Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > 748 head lights

[al]

I find that the headlight on my 748 is useless on dip beam. I've seen a 996 that can have both of it's head lights on at the same time and spoke to the owner, and according to him it was done by the factory. Has anyone done this conversion themselves and how?

[KeefyB]

Ah,thats the Australian conversion.
Dont ask me how its done tho!

[Edited on 9-3-2005 by KeefyB]

[keefer]

its not a conversion that's how they are in aus as standard.
don't think they have the same law that says both lights should not be on at the same time.
so old bids don't pull out on us and then say they thought we were miles away

[Shazaam!]

It depends, what year is your bike?

The reason that early 748's and 916’s only operated one headlight at a time is that the charging system wasn't designed to run two 55 watt bulbs simultaneously. 1995–1998 superbike models were designed with a 350 watt 2-phase electrical system. For the 1999 model year, Ducati redesigned the charging system going from the 350 watt 2-phase design to a 520 watt 3-phase alternator.

The early bikes had a lot of regulator failures. The problem stems from an electrical system design that includes a charging system of marginal capacity that results in constant high electrical demands on the components to maintain an adequate charging rate. The weakest link is the regulator. The problem is compounded by faulty stators, poor electrical connections, small-gauge wires, and inadequate cooling of the regulator itself.

The best, but expensive, solution is to put a HID light in the high beam side. HID's draw less power but are three times brighter than the stock units.

[Edited on 3-9-2005 by Shazaam!]

[psychlist]

I got a "50% brighter" H1 for main beam and a "30% brighter" BlueVision H3 for dip. £20 all in. Doesnt stop the beam being sprayed around with no real concentration but a damn sight cheaper than a HID conversion though!