Troubleshooting driving lights

[wingandaprayer]

Our 85 Aspy come to us with a set of 55 watt driving lights installed. If anyone has read Cycle World and Road & Track writer Peter Egan's column on 2 kinds of mechanics - the ones who are not electrically challenged - their tool boxes have all kinds of wires with alligator clips, test equipment etc dangling from them like a hanging flower basket - and those who are electrically challenged - they do better setting valves, etc - I fall into the barely passable latter category... so:

The previous owner is not electrically challenged - he had repaired the stator circuit trouble connection, replaced the stator - etc. All the work he has done is pro quality.

If I remember, the driving lights are connected to operate only on high beam. When I tried the lights, they come on for a few seconds then went out. There was a drop in voltage for that time - the headlight dimmed a bit - then the driving lights went out and stayed out. I switched them off right away. No fuses blew. I have disconnected them for now. I tested the switch itself for continuity to see if it failed. It tests ok. I suspect the relay in the system has failed? I would like to get them working, and available on high or low beam - I may set them up for low light for riding in rain...

Any advice, and circuit information would be appreciated -

Thanks

[SIR tricky]

The best way to set them up in my opinion is to be totally independant of the headlight, either high beam or low beam.

A fused minimum 10 amp for 2/ 55 watt lamps run from the battery and controlled by the Acc + screw.

You can then throw a switch and the lamps would come on, only when the bike IGN is turned on.

One problem and a big one, is that the stock alternator is not going to give you enough power to run driving lamps for very long without the battery going dead.

You could run them for a short time, you could install a volt meter to check the level of the battery.

An external alternator is really the only way of providing enough power.

You could replace the 55 watt bulbs with 35 watt bulbs and maybe squeak under the limit.

[neoracer]

i agree with tricky in that the 300W stator u have is marginal to run the driving lights for more than a short time,it almost sounds like the PO put a fuse in the circuit which blew out before u discharged your battery

your only choice right now is to remove the faux gastank and try to figure not what the PO did in wiring up those lights