How to replace your front headlight lamp

Background

The headlight on the Honda Express is a sealed beam unit, but with a little patience it is quite easy to replace the lamp with a generic 6V headlight lamp.

What you need:

Remove the old lamp by either de-soldering the lamp from the headlight unit or saw through the solder around the rim of the unit. Take special care not to saw through the lamp, only through the solder. Now pull out the lamp. The front glass of the lamp will not come out as the diameter is more than the hole in the back of the unit. Force the rear part of the lamp so that it will break from the glass part.

The glass part of the lamp will now be inside the sealed unit. Take a wooden dowel or use the plastic handle of a screwdriver to break the glass inside the sealed unit into small fragments. Now turn the unit around and dispose the broken glass.

Clear the rim of the hole at the back with a file or sanding paper so that solder will flow easy on the rim when you solder the new lamp onto the rim. Also clear the new lamp fitting in the same way as the chrome on the lamp will prevent the solder from flowing freely onto the surface.

Inser the new lamp into the hole at the back of the unit. It is good practice to tin the surfaces on the rim and lamp before you solder the two together.

Re-solder the lamp to the rim on the back of the sealed unit. Solder the wires to the lamp. The Green wire must me on the common or ground of the lamp. If the Dim and Bright function is of a concern to you, then ensure that the filaments of the lamps are horizontally with the sealed unit, when the unit is in the correct vertical position.

Test the lamp to ensure that you have not broken anything during the construction before fitting the unit into the scooter.