Forum

[McMurdo]

Slightly off topic so my apologies to Monty for the slight detour - how far does everyone’s ammeter deflect? Mine only moves about 2mm to the left when kicking over and about 1mm into positive when running. Is that normal ?

[windmill john]

Mine has never been to plus. If I don’t start it first time, it’s about a mill or two to the negative. I.e. gone back to before TDC.
Someone on here said I wouldn’t get much movement with electronic ignition.
My bike is a 350 Bullet, 2002, electronic ignition with a lithium battery.

[Daiwiskers]

Slightly off topic so my apologies to Monty for the slight detour - how far does everyone’s ammeter deflect? Mine only moves about 2mm to the left when kicking over and about 1mm into positive when running. Is that normal ?

That sounds fine after starting it will go to the + after a few minutes it will come back to the center showing you that the battery is good

If it stay's on the + side when running there's a good chance that the battery is on it's way out


If it shows constant - you have a problem with the charging circuit

Hope this helps Dai

[windmill john]

Hi Dai, constant what?

As mine is kickstart only and AC headlight, I imagine the call for charging is negligible. If I recall, the last time I checked the voltage on my battery, bike not running, it was 15 volts I think! I’ve never had a lithium battery, so don’t know much about their state.

But as mentioned above, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my ammeter in the positive; positive light, but not plus

John

[Daiwiskers]

@John

Didn't come out clear did it!

Constant - negative

When the needle is on the positive side the bike is running on the alternator, when it's on the negative side it is running on the battery, when it's centered the alternator has recharged the battery and the whole thing is nicely balanced between the two

Hope this helps Dai

[McMurdo]

Thanks Dai, the movement is as you say, flicking between negative and neutral during kick start then positive for a short while after running. My question is does anyone get the needle swinging more than a couple of mm? It seems most of the meter scale is never used. I do have a black box and small lithium battery but I don't know if that affects it.

[Daiwiskers]

Not knowing what ammeter you have fitted I can't say
I think the Enfield one is 12 positive 12 negative but I'm not sure

If you fit one that's sold for 6v it will be 8 positive 8 negative this will have more movement and be fine to fit to a 12v system but will only tell you the same thing

I think over the years people have got mixed up over the use of the ammeter and seem to think that the lower rated one must be for lower voltage, but if you think about it the opposite is the truth a 6 volt system runs at double the amps for a given wattage
A 12v system running a 60w load will use 5 amps
A 6 volt system running a 60w load will use 10 amps

Hope this helps Dai

[windmill john]

Thanks Dai.


John