Headlight bulb retainer spring hinge broken

[Tusky]

My dipped beam bulb/lamp (lets not go there) blew whilst out in the Alps recently. Once I had got over the shock of French / Swiss prices of £20.00+ for an H7, I went to fit it.

Expecting this to be a 2 minute job, the first thing I discovered was that the spring just fell off when I released it from the clips and there appeared to be no effective hinge catch of any kind and I fiddled around fruitlessly for 15 mins or so.

At this point 5 German GS owners pulled up and set about showing me how it should be done German stylee... 1hr later and increasing my vocabulary of German swearwords by at 500%, they succeeded in getting something somewhere to hold on to the pivot point of the spring.

I am sure I have read somewhere (probably on here) about a plastic hinge point or something like that. Mine has/had nothing of the sort when I took the bulb out.

I've looked at this info page http://www.r1200gs.info/howto/IPF-bulbs.html but it does not show detail on the pivot point 'hinge' retainer.

Any feedback would be much appreciated

 

[velofelo29]

I have the headlamp out of mine 2007 1200Gs. It is the same as the unit shown in your link. Look at the fourth photo down and you will just see the hinge, it is a small raised part on the back of the reflector shell and the clip is held in place by a small blck self tapping screw. The operation is to press down the clip ends, sqeeze them together to disengage from the lock clip and release, they should spring up

 

[velofelo29]

Follow on from previous post

Blck screw should read black (my typing). The only way the clip could fall off is if it is broken in two--highly unlikely, or the black screw you see in photo four has not been tightened fully home.

Trust this helps

 

[Balders1450]

The same happened on mine after 2 months, the plastic bit had broken so you could not get the spring back in. I got a new headlamp under warranty. Go back to your dealer and moan!!

 

[velofelo29]

But surely if the small plastic bracket had come away from the reflector you would still have the clip attached by the screw, so you would be able to see the actual part had broken off

 

[TeaPig]

Once the tiny plastic retainer has broken off there's nothing to hold the rear of the spring in place and it will slide forward and pop-out. A simple fix is to bend a thin washer or similar plate at right angles (so the bend just misses the edge of the hole) and then screw it down with the small self-tapper that normally does the job at the rear of the sping. The bent part of the washer clamps over the wire of the spring holding it place. Simples, and much stronger than the plastic bodge BuMW designed

 

[Tusky]

Once the tiny plastic retainer has broken off there's nothing to hold the rear of the spring in place and it will slide forward and pop-out. A simple fix is to bend a thin washer or similar plate at right angles (so the bend just misses the edge of the hole) and then screw it down with the small self-tapper that normally does the job at the rear of the sping. The bent part of the washer clamps over the wire of the spring holding it place. Simples, and much stronger than the plastic bodge BuMW designed

Thanks for the input peeps...... think this is the option I need to take if the Main Stealership does not agree to it being warranty work.

The screw was in place (if a little loose) but there was no plastic hinge/pivot clip in sight, even before removal. Very weak design feature IMO

 

[Glyno]

Once the tiny plastic retainer has broken off there's nothing to hold the rear of the spring in place and it will slide forward and pop-out. A simple fix is to bend a thin washer or similar plate at right angles (so the bend just misses the edge of the hole) and then screw it down with the small self-tapper that normally does the job at the rear of the sping. The bent part of the washer clamps over the wire of the spring holding it place. Simples, and much stronger than the plastic bodge BuMW designed

Yep simple fix and permanent. Next time one blows just take the complete lamp off, its only 2 bolts and far less fiddley

 

[adventuredon]

headlamp clips broken

similar thing happened to me on way to work. GS 1200 5500 miles. Got the f lamp failure notice. looked on u tube for video etc etc of how to do the replace. Thought i knew....#So i tried to get new bulb in and no joy. worked with very soft hands and did all that was mentioned. tried to replace with spare i had packed for France and followed the unclipping etc. Next thing i knew i had bulb and clip in me paws!!. by feel as they say. rode on blinder beam lightsto dealer. they could only fit a washer as a workaround unless i coughed up for new headlamp unit! way!!! so i feel for you,and cannot believe that safest /cheapest option is to return bike to dealkwer for new lamp...
To think that a 2 minute replace bulb can result in trip to dealer..better design def worth it.