Posted by Polar Pilot on October 11, 2000 at 22:44:07:
In Reply to: Killing the auto-light... posted by Peter the blacksmith on October 11, 2000 at 19:07:36:
Lots of jurisdictions in Canada require that motorcycles run with their headlights on. Disconnecting the headlight would be illegal in such locals.
You may find your gas mileage improves when you make this modification. An old Harley rider's trick when getting low on gas was to shut off the headlight.
It should be a fairly straight forward process involving identifing and then isolating the neutral wire close to the headlamp itself and wiring this through a simple toggle switch - perhaps mounted on the side or bottom of the headlight shell.
I doubt the circuits on a Savage are sophisticated enough to allow the engine diagnostics to determine if the headlight is on or off.
I would pay close attention to the fluid levels in the battery after installing such a switch because the factory voltage regulator will be set to include the draw from the headlamp - switching the headlamp off will increase the load surging towards the battery and boiling the distilled water out of the acid.
I also would watch the tail lamp - it might suffer from the increased amperage surging through the wiring - if the headlight is disconnected does it suddenly get brighter? If it is significantly brighter it will burn out quicker because the higher filament temperature will make it more vulnerable to normal vibration.
Hope these simplistic suggestions are useful - lots of other folks here will have a better suggestions likely
Keep the rubber side down
Polar Pilot