LED headlights for the Sierra

Here’s what the Sierra looked like when I got it:

After several close calls with elk over the past six months, I realize that its headlights are definitely not sufficient. Not only are they hazed over, they have dim halogen bulbs.

So, I found some new housings on eBay for about $90:

These should be appropriate for LED bulbs.

Today I removed one of the old headlight housings (which is remarkably easy — you just slide out two allen wrench-shaped bars and pull the whole headlight housing out). But I ran into some trouble when I tried to transfer the existing halogen bulbs to the new housing. The old, stock headlight housing uses 9006 bulbs for the low beam and 9005 bulbs for the high beam. I guess the reason for not using the same bulb in each housing is that the 9005s are 65 watts whereas the 9006s are only 55 watts.

Anyway, the problem is that the new housings will only fit 9005 bulbs. So that got me thinking that I probably shouldn’t bother with halogens at all since that’s only a halfway solution to my lighting problem.

Relizing I really don’t have much of a clue about what a “good” LED headlight bulb is, I watched a YouTube video which not only reviewed them for suitability in a reflector vs. projector housing (the new headlight housings have one of each — a projector for the high beam and a reflector for the low) but also for quality, light retention over time, etc. While using the same bulb in each one would be easy and relatively inexpensive, I decided to do the right thing and put a projector-appropriate bulb in the projector housing, and a reflector-appropriate bulb in the reflector housing.

So for the projectors, I ordered a pair of Diamond Vision F9 bulbs (38k lumens, 6500K temperature), and for the reflectors, I ordered a pair of Luxster Punisher bulbs (40k lumens, 6000K temperature).

Harley FXLRS oil change lessons learned

I just changed the oil on the Harley for the first time in six months. It’s been sitting since I moved to the Jemez and it’s time to get ready for summer once again.

Well, various sources online say that the 2020 Milwaukee Eight engine has an oil capacity, including filter, of 5.0 quarts. That was what I added to the bike after draining the old oil and filter.

That was definitely overfull. The dipstick read well above the maximum level, the engine put out a lot of blue smoke, and it even caused a check engine light due to a P0152h code (“rear cylinder too rich”).

I siphoned half a quart back out through the filler hole, cleared the CEL code, and rode the bike from here to La Cueva and back. No more check engine light, and the oil level was about halfway up the dipstick range after getting the engine hot.

I added back 2-3 oz. of fresh oil, which put the “hot” level within four notches of “full hot.”

Now, the 2020 Softail Models owners manual I have says the following regarding oil capacity:

Oil tank with filter: 5.0 qt / 4.73 L (see note 2)

Note 2, which was omitted from every source I found online, says: “When refilling, initially add 4.0 qt. / 3.78 L, and add as needed to bring level within specification.”

The catch is that you can only accurately check the oil level after the engine is hot. Supposedly 4.0 quarts isn’t a low enough level to cause any damage, but I’m still not crazy about the idea.

So what seems to work for this bike is to add 4.5 quarts of oil, then check. The total level seems to be closer to 4 quarts and 18 – 19 oz, or about 4.6 quarts. Much more than that and you’ll be overfull, and cause problems (at best, smoke; at worst, possibly ruined O2 sensors — I got lucky that I didn’t seem to damage mine).

For reference, here is the table from the 2020 Softail Models Owners Manual (page 31):