Forum

[Norm]

Hi Jacob, as Allan says batteries seem to be ok. All I can say at the moment is to connect the 2 purples(without the yellow and orange wires) and take a reading at the battery and see what voltage you get at about 2,000rpm. In theory the 2 purples shouldn't produce enough power to run the lights and ignition for a long period but just go through the procedure of checking. It sounds like you have the D/C lighting side sorted, it is just the charging side that is now the problem

[JTL]

Hi Norm, yes it is the charging that causes all the troubles. Right now the tank is off while drawing the wire diagram. In a couple of days this might be done and it's testing time again. If you have other tests in mind apart from checking the two violet, please let me know. I for my part want to test the yellow and orange only connected to the reg/rect. I also want to test the reg/rect mounted to the frame with an air flow around it. The ammeter needs to be observed carefully how it behaves during these two tests. Jacob

[Norm]

Hi Jacob, it is very hard to give any really good info on the charging figures because no 2 are ever the same, I get wildly differing readings on every one. It must be something to do with the way the windings are wound on the stators. I checked one yesterday that I have just completely rewired and by the readings I was getting it would be considered no good but I know it is charging because at idle with the ignition turned off it runs fine, obviously just on the alternator. Change the yellow and orange around and it stops instantly the ignition is turned off. On this bike I have bypassed everything, from the Boyer, black to neg battery, red to pos battery and the 2 yellows to the alt wires. Can't be any more simple than that but I still get strange alt readings

[Gwilly]

Norm its odd that when you swap the orange and yellow around the motor stops on the switch…

Would be worth checking with a test light from the battery + to the orange wire from the alternator, if it lights than you may have a ground connection on the stator frame orange.

Check also the yellow… cut the ground if found and insulate… Must be back feeding through the rectifier to provide a live when engine running, As its AC current the diode is stopping one way but not the other.. Half wave power keeping the motor running.. With engine stopped every thing works fine on the switch i bet… gwilly..

[Norm]

Gwilly, I have wired a lot of bikes this way and they all seem to work ok, but I can't recall swapping the wires around to see if it will shut the motor one way or the other. To all these bikes I have fitted a coil kill switch to stop the motor because they continue to run on the alternator. On the 1A I tried fitting a relay to shut the coil, but the relay was also backfed from the alt, so I thought I could fit another relay to shut the first relay down but that was being also fed from the alt. Ripped it all out in the end and just fitted a toggle switch. Also to this switch I wire in an LED, basicly an ignition on light so that it tells me I have power to the coil. If the light isn't on, no point in kicking.

[AllyF]

With thanks to this thread I have just converted my sixty 5 to DC headlamp.
No problems all works a treat - used a Boyer Power Box.

Only problem is that I swapped over the alternator yellow & orange between the 2 purple alternator leads to the Powerbox Yellow leads to see what the outputs were like - found that one way the bike ammeter showed a good charge when running (with or without the head lamp on) - 1/2 way into the green. However the other way it showed no charge on the ammeter. (with the AC lights the bike ammeter always only showed a small +ve charge)

So I swapped them back to the higher charge condition.

I assumed that one way would be slightly less then the other but that I would get a charging current regardless, and I would use the lower condition (which seemed to be the consensus in this thread - except for Norm who has no problems with using the higher value).

I did not check for either of the yellow or amber leads grounding to the stator - perhaps I should have? Any comments please most welcome!

[Norm]

Ally, remember these are Enfields and no two are the same and every time I get such varying readings that it is hard to work out what is correct but I seem to get them all working in some fashion in the end. You have to remember these alternators are made in India so all rules go out the door

[AllyF]

Quite agree, the Indian model documentation isn't brilliant.
So I'll suck it and see.
If it all still works ok (loom does not melt, battery or powerbox doesn't burst into flames etc.!) after a week, I'll assume that all is fine and leave well alone.

Certainly the headlight is now much improved - comes on instantly as does the dip/main beam whilst before it needed 1/2 a second to think about it.

[Norm]

Ally, you have checked what is happening with a mulitmeter haven't you? bit late to see if the wires meltor just get one of thos very cheap digital voltmeters and wire it in somewhere so you can see instantly what is going on with your charging. You can get them from China for under $10 and it gives you peace of mind. They look a bit too modern on an Enfield though

[JTL]

Hi Ally... just found my notes on the AC to full DC rebuild. The different combinations of violet A and violet B to yellow and orange gave two readings. One 25,2 Vac and 29,1 Vac. The lowest reading is the one in phase, so this is the one you should choose. On the ameter this gives + 1/5 (of full scale) at idle. At 50kmh it gives + 3/5 of the full scale; at 70 kmh the reading is + 4/5 of full scale. My headlamp is the Philips Motovision 55/60 watt; the rest of the light (indicators, instruments and tail light) is all LED. The gives the bike lots of power, so no need to choose the wire combination out of phase. But as Norm says, no two bikes are the same, but I hope you can get an indications of power from my readings... good luck on the completion of your rebuild Jacob