Starter-Head light relay

[Shorty]

Had to replace my starter-headlight relay again this weekend on my 02 Bonnie. The second one in two weeks. Any ideas what could cause this?

Shorty

 

[WetSparks]

To help, specifically why did you have to replace the relay. Burnt out contacts or non-functioning solenoid coil ??

 

[Shorty]

WetSparks...it appears to be an issue with the contacts, however I'm not sure. I'll need to ohm-out the coil for an open and check the contacts for high resistance I guess.
This all coincidentally happened after I hit some pretty bad road surface bumps a few weeks back. At first I thought that the filaments in my head light went out due to the shock, but after replacing it I found the relay to be bad.

Shorty

 

[bdavanza]

Stock headlight or brighter replacement?

 

[WetSparks]

Sounds like a loose wire or bad earth time. It might be that a fault on the coil side of the relay is causing it to 'chatter', this will burn out the contacts as quick as anything.

 

[Shorty]

Same type of non-stock headlight I've been running for years (it took over 4 years for the original relay to go bad). I've been using a sealed beam headlamp for years and really haven't had an issue that I'm aware of. However, you could be on to something. I got a spare relay just in case this time around.
By the way, the relay is not OEM but another 12V 40 Amp made by GP Sorensen which has the same pin-out and configuration as the stock unit. I might have also just gotten a bad relay before.

Shorty