Now you can
go to your nearest Suzuki dealer and buy a replacement bulb,
which will probably cost $5.00 or more (I'm guessing but they
charged me $7.50 for the screw that holds the turn signal stem
on and I later found one for 85¢) or you can go to your
nearest auto parts store or Wal-Mart and buy one that will
work with a slight modification.
The bulb type I used was a "74"
which is available about anyplace that carries a selection of
automotive bulbs, including Wal-Mart. Total cost was $1.29 for
two bulbs. The picture at right shows the package so you can
spot it quickly.
Once you have the errant bulb pulled
from the socket press in one of your shiny new '74' bulbs.
Make sure it seated good. Now here is where you gotta do a
little modification. The '74' bulb is slightly larger and it
tends to spread the holder slightly. This makes it difficult
to get back into the console.
***Disclaimer Follows*** I did this modification, it worked fine. Do this
at your own risk. If you do something stupid and get hurt,
break your bike or cause some other calamity that's a real
shame and I hate that but this is your decision, not
mine.
Did I mention I don't care for
lawyers much?
When I went to put the bulb back in it
didn't really want to go. Close inspection revealed that the
'74' bulb made the plastic holder slightly larger. It was real
slight but enough that I couldn't get it back in without
pushing harder than I really wanted to on that circuit board.
I took (you read that disclaimer
above right?) a sharp instrument and trimmed back the edges of
the hole slightly, real slight, like on the order of 1/16th
inch on both sides. If you click the picture at right you'll
get the idea. For obvious reasons you want to be careful doing
this. Should that circuit board snap I'm sure it won't cost
over $2,000 from the dealer.
Once I got the bulb back
in I plugged the instrument cluster into the bike and checked
to make sure that the lights worked before I re-installed all
the parts. Everything worked fine.
Oh yeah, make sure
you put those rubber protectors back on before you
completely e-assemble the bike. I didn't so I got some extra
practice removing the console.
Happy Ridin'.
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