Mounting DDMTuning ballasts

Has anyone found a truly good product for mounting ballasts inside the front fender? I just installed DDMTuning HIDs and ballasts and before I finished troubleshooting the highbeam (needed to change the position of one of the pins) the ballast I had mounted to the inner right fender had come loose. I initially used 3M double sided mounting tape - the red stuff - it was recommended by the parts person at my local Auto Zone, saying it kept their rain gutters on their car through Hurricane Sandy. Granted it's been sitting out in my cold garage while I was gone for the past week, but if it came loose that quickly in the cold I have no hope for it surviving vibrations and rain!

what do you mean by ballasts? i'd find a way to either screw them in (machine screws & red loctite) or use 30min-1hr. Epoxy (get the good stuff from a hobby shop that sells RC planes) you'll need a catch pan or 2 and some C-clamps for the Epoxy most likely. im assuming you dont mind messing up the paint on the fender/fairing a little, because you should rough up the paint a little for any kind of adhesive to stick better.

also how clean was your bike when you put the 3M strips on? those things usually stick like mad. any dust/dirt/grime/oil/grease/wax on the fender?

Edit:

ok i just looked those things up. do you mean to say that they are mounted to the fender or the fairing? i dont know much about those ballast, so my question would be "Do they get hot?"

SweaterDude said:

what do you mean by ballasts? if youre talking about auxiliary lights, i'd find a way to either screw them in (machine screws & red loctite) or use 30min-1hr. Epoxy (get the good stuff from a hobby shop that sells RC planes) you'll need a catch pan or 2 and some C-clamps for the Epoxy most likely. im assuming you dont mind messing up the paint on the fender a little, and you should rough up the paint a little for any kind of adhesive to stick better.

also how clean was your bike when you put the 3M strips on? those things usually stick like mad. any dust/dirt/grime/oil/grease/wax on the fender?

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Here's a picture of pretty similar ballasts I'm referring to:


I'm not against screwing up any cosmetics inside my fender - I had prepped the inner fender simply with papertowels and water followed up by a chlorox wipe - I'm sure that's not quite up to recommended spec.

Now that I've sorted out the wiring issue I'll probably pull the fender again to bring inside and sort out... Most sticky stuff would rather cure inside that out anyway.

I generally zip tie mine in place. I always use Morimoto ballasts which come with a steel strap that you can use to mount them. I usually zip tie them behind the headlight housing.

i think zip ties might well be the best solution, especially if these things get warm/hot as the temp fluctuation will mess with bonding. good luck with your project though.

I tooK a piece of aluminum ( about 1.5 inches wide by 8 or 9 inches... home depot heating aisle) and fastened it to the inner side of the fairings on both sides. From there really zip tied the snot out of them securing it to the piece of aluminum on each side. holds very secure. Not sure if there is a commercial product out there to mount these with a bracket.

I like the idea of mounting them to a metal strap and securing the strap...I didn't see (in a cursory glance between school work and gym) a good place to zip tie them out of the way without them dangling or being in the way...might end up shortening a few of the wires too just to clean things up.

I used industrial-strength velcro from the local Ace Hardware to mount the ballasts in my car. It's held up so far, and the heat in an engine bay is pretty good at putting adhesives to the test.

Zapstraps worked for me. And again..its a FAIRING bro....the FENDER sits inches from your tire. Not a happy place for electronics....

patrickb37 said:

I used industrial-strength velcro from the local Ace Hardware to mount the ballasts in my car. It's held up so far, and the heat in an engine bay is pretty good at putting adhesives to the test.

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This.

Easiest solution, looks clean and will work on any surface.

The problem with using double sided tape of any type is the the inside of the faring is very porous and not smooth. I holds dirt/dust so there is very little surface for the tape to adhere to. Double sided tape works well on clean shiny surfaces but not the inside of your fairing. Velcro type hook n loop has a thicker adhesive that might work better inside the faring but the fairing has to be very clean and free of dirt and dust. The Velcro adhesives get really soft in the heat and may fail. That metal bracket posted earlier sounds like the way to do it.

lazamus69 said:

Zapstraps worked for me. And again..its a FAIRING bro....the FENDER sits inches from your tire. Not a happy place for electronics....

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:thumbup: I know you're right, and you knew what I meant

Maybe the problem was the slight curve of the inner FAIRING making it not stick so great...the tape came off the ballast though, which was the first surface I applied it to.

I think I'm going to use some of these cable tie mounts on the inside of the fairing with either some hot glue or PVC cement to hold them in place...then the ballasts will still be removable if they fail but it will be solidly mounted and better able to deal with the slightly curved fairing.

I used double sided tape to mount mine in the fairing and they haven't come loose in the last six months. The trick is to clean all surfaces well with some sort of alcohol so that there is no dirt or residue left. Doing this you get a very strong bond that will not come loose.

outasight20 said:

I used double sided tape to mount mine in the fairing and they haven't come loose in the last six months. The trick is to clean all surfaces well with some sort of alcohol so that there is no dirt or residue left. Doing this you get a very strong bond that will not come loose.

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I'm going to keep the double sided tape in place to act as a vibration-reducer as well (have enough of those coming from that dang fairing...)

I used the ballasts from TRS which had the metal mounting straps, and I attached the metal straps to one of the phillips-head screws on (or near, I forget) each headlight assembly. It looks like those cable tie mounts could be screwed down too.

CavDoc said:

:thumbup: I know you're right, and you knew what I meant

Maybe the problem was the slight curve of the inner FAIRING making it not stick so great...the tape came off the ballast though, which was the first surface I applied it to.

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Just trying to help you out so the next time your talkin' shop with your biker buddies and you tell them you mounted your new HID ballasts inside your FENDER you dont come off sounding like a complete newb...you know what I mean?

You're welcome

Someone has a thread on here somewhere where they bought these from DDM:

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/HID-Bracket-Slim

and then slightly bent them to mount them up using an existing screw so they hung behind the inner fairing. I can't find the thread for the life of me, though.

OK, it was here (Morimoto, not DDM, but the same mount points should apply for the DDM brackets):

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-...ini-stage-iii-kit-install-my-new-mirrors.html

Just as an update, I used those zip tie mounts that I posted up earlier and initially had attached them using hot glue. Well, that only lasted ~1,500 miles, which may be a function of the fact that it was cold as **** here - the glue just popped off the inner fairing. Since then I've reattached them using JB Weld and I've had no problems!