the headlamp.
You would have to cut the blue wire, and insert an on/off switch so that you can turn the headlamp off.
Then add a new wire from the ignition switch side of the new headlamp on/off switch to the new halo running light.
Turn ignition on, and, if the new headlamp on/off switch is OFF, only the halo lights up. Turn the headlamp switch ON, and you have halo + headlamp controlled by the hi/lo switch.
If you want the halo to also be a parking lamp, or if you want the headlamp to be turned to OFF automatically when you switch the ignition off, it will be a bit more complicated.
. Perhaps someone else could comment.
I found the 2001 wiring diagrams
99949-01_en - 2001 Wiring Diagrams | Harley-Davidson SIP
serviceinfo.harley-davidson.com
I think that the blue wire into the left cluster provides power for the hi/lo switch. The yellow wire and white wire go to the headlamp.
You would have to cut the blue wire, and insert an on/off switch so that you can turn the headlamp off.
Then add a new wire from the ignition switch side of the new headlamp on/off switch to the new halo running light.
Turn ignition on, and, if the new headlamp on/off switch is OFF, only the halo lights up. Turn the headlamp switch ON, and you have halo + headlamp controlled by the hi/lo switch.
If you want the halo to also be a parking lamp, or if you want the headlamp to be turned to OFF automatically when you switch the ignition off, it will be a bit more complicated.
softail898
Club Member
I cannot see a Blue wire! What Diagram are you looking at? When I click on your link I get loads of 2001 Bike wiring Diagrams.
SJC69
Club Member
Don't take this as gospel.
Perhaps someone else could comment.
I think that the blue wire into the left cluster provides power for the hi/lo switch. The yellow wire and white wire go to the headlamp.
You would have to cut the blue wire, and insert an on/off switch so that you can turn the headlamp off.
Then add a new wire from the ignition switch side of the new headlamp on/off switch to the new halo running light.
Turn ignition on, and, if the new headlamp on/off switch is OFF, only the halo lights up. Turn the headlamp switch ON, and you have halo + headlamp controlled by the hi/lo switch.
If you want the halo to also be a parking lamp, or if you want the headlamp to be turned to OFF automatically when you switch the ignition off, it will be a bit more complicated.
As I previously said the issue is it is not that simple to do and make a neat and decent job of it, below is a way of doing it with no damage or splicing of the wiring loom as personally I consider the last thing you want to be doing is cutting up the main wiring loom.
The first thing I would consider is, where are you going to put that switch.
That then defines where you have to run wires to and what you might need, regards the practicalities of if it is easy to reach, weather proof etc., there and no spares, blanks on the switch gear or ignition switch so where to put it.
The obvious place to me to intercept the headlight feed would be at connector 24 which is located underneath the fuel tank at the front on the left. This however is only a six way Deutsch connector, so no spare ways (pin positions).
So I would consider if there was sufficient wire length to use a similar 2 way connector, remove the pins for the headlamp live feed and fit them in to the two way connector, so effectively in & out to use to the switch and run the wiring from here, though you may need to reorder the pins to do this, no cutting, no splicing of any wiring & fully reversible.
The connectors are relatively cheap & the correct pins can be got from H-D dealers individually so if you only require four, the cost is not that much! (also on E-bay if you get the right pins, they come in different sizes for different loads)
The down side to this location is it would still keep the tail light illuminate so if that is also what you want to turn off, it then becomes a lot more difficult!
I'll just add that if you do decide to look at cutting into the wiring, that you do on the switch gear side of connector 24 as it's easy to replace if ever needed and H-D at this time use the same switch gear for most models so the wiring is long enough for models with high bars so on most models there is a fair amount of slack, unlike on the wiring loom side!
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SJC69
Club Member
It 'should' be a lot less current with an LED, should being the operative word, depends how well it's made.
However even with a 60 watt halogen headlight it should be around 5 amps load, the circuit fuse is 15amp so you really need be looking something rated at least to that of the fuse.
Remember it would take at least 30amps to take that fuse out instantly!
Deuce_Pete
Club Member
I'd suggest trying the new headlamp to see if the beam pattern is any good/better before worrying about being able to turn it off/on, if you're set on using it. Lots of people complain that although a cheap LED headlamp is "brighter" the beam pattern is extremely narrow/concentrated, making its ability to illuminate the road ahead pretty useless.
Also consider replacing the incandescent headlight bulb with a decent quality one. The Deuce headlight beam pattern is pretty good, it could just benefit from a little more intensity. And who knows when it was last changed.
Also consider replacing the incandescent headlight bulb with a decent quality one. The Deuce headlight beam pattern is pretty good, it could just benefit from a little more intensity. And who knows when it was last changed.
I have sent the headlamp back as when trying to fit it found that the lamp back was hitting the headlamp mount at the bottom the inside circumference was a tad to wide, unfortunately this has given me another problem I have replaced the original lamp and H4 bulb but cannot get the glass firm in the rim it rattles any idea what I am doing wrong it was tight when I first removed it, is it possible for the thin circular inner ring to be the wrong way round I really do not remember how it came out as I was not expecting it to be apart more than a few minutes how wrong was I
Deuce_Pete
Club Member
Where are you located?