Following on from Chuckracer's 749 headlight mod, this is the same mod for a 916 model, I did this mod on my '98 916 because the either/or setup of dip-beam/high-beam was not IMO satisfactory for night-riding.
Big Disclaimer; The charging system on pre '99 models is marginal and so this could cause overload on regulator/rectifier or other electrical parts, which is probably why Ducati never did it in the first place.
That said I modded mine in the first week of ownership and 8 years later it's still going strong and I have had no failures or problems directly related to this, however I have had the Alternator-RR plugs burn but this is a common fault that most 'single-phase' bikes have already/will suffer from (it is covered in another thread in this section).
I believe that the 3 phase alternator models ('99 on) may already have this setup? but if not then this should also apply to them.
N.B. my bike is a Euro model and has an on/off headlight switch as well as a dip/high switch, bikes without the on/off may have a different switch setup.
Anyway to business, required tools are; Philips Screwdriver (short if you're not taking off the air runners or the left clipon) and a soldering iron with solder; Remove the LH switchgear - there are 2 'philips' screws in (underneath) the housing that hold it to the bar and the cable plugs into the back of the headlight assembly, once the screws are removed it will 'hinge' open and you can take it off the bike. Look inside the top half, directly behind the red push dip/high beam switch and you will a square part with 4 contacts and 3 wires on it. On mine there are 2 white wires and 1 black. The black wire is the feed in to the switch and the 2 whites are the line out; 1 to dip and 1 to high beam.
You need to move the black wire from here;
To here;
The switch appears to have been made specifically to be able to wire for either/or or both together as you will only need to move the black wire from it's current position to the other spare contact. This requires the use of a soldering iron but is a really simple mod and the whole operation should take total no more than 10 minutes start-to-finish.
Basically in it's original position there is power to only dip or high-beam, depending on the position of the dip/high switch, in the alternate position as shown in the pic there will be constant power to the dip-beam and power to the high-beam only when dip/high switch is 'in'.
Pics only show the after as the before was done 8 years ago but the spare contact pointed to by the red probe is where the black wire was originally soldered to.
It should look like this when done;
Having done this mod you will have dip-beam as normal but when you select high-beam dip will stay on, giving both and double the lighting power.
If the lights are off and you flash using the 'pass' button then the high-beam only will light if you have dip/high selector in 'dip' but both lights will flash if you have the dip/high switch in 'high'. Flashing whilst dip only is on will flash the high and leave the dip on permanently.
As I said I have had this mod for 8 years with no problem but; I don't do alot of night-riding and due to the amount of oncoming traffic I am often in 'dip' only so I can not say how long that both beams on will be sustainable to the battery and RR, however realistically I can't see it being a problem but I could be wrong/mentally unstable so you do this mod at your own risk........
Linear Mode
