Removing Head/Tail light

[paclark]

DRZ400E California spec

I was planning to remove the head/tail light. These are on once the ignition switch is turned on. If I remove them will it put a strain on the charging system. My understanding is once the battery is charged the excess will be converted to heat by the regulator/recifier ( not sure which one ) and this will occur more often without the head/tail light using 35 watts.

As they do not weight much if there is any chance of damage to the electric system I'll not remove.

Thanks

[Wayward Son]

doesnt hurt anything to remove them.doesnt create more reg/rect heat.actually lessens the load on the charging system.

[SWEETWATER]

mine have been disconnected for two years, no problems yet!!

[Noble]

The rectifier changes alternating current (AC) generated by the alternator to direct current (DC) for battery charging and other uses. The regulator, regulates the output. Well sort of. As you allude to, the output is constant and the regulator sends the unused power to ground. But it is not quite as simple as that and the power is not dissipated as heat. The heat sink fins on the rectifier/regulator (RR) are mostly to dissipate heat generated by the inefficiency of the rectifier diodes not to dissipate excess power from the alternator. Actually you have very good questions. Is it harder or easier on a 200 watt system to support a small load or a maximum load? What happens to the excess power? How much power can the regulator regulate? Those are my exact questions I am going to ask my electrical engineer buddy next week. But these questions are academic. The practical answer is you are fine to unplug the lights. Many have done it and there is no report of electrical failures due to it. The worst you would see is overcharging the battery and that does not seem to be an issue either. I'll post information as I learn more about regulation of permanent magnet alternators.