I'm picking up a 1987 LT230S chain drive on Sunday. Knowing it needs a headlamp and housing, I ordered the housing on eBay, not realizing it had no lens in it. I have the housing, guard, socket and harness but the lens is broken away. It is also labeled as LT230E. Will this assembly fit the 230S? Also, it looks like I need to order the lamp/lens assembly. Will either fit in the 230E housing? I know I should have waited to order parts I'm just excited to get this project going. Pics of the 230E assembly attached, I am getting a 230S. Thanks.

 

Nobody knows if the headlight from the shaft drive 230 fits on the chain drive 230?

 

Yes, they do as a complete assembly interchange. The late model 230s has a headlamp fairing and them parts are kinda rare to come by but it will also as complete assembly will interchange.
I however as far as I know there is no "just a lens" available. You need to hunt down a lamp for your bracket. The 230E, 250E and early 230s lamps will interchange in the holder you show in the picture, the lamp as mentioned above for the late 230s will not.
Hope that answers your question

 

Awesome; thank you. I did find a lamp assembly for the bracket shown; it should be here in a few days. The original bulb is a 45-watt standard bulb; an eBay search revealed both halogen and LED bulbs that will fit this quad specifically. Is it safer to just buy the standard bulb?

 

Any H4 bulb will fit. Original equipment was a incandescent bulb. Common to replace with a halogen bulb. Halogen work good even at idle, even better on the move. Id imagine a LED would work to as long as it didnt require any additional 12V supply for a fan or ballast etc. I havent put a meter on the machine to measure voltage/ amperage output but the manual says 12 to 15 volts @ 2800 RPM, Id assume around 40 to 50 watts. Might even be able to steal a watt or two from the tail lamp buy installing a LED bulb there too.
I myself have be trying to figure out how to add a battery and rework lighting coil to charge battery so I can run a LED light bar. Ive asked on here with no response, I guess Ill have to wait until I get up and running to measure the raw voltage from the lighting coil.
HID would be sweat, but again unknown if there would be enough up front power to light off the ballast. Lighting sure was a pitfall to these older machines.

 

Your input is a huge help; thank you. I will definitely be looking for a H4 halogen bulb for now; please keep me posted if you find any info about adding a batter and/or LED lighting. I want to be able to use the quad at night around the farm, but right now I just have a mess of wires to figure out. Thank you so much for your help.

 

Only difference between 85-86 quadsport headlight and 87-93 230E quadrunner is that the E had tons more wiring inside the housing. Neither really light up really great, but an E works better at lower RPM's since it has a battery. A big upgrade is to use the light assembly from a 250 quadracer. They have higher wattage bulbs and glass lenses instead of plastic. But you have to use the entire cage that mounts to the steering stem from the quadracer because the light housing mounts differently (it "hangs" from brackets that bolt to the cage with rubber isolators.) The quadracer cage will bolt right on to the sport steering stem.