Hitchcocks Forum

Can anyone tell me if a Branson power box as sold by our hosts can be tested, and if so how? My Redditch bullet is negative earth, and unbelievably stupidly, I fitted a battery charger the wrong way round. The electrical problems this caused have so far meant I've replaced the Pazon energy booster, and the ignition switch. The bike now starts, but bewilderingly, keeps running when the ignition is switched off. I've replaced everything but the power box, but am reluctant to spend yet more money until I'm sure that it is faulty. Any replies very gratefully received.

My stupidity continues! I should have written it's a positive earth.

You can send it off to Boyer for testing.
Or, connect the output wires to a multi tester. then connect the input wires to a battery. The output should be the same whichever way you connect the battery.

Jo9hn R , can I question your reply ? the powerbox is AC in , and DC out , your idea would does not sound right?

testing is as per Mr Hs notes , or simply explained , put a voltmeter on the battery and rev the engine!

Shug , your fault sounds like you have wired the ign switch up wrong , engine stopped , check for 12v (in your case negative) on the coil + earth with the ign in the on position then the off , if its live with the switch off then rewire/replace

Shug, you may be ok, I get that evertime I direct wire a powerbox, once the motor is running it then runs on the alternator when you turn the ignition switch off. I had one do that a couple of weeks ago but somehow I got it to turn off with the switch but I can't remember what I did to achieve this. The other alternative is to use the kill switch or decomp. At least it sounds like the charging side is ok. Another thing I do on the earlier bikes that I rewire and fit a power box to, is fit a coil cutout switch on the side of the right hand toolbox where the earlier ones had the ignition switch

And another thing I do with this mod is fit a small LED beside the cutout switch so that I can see when I have power to the coil, if the light isn't on there is no point in kicking

the feed from the powerbox is going direct to the ign on side of the switch

test 1: remove output wire from boyer and retest , if bike stops ok then a wireing fault

solution: rewire (or run new wire) to the feed (off) side of the ign switch or wire directly to the battery , but the bike will not show a charge , just a discharge when lights are on etc

Wish I knew Alan, I have wired so many and always end up with these problems. The thing with this one it is obviously early because it is positive earth and those bikes were power on all the time which meant you could leave the lights on with the ignition switched off. One day I fitted a relay to an Interceptor so I could switch it off, didn't work because the alt kept feeding the relay so stupidly I tried fitting another relay to shut the first relay off but that was also being fed but the alt. Nothing I could do about it but fit a coil kill switch.This all came about because I wanted to turn the ignition switch off and shut all power through the bike because the original design wouldn't

yup norm easy when you think about it? , if you don,t need a ammetter , wire direct to battery , or wire it to the input of the ign switch ,, switch off = kill ign + kill power from boyer (black box)

just as a side , remember to use diodes to stop feedback on relays ,

norm are you up on converting early (late 70s) jap bikes to 12v ? or even 6v with a reg / rect? at the moment 6v ac headlight / dc batt for horn and stop,

biggest prob is that the coils are earthed , so it not ac or dc , just 2 coils with a single ac feed each (one to a ac regulator =h/light) second thru a basic 2 wire diode to the battery ,

Hi Alan, no experience converting 6 volt Jappers to 12 volt but as is always the case once you get involved you start digging around and you can come up with solutions. At the moment I am concentrating on Enfields and Changs. At least there is a new kit just out to convert Changs to a 12 volt 3 phase alternator. Certainly beats riding home in the dark without lights