Hitchcocks Forum

Hello guys---- LES H & NORM, sorry to be a pain (again!!) but I've mis-laid the notes you both gave on how to re-wire a 4-lead Alternator to give "normal", battery powered or indirect lighting on our "Dahling" Bullets. This follows a rather HAIRY ride home last night through black, country lanes. I had to resort to the old bikers trick of allowing a car to pass just so I could use his lights for the short time I could keep up. I have our hosts upgrade H'lamp and bulb fitted ( which def. IS better than std.) but feel the need for PROPER lighting---the jokes over now. The bike is a 2005 500cc Classic with 4-wire Alternator with standard battery BUT is an Indian home market import to the UK by it's first owner---I'm No3. What reg/rectifier would you recommend for this new set-up ?? Cheers M'dears---------

Hi Alan. The 4 wire AC lighting alternator has two sets of outputs. Low O/P pair is on the 2x Violet wires...The High power AC supply to the headlights is on the Yellow and Amber pair. Can't remember what I told norm, but you can sum together the two pairs, but the high current produced might be too much for the standard rectifier/regulator unit/units. I think Norm used a Boyer power box regulator to handle the full power. As there are two Violets you will need to measure them connected one way round when paralled up with the yellow/Amber pair and then reverse them and measure again. Use the connection that provides the highest output...The new "Pair" will drive the Boyer...does not matter which way round. THEN the Boyers live DC +ve will have to by- pass the existing Reg/Rect unit and feed the ammeter on the Red/Yellow wire (available at the old R/R unit). Then there is more fiddling about!..... You will have to remove/disconnect the "AC regulator" then the AMBER wire that used to connect to the alternator High O/P and fed the headlight, should be connected to the ammeter (Red/Yellow wire side). As far as I can see this will give you battery powered lighting fed by the Red wire. It sounds like quite a bit of work but just do oone stage at a time. BTW has the original AC/DC electrics developed a fault?

CORRECTION...FORGET THE LATTER PART OF WHAT I WROTE ABOVE...I'VE CHECKED THE WIRING DIAGRAM AGAIN AND CAN SEE THAT THE AMBER WIRE DOES NOT POWER THE HEADLIGHT IT IS IN EFFECT A FLOATING AC EARTH!......So the AMBER wire on the headlight bulb has to be taken to a good earth in the Nacelle. Now the old YELLOW wire from the High O/P side of the alternator has to be connected to the Red/Yellow side of the ammeter...so not much difference in work just a different wire to go onot the ammeter. BTW... as I'm writing this I'm sure I never told Norm how to do this before...anyway, worked it out now....CU.

Les/Alan, I wired it direct, didn't worry about the the ameter,I connected purpleto yellow and purple to amber then connected these to either yellow on the Boyer powerbox then the power box red to positive battery and black to negative battery. From what I remember from my email from Boyer was red to positive and black to neg and the reason I eas asking was because mine was pos earth. Might pay to check with Boyer if this is correct for neg earth but I think so. Not a lot of fun following behind a car so you can see a little I ended uo doing it many times befor Les helped solve my problem but now my Inter lights are a beautifull thing. If you want to go back to the original bypass system let me know and I will work it out from the wiring diagrams

Hi guys ------- and thanks for that collective effort. I get the general idea now---will have the Hot Solder flying during the winter lay-off. No LES, no fault as such. As I mentioned I've fitted our hosts recommended "Improved Headlamp" and Phillips bulb but although the lighting IS better --- a) It's still almost invisible when stationary at traffic lights, etc. and----- b)Both my mates 1960's BSA B40 lights outperform my Enfield all round !!!-----If I use the flasher switch ( which I believe is powered straight from the battery, then the main beam is as good as theirs.)

Alan,
I'll sit down later and see if I can do a detailed work through of which wires to cut and shut and believe me it will be worth the effort, big white bright light.

Something that has me confused with the Meteor though and I just thought of it is that even though I now have an alternator on it the low beam is yellow but the high beam is nice and white. It has an H4 Halogen globe so I don't understand it.

Hi Alan, Ive been studying the wiring diagram and it is quite complex and does require a fair bit of work. This is after you have connected the alternator wires up as I explained earlier to a Boyer powerbox. The reason for using the powerbox is because I don't know if the standard Indian rec/reg unit can handle having the 4 wire alt put all of its power through it. Once you have gone this far you then have a yellow and an amber wire hanging loose. Amber goes to the headlight via the A/C reg which is no longer needed. What I think you have to do from here is the amber wire going to the headlight from the A/C reg will need to be connected to the ammeter.The yellow has to have the end taped over because it is required to supply power to the high/low switch. I think this is how it should work

Alan,
Sorry Alan, it might be the yellow wire that needs to be connected to the ammeter and the orange capped off, bit of experimenting to be done here with a test light

Still thinking Alan, if you disconect the A/C regulator and temp wire the yellow wire in the loom going to the alternator connector below the dizzy to the pos side of the battery I'm pretty sure you should have headlights runninmg from the battery. Sorry I don't have an A/C headlight bike here to play with, so I'm playing with yours