the owners manual does not help me one bit as to how to change the headlight..the only thing that is right is the rubber backing taht has to come off..the bulb popped right out of the houseing and is just lying inside..and can anyone tell me what is the best bulb to buy for brightness..
thanks

 

If it fell insided the lense you'll have quite the job ahead of you to retrive it. Both of my bulbs popped out just last week while I was snowplowing. This will be the second year plowing and I wasn't doing anything different than many other times but the little rings that are soldered on to the bulb broke off letting the bulbs fall into the lenses. Sh*#tty!!!

I went through the owners manual and you're right it was helpless. There are screws on the sides of the lenses, one you can see and one you can touch on the inner side of the light, they have to come out along with the adjuster screw on the bottom of the light to remove the lense as to shake out the broken bulb. Sh*#tty!!!

The out side screws are easy enough to get at but the ones buried in the plastics aren't. You just have to keep taking off parts, starting with the rack then the black middle plastics and so on untill you can get a screwdriver up inside to monkey the last screw out. Sh*#tty!!!

Don't be afraid though... just keep all the parts ( nuts & bolts ) in a neat order and put it back together opposite as taking it apart. One tip though... when you remove the adjuster screw from the headlight there is a small white plastic nut that fits on the back of the lamp and is important to not loose because you will not be able to adjust the light without it. I know 'cause I dropped mine down by the front diff skid plate area and spent 1 1/2 hrs looking for it. Sh*#tty!!!

I'm no mechanic but love working in my garage. Belive me I tried to find an easier way but the only thing short of lifting the bike on end and shaking the hell out of it was this time consuming method. Sh*#tty!!!

Oh yeah, by the way... I tried to get brighter bulbs and because they are the old school twist and lock element bulbs direct OEM replacements are all that's available. Which sucks because this is the second Kodiak I've had where the quality of the headlamp power was Sh*#tty!!!

 

if they fell in the easiest way is stand the bike up on its back bumper and fish around in there,,,,, it will come out pretty easy.... there were lots of faulty lights that got out there from yamaha..... mine bused too...on my wolverine..

 

thanks for the info G.I. Junker that is what i thought that i would have to do.and ye si was snowplowing with it to when it popped out.
once again thanks for the help

 

Put some vacuum on a plastic tube and see if you can use that to grab it.

 

If you can get a pencil into the light from the back, chew up a wad of gum and stick it to the pencil and catch the bulb with it. Just make sure that the gum is well secured. Sticky tape with the sticky side out if you don't have any gum.

There are also flexible grab tools that might work as well.

Good luck