Lighting problem

[Worty]

Evening all

The head and tail lamp of my '62 A10 are very temperamental - they often stop working after a run or even if I turn it from lock to lock.  On one occasion, I fiddled with the wires in the headlamp shell and they came back on.  Similarly, I tapped the ammeter on a couple of occasions and they decided to work again.

Do you reckon a fault with the ammeter or, possibly, the headlamp connector?  Does the ammeter need to earth through the headlamp shell?

Finally, does anyone know of a better headlamp connector than the original which seems to be a very Heath Robinson affair!!

Cheers!

[bsa-bill]

Many of us run a separate earths from the rear light and one from the headlight to where the battery earths on the frame, the headlight in particular has to earth through the steering bearings, this works but think about the very fine points of contact through the bearing balls.

[duTch]

 I do as Bill says with dedicated earth wire to battery only connected to engine casing for dynamo, but had a problem a couple of months ago after I 'fixed' the light switch, so went and bought a new one- the old one was very sloppy.

 The ammeter doesn't (shouldn't) earth, it tells how much current is flowing. You could take the ammeter out and connect the wires together and everything will still work (except the ammeter ).

 Sounds like you (obviously) have a loose connection.

[KiwiGF]

Might be worth checking the screws clamping the wires to the switch are tight, one recently came loose on my bike, and the headlight randomly flashed on and off.....a simple fix but not one to do on the roadside in the dark 

[morris]

Might be worth checking the screws clamping the wires to the switch are tight, one recently came loose on my bike,

I use these on the screw connectors;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-200pcs-Wire-Copper-Crimp-Connector-Insulated-Cord-Pin-End-Terminal-AWG-10-22-/291032609846
Never had one coming loose after that

[Worty]

Thanks everyone, very helpful!!

[rocker21]

slightly off topic, get a Cibie Z beam headlight unit, this takes an H4 bulb and then get the LED conversion, result is a brilliant white light that goes a long way and will work on 6v and only uses a fraction of the power a normal bulb uses and it is better focused as well, the amp meter hardly moves when on main beam, cost a little bit but if you live where street lights are rare it is a must, a few guys in the bike club have them and will not go back to the old system