Broken Spotlight Mounting Tabs

[Donkey Hotey]

From the past, I know this is something that is not unheard of, though not sure of how many failures we've seen as a community. I bought my Jennie with a broken and rewelded tab. It's impossible for me to know exactly where the crack started because it was obviously ground and covered with weld bead.

Three other bike were bought used, already having the spot lamps installed. Obviously I don't know their histories and how they were ridden.

Finally, my very first bike (yes, this one), bought brand new and the spot lamp bar bought brand new, failed two days ago at 6,400 miles. I know the history of this from the day I bought it, in the factory-sealed box, almost exactly 21 years ago. The bike never had torn engine mounts (excessive vibration) and has never been ridden hard, on rough roads or anything else. Nonetheless, the left spotlight snapped off 10 miles from home on a short ride.

RIP: the most famous E-H light bar on the interwebz

From close inspection, it looks like the crack started at the sharp point of the sloppily applied weld bead (picture attached). There is visible bubbling of the chrome visible on the right side of the crack. There is no other chrome damage anywhere on this light bar. This suggests the chrome damage may be from an improperly cleaned area prior to plating (leading to corrosion and eventual failure). Conversely, the chrome may have bubbled due to the final failure of the steel and the weld is the cause.

The opposite side bracket shows no cracks, no issues with the chrome, etc. The same is true on the Jennie: opposite bracket is bright and shiny and has continued on. the other three light bars are all bright and shiny. Nothing to suggest eventual failure. It's a little scary because I don't normally plan to clip the wire harness and have to stash a spot light in the saddlebag for the ride home. In this case, I had a polishing rag in the saddlebag that got tied around the jagged end and the light flopped against the spring for the short ride home.


I'm curious if anyone else has broken and/or broken-and-repaired light bars that could take a look at that area and maybe share a picture of two.

[Donkey Hotey]

I'm going to follow-up here for others to have as future reference. I finally inspected the light bar on my Jennie. It had also broken in the past and was welded by the previous owner. I expected that new weld to have obscured any evidence of the original cause but, I was mistaken.

Referring to the photo above, someones drunken cousin must have been intermittently doing the welding on the line at National Cycle. Both the broken mount on the Jennie and on 1525 were both very sloppy, with bits of puddle extending out into the bracket. It seems that either the design was absolutely at the razor's edge of structural margin or there was some impurity or other issues introduced during the sloppy welds. Both bars failed at similar spike shapes in the weld puddle.

I'll add that the welds on the four other lightbars here are beautiful, smooth and consistent. They have plenty of miles and so far are unbroken.

Bottom line: inspect your lightbars. If the weld on the angle brackets is smooth, my guess is you'll never see a failure. If you have a sloppy weld on those brackets, keep an eye on them for cracks.

[Donkey Hotey]

Adding still more information:
Got the Jennie out for a bath and some work today. Got to really inspecting the light bar. While I was at it, I found a crack on the previously unbroken side of the lightbar.

This is the side that was rewelded before I bought the bike. It was cosmetically raw but, functional. You can see just how bad the original weld was and that the bracket failed just along the edge of the puddle.




And tonight was the night I had to replace the lightbar. Looking more closely at the opposite side, you can see this bracket was just about to let go. The crack has formed all along the edge of the puddle and is held by the small segments remaining between the weld and the edge. This bike has 21K miles on it.



The spot lights have quite a bit of play in the holes and can be tightened in a wide range of positions. I'm going to encourage anyone concerned about this to also loosen their spot lights and move them as close to the inboard end of those holes as possible and retighten. This will reduce the effective lever arm hanging out and reduce the flexing of the brackets.

If you have sloppy welds on your lightbar like these show, keep a close eye on the edges of those puddles.

[Donkey Hotey]

During the recent west coast gathering, Mr Locklear was not the only Mike to join us. Those who saw the posts know that Mr Degrood rode out to join us one day. I totally forgot that he too had a minor mechanical issue of sorts.

When he arrived at Doug's house, I obviously had to take in all that is 901. I've been making it a point to look closely at the welds on any bike carrying spotlights. I noticed his had the same sloppy welds as on my failed light bars. It even had the dark line showing at the root of the weld. I shared the story of the failed lightbars and mentioned he should keep an eye on it.

After lunch, as he and Doug were bombing along the northern shore of Lake Isabella, he suddenly pulled over at the next available spot. He laughed and accused me of cursing him earlier in the day. Sure enough, his light bar broke right at the weld.

Hopefully he will see this and share what he did to repair it. So far, mine are all sitting in boxes, waiting for a good solution.