Headlight

My philosophy on replacement headlights for the 750 is pretty straight-forward:

  1. I want to get a reasonable amount of light (unlike the stock bulb), but…
  2. Don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a fancy housing and H4 bulbs or an HID system, and…
  3. Don’t want to draw too much power from the old bike’s harness and charging system.

The headlight bucket accommodates a standard, round 7 inch bulb (unlike the earlier kz400’s and the like), so our options are just about wide open.  So, I think I’ve settled on one type of headlight for my bikes: Sylvania or Wagner H6024 (60/35 watts or 60/40 watts) sealed beam Halogen Headlamp.  Make sure the box says “Halogen”!  You should be able to find them on the shelf of the local auto parts store, reasonably cheap.

Yep, old school, not fancy, just works.

If you are planning running on high-beam for long spans of time, or perhaps are considering a stronger headlight, you might want to consider installing a relay inline with the headlight power (like you would do if installing foglights on your ’72 Camaro).  The harness on these old 750’s don’t like your super-brighty-bright lights too much… and might decide to melt at 2am in the middle of nowhere…

8 Comments

  1. jeremy

    I was able to find one at Lordco for 24 dollars. 🙂 thanks for the heads up on what light to get much appreciated. I have to order the grips in tho.. cause no one in this town has them.

  2. jeremy

    oh and btw, thats 24 dollars canuck money !!! hahaha

  3. phil santos

    Went over to get a 1073 bulb for the bike this a.m. I looked in the headlight section just for kicks and there was a H6024 halogen sitting next to two other Sylvania h6024– bulbs one was a little brighter and the other was a lot brighter. (as stated to me by the sales person). I bought the 60-40 h6024 for 10.99 plus tax.

    Thanks for letting me know which bulb that I needed.

    This forum is great.

    I also picked up a used (like new) rear tail light assembly from a company in Nebraska. Unit is unbroken and includes the metal back plate that hold the bulbs. Also got two passenger footpegs.

    The bike is almost perfect (well as good as it is going to get).

    Phil Santos in west Phoenix, Arizona USA

  4. Nick

    Hey, Biquetoast!

    I was just wondering if you could tell me if a speedometer drive gear from a 1981 KZ750 would fit my 1978 KZ750? I was just unsure if there was a difference in the part between those years? Thanks!

  5. Biquetoast

    @Nick –
    What it all comes down to for me is part numbers. I did some looking, and I’m not sure exactly what part you mean… And worse yet if the ’81 you mean is really the four-cyl 750, so there’s more questions than answers, I’m afraid.
    If you mean part “#41059-026 GEAR,SPEEDOMETER” for the ’78, I went to the parts list and found that indeed, it did fit a ton of models including the ’81 750 four-cyl. If it’s a different part, let me know…
    -‘Toast

  6. Willard (Butch) Baker

    Mr Toast: I have two questions. (1) I have two Led off road lights draw 15 amps each, I am planning on installing them in place of the headlight do you think the wiring can handle that load? (2) I have a suspension question I am rebuilding the front forks on my 1980 KZ750G and the left fork has a long spring and a short spring, the right fork does not is that the way it’s supposed to be? Thanks for your time…

  7. Willard Baker (grinderman)

    Mr Toast: I have two questions. (1) I have two Led off road lights draw 15 amps each, I am planning on installing them in place of the headlight do you think the wiring can handle that load? (2) I have a suspension question I am rebuilding the front forks on my 1980 KZ750G and the left fork has a long spring and a short spring, the right fork does not is that the way it’s supposed to be? Thanks for your time…

  8. Biquetoast (Post author)

    @ Willard
    (1) Replacing those lights in place of the standard headlight sounds cool, and should be fine, but I’d probably power them from a direct fused run and use a relay to trigger.
    (2) That doesn’t sound right, but I can’t recall. Sounds like someone was tweaking the feel, or maybe there was something tricky about the ’80, but you could always refer to the manual (available in PDF from this site).

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