'04 EHC problem/drive belt chirp

[awags]

its my first day in here so correct me if i'm doing anything wrong. my first question- my headlight has had an intermittent attitude for a few months now. after a couple hours of wire tracing i had a feeling it was the ehc. i called the dealer they said ehc, almost $500. if i buy it will this one last more than 8k mi? otherwise it will get mighty expensive. any ideas ? cheaper? aftermarkets? used? recall? also my belt has been chirping for a while now, Ive adjusted it, now its still faint under 15 mph. am i doing something wrong. these links in here will help w/ a service manual i hope, i couldn't find one before. thanks.

 

[Moespeeds]

Allot of people have the belt chirp problem. I had it and tried everything, re-aligning it, making it tighter, looser, etc and nothing helped. I finally resorted to actually greasing the sides of the belt. No more chirp. I changed my drive belt last week, but have yet to get the bike on the road. I'm hoping it's gone for awhile. As for your EHC, check all your headlight connections, change your bulb.

 

[N8KAM]

Well first .....Hello And welcome to Big Dog Biker.. aka the pound.
Next you need to go to the introduction area and tell us all about your bike.... oh yea and your self.... and pin the map.... yada..yada..

When i replaced my head light i found the connector melted so you might start there... Be patient with the disassembly... there are a few threads here to help get it apart.

and you can find EHC's every once and a while on E-bay.. :2thumbs:

and my belt started to chirp last year @ 4800 miles.... readjusted and it just came back to day but not as loud.

 

[Gas Man]

I would double check all the wiring to the headlight first. EHC should be the last step.

Belt chirp is 90% alignment. Best is to measure the distance from the pivit bolt to the axle.

 

[IrishGuy]

I had headlight issues myself on my 05 ridgeback. There were 2 things wrong with my headlight-

1. The hi element of my bulb went out. Was $20 from autozone to replace.
2. The headlight wiring was defective to begin with. The wire inside the lamp fried to a crisp. There was a recall on this for some bikes, I don't know if it affected '04 bikes. Since it was a recall issue the dealer fixed it for free.


Welcome to the forum! :2thumbs:

 

[Drewv1]

I'd agree with moe on the chirp. Grease it and forget it. I changed my pulley, new belt, aligned trans, checked the tension, all for nothing. WD40 was my ticket to hearing nothing but the pipes!
It seems to be most of us with 04's that have the chirp problem.

 

[awags]

thanks all for the help. yeah i've done the grease but was hoping for a more permanent solution, oh well. and i've traced the wiring back to the ehc, so i'm sure thats it, was just hoping for a cheaper solution. $500 is fine just so it lasts alot longer than my old one. i will get to the introduction threads yet- just busy(road consruction) and worse yet are my computer skills so i've got that handicap to deal with. thanks again for the advice. i enjoy hearing what you guys have to say!

 

[chopper]

I put a chain on and couldn't be happier. I gave up on the belt chirp.