Hitchcocks Forum

Hello everyone,

My enfield bullet is not charging: the battery shows a voltage of 11.5. When I get the engine running, it climbs to 11.9v with high revs.

The output from the alternator seems good (about 20v when revving).

I've tested the continuity all round the circuit, seems good too.

The ammeter shows zero, or negative when indicators and/or brake lights are on.

However, when I switch the lights on, the ammeter goes positive - is that normal?

I just replaced the regulator/rectifier, and this made no difference at all.

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

FYI - it's a 350 bullet from 2001, with four wires coming out of the alternator.

It could be the battery itself. If one cell of the 6 is failing you could get these symptoms. Try charging the battery off the bike (or disconnected from the bike's wiring) and see what the voltage is when finished charging and with charger disconnected. It should be in the region of 12.5 to 13.5 volts depending on the age and state of wear of the battery. Anything below 12v after the charging cycle and I'd say the battery has had it. Easy to check and the obvious first thing to establish!

REgards, Mark

If you replace the battery with a Lucas 2MC capacitor or our hosts' equivalent you'll soon know whether the alternator's output is enough for you to kick start and run the bike, a healthy alternator will manage this. As you have pointed out, it's the alternator with the 4 wire stator, so if the headlight on the separate AC circuit is working OK, you know at least half of the stator is still good! A.

Isn't this the new stator you replaced after the primary case explosion?

Did you replace the rotor as well? it could be damaged/lost magnetism due to heat..

Any case ammeter going positive when turning on lights seems wrong way round to me..

If you have AC headlight be worth checking the AC regulator which do fail with odd results...

Thanks for all your helpful points. I have indeed recently replaced the stator after a primary case blow out - but not the rotor yet. I'm waiting for that part to arrive. We'll see if that solves the problem. I've just found our hosts information sheet which is quite helpful, so I'll go through that.

D