Hi,
I am about to have a terrible crisis of confidence. I cannot for the life of me get my charging system to work.
I have tried two dynamos- neither works with the regulator. I sent the regulator back and the manufacturer tested it and said it was ok. So, I completely rebuilt one of the dynamos with a new field coil and armature (my previous thread about the commutator). In truth it tested just the same as before.
I have an electronic tacho on my bike (one of those Chinese devices that has a wire that wraps around the spark plug lead).
If I disconnect the dynamo and link the filed and dynamo leads together and run up the engine, with a voltmeter connected between these and ground,, the dynamo is outputting between 7-8 volts at around 750-900 RPM. The field coil itself is drawing about 2 amperes (coil is about 280 ohm). If I connect a 12 Volt 21Watt bulb across the voltmeter and rev the engine I can easily get 12 Volt (bulb lights brightly) at around 1500 RPM.
I think the dynamo is OK so why won't it charge?
I have checked all the wiring. With the VR disconnected, if I connect my battery to the lead going to A and switch on the lights all works fine (except I don't sound the horn because I don't want to harm the ammeter) - no ammeter reading. If I connect the battery normally then switching on the lights gives me a discharge reading at the ammeter.
I have buzzed out both wires F and D to the dynamo - again fine. I have checked the earth continuity and it measure 0.1 ohms. I reversed the polarity of the meter and got the same reading.
The only thing I can possibly imagine is that the dynamo doesn't output enough voltage without the field coil in circuit to switch on the regulator?
My battery is fine (6.1 V).
Has anyone had similar issues?
Keith