12 volt E3L

[worntorn]

worn torn. please read previous bogs as the questions you have have been well discussed. no offence intended.

Sorry to revisit topics already covered.
I did a search last night and came up with a couple of threads which filled my head with the same conflicting information I already had onboard. After a half hour of reading I was no further ahead.

So I asked the question today and it was 2-0 for the reflash as opposed to rewire. That worked out fine.

Glen

[groily]

'flash as opposed to rewire  . . .'

Rewiring the field or brushes will reverse rotation Glen but won't affect polarity.

An easy way to ensure both polarity and rotation are as required if the need arises again is to motor the thing using a battery. When it works as a motor turning in the direction of drive on the bike, with the preferred earth, you know all is going to be good (if the guts are of course). To do that, you just connect D and F together, hook the joined wires to the chosen LIVE side of a battery, earth the body to the other terminal and let the thing motor for a few seconds.
If it turns the wrong way, reverse EITHER the two wires off the field coil which go to F terminal and earth, OR swap the brush connections round between D terminal and earth - but not both or you end up where you started. (Some dynamos have one brush holder permanently earthed, which precludes swapping the brushes, but not an E3L.)

Info on some of these topics is a bit muddled and can be hard to dig out, I agree. There are also dodgy bits, as ever. The site I referred earlier is good, and the book 'Classic Motorcycle Electrics Manual' by the same guy, Dr James Smith, is quite excellent. A modern bible pretty well. No connection, I'm just a satisfied reader.

[worntorn]

Yes, the link you provided was excellent thanks Groily.
 I was dimly aware of flashing to change polarity from  reading up on dynamos  17 years ago when my Rapide arrived with a dead Miller dynamo after 3 months at sea.
For this go around I had some fresh misinformation plus similar found on the old threads. I also contacted the previous owner of the bike who suggested just hooking it all up and running it with negative earth dynamo feeding positive earth solidstate regulator, but isolate the reg. I'm pretty sure that would make smoke!
With your help I think I've got it all reasonably straight now.
The dynamo is on the bike and happily charging a 12 volt battery at just a touch off idle. Seems to have very good low speed output. Standard chain drive.
Was thinking about fitting one of the belt drives then searched here and read of pulleys coming loose after a few thousand miles in more than one instance.
This setup doesn't seem to need extra speed. Once the LED headlight bulb is fitted it should be loafing, leaving enough for the heated vest
I sometimes use.

Glen

[edboy]

hi worntorn, sorry you did not find the information you needed from previous posts. perhaps , like me ,if you have a bench and vice you can set up a testing rig using a drill, cut off extention to fit chuck and i think 3/8 or 5/16 ? cant remember, whit socket. set up the dynamo with f and d connected together to a bulb via bulbholder and common earth. a reversable drill is preferred so you can spin in both directions which relates to the problem your having. so many times i ve found problems with the dynamo down to sticking brushes , corrosion, bad connections, loose screws , bad or dirty commutator, poor threads or assembly which you dont notice so much fitted on the bike. when you happy with the dynamo output you can hook up the regulator correctly wired and measure the output also on the bench. once you achieve the light going bright using the drill  its a eurika moment. i tested half a dozen dynamos i had lying around one afternoon and split them up as rainy day work and spare working then forgot where i put the good spare ones.

[worntorn]

I didn't find the conclusive info needed when searching, but did get exactly the info needed in this thread.

Spent yesterday tidying up wiring, replacing corroded bullet connectors etc.
The bike had been without working a working charging system and lights for many years.
Also installed a SparkBright voltage monitor in the headlight.
It is all working well, bright lights and decent dynamo output @ 12 volts.
It's not an Alton for output but with a very bright 12 watt LED
headlight bulb there is enough power in reserve to run a 35 watt heated vest and keep everything balanced at about 45 mph.
Without the heated vest the monitor goes to green  (13 volts) at 35 mph in top gear, slower than I normally run in top.

Very happy with that.

Glen