[rep_movsd]

I'm going to rewire my bike - adding solid state relays for the headlights, horn, ignition switch and using LEDs for indicators and tail light.

I'll mount the relays up front and have only 1 thick wire taking DC to the headlight assembly from the battery, and 1 wire for a solid ground.
All the other wires controlling the indicators, rear lights and ignition can all be thin ones in a multicore cable which can easily carry enough juice to drive LEDs or control relays.

The AC headlight stuff just isn't upto scratch, So I am switching to DC.

Now since I have a 4 wire alternator with 2 sets of outputs, how do I connect them up so that all of them simply charge the battery?
Something tells me that since they are AC in different phases, just connecting them in parallel through two separate  rectifiers is not going to work.

Since the two pairs of alternators outputs are just parts of the same coil, can I just wire them in series and they would work as one?

How is this best done?

[ace.cafe]

Pair up the wires so you get the highest voltage output.  It won't hurt anything to try different pairings as long as you don't pair with any ground wire.
I do not think I would series them or the voltage might get too high for the rec/reg to handle.

[mrunderhill1975a]

If you have a two part regulator rectifer, you can replace your existing rectifier with two bridge rectifers wired as shown below.  Attach the two radio shack/Malpin bridge rectifers to a heat sink.

[Chasfield]

I went DC only when I rewired. I used two analogue multimeters on a sensitive DC voltage range to check the phasing of the two coil sets. Turning the engine on the kickstart would give the meter needles a brief kick. Once I had them kicking in the same direction at the same time, the issue of what to wire to what was settled. Then I just parallel connected them and ran them to a generic, after market reg/rec. My circuit diagram is published in another post:

http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php/topic,3064.0.html

The wire colour info there might be helpful - assuming RE were consistent in how they wired their 4-wire stators....

I would still verify all with multimeters if I were you.

[rep_movsd]

Thanks, I shall try with an analog meter to identify the phase.
I resoldered new wires on the alternator - the existing wires were 0.8 ohms each! That would have been a lot of watts heating the wires!
I soldered thicker better ones, and it's down to 0.2 ohms now each, but I could not for the life of me, fit the rubber grommet through the hole in the primary case - The last time, Chumma, me and another friend were trying to get it on, it took longer to get on than it takes to fit an engine head! Now due to the thicker wires, it simply wont...
I need to manufacture one with a bigger hole in it.

Meanwhile I am experiencing misfire at 4500 odd revs, It seems to be the ignition switch, because even if I turn it off, at above 3000 RPM the bike continues to run.
This electrical stuff is the last "weak point" left in my bike. Must take care of it for good soon!

[Chasfield]

That is strange. On a stock coil and points bike, of my Bullet's 2001 vintage, the ignition switch disconnects the ignition 12v and shorts out the points to prevent hot wire attempts, so the motor would definitely stop with the switch set to off.

Has your harness been modded by a previous owner?

I had a BSA Bantam that ran as well on glowing carbon deposits in the combustion chamber as it would off the sparking plug. That little fellow was hard to stop - until it spat a crankshaft balance weight through the crank case! Then it stopped good.

[High On Octane]

You could just install a Sparx battery eliminator like I did.  It's a 4 wire regulator (2 in - 2 out)  and you just bridge the alternator wires together in the right order.  It worked for my 3 wire alternator anyways, I think they work for 4 wire alternators as well.  What's really nice about this set up, is that my battery completely failed on me this last weekend up in the mountains, and because of how I built my electrical, I still had lights and juice to the EI and drove about another hour home with no problems.  When I got home, the battery tested at .18V, so yeah, my electrical set up is bad ass.

Scottie

[GreenMachine]

When I got home, the battery tested at .18V, so yeah, my electrical set up is bad ass.

That is impressive and a nice fail safe...Did you figure out why the battery went bad on you initially?

[High On Octane]

I'm assuming it shorted out when the bike fell over in the dirt parking lot at the bar.  It was a brand new battery, not a high quality one, but new none the less.

Scottie

[rep_movsd]

I checked each thing in turn, Changed sparkplug, still misfire, changed spark plug lead, still misfire, Changed battery, still misfire. Finally it turned out that the points wire has a bad contact and gets intermittent contact with vibration... Seemed OK in my last run, but it is rainy and dark out, so I couldn't push it on the road yet. It definitely reached 4500 RPM in 1st, I'm hoping the issue is solved. Tomorrow I will know.

The ignition switch has its own issue - It seems to work OK, but it's definitely not turning fully off when at high RPMs, I'm pretty sure my bike is not dieseling!  I'll replace the ignition switch soon.

A Sparx is on my list. So is a Boyer MK 3. I can feel that the bike needs more advance at high RPM, but the mechanical advance seems to turn on much too soon.

Took the time to change the oil ( bike has done 1200 miles since Fireball'ing ) - Last mineral oil change before I'll switch to synth at 1500.
Oil was fairly clean and hardly any has burnt.
Inspected the oil pump and quill seals (the last things that had worn prematurely) , all well. Clutch and primary side seem good (torqued down the alternator nuts, once bitten twice shy).
Torqued down the head studs too, everything seems good engine wise!

I found this website called dx.com who sell orange LED based indicators and red tail lamps with the correct bulb base. I'm not sure if the stock flasher will work with this low current load though...
In the pipeline is a TB500 fork assembly with 41 mm forks and a aluminum steering T and head, about 4 KG lighter than the stock one. Also a steel braided brakeline. Locally repainted meter dials, old school black and white.

There's always something to do to enhance a Bullet! 

[Blltrdr]

One thing you might check also is your HT wire to coil connection. I had an intermittent idle and after some checking found the HT wire not fully seated in the socket of the coil. I had to use some needle nose and really force it in until it clicked into place. No more intermittent idle.

[cyrusb]

You may have uncovered the age old point hot wire bullet connector problem. Mine was tinned with the assembly solder and corroded badly. Abraded off the solder and its been fine since '06. But until I found that, it had the same symptoms of running badly that you describe.

[rep_movsd]

Yes, I checked the HT lead seating on the coil too.

Apropos DC conversion, I suppose I can get rid of the AC regulator. One question that nags me is why they use shunt regulators rather than series ones... Shunts mean that 100% of the excess energy is dumped through the coils and becomes pure heat in an already hot primary case chamber.

Is it worth the trouble to build a small series regulator with a zener and a 2n3055 in emitter follower mode?
Will I be opening a can of worms?

 I have this attached circuit in mind... comments?

[Blltrdr]

I would keep your wiring as simple as possible. If you are rewiring you might take a look at this.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/bikes/negwire.htm

[mrunderhill1975a]

Is it a can of worms?.......... I would think that the worm problem with the design you show would be finding a Zener that would reliably handle the load.  That was the problem with older bikes, the zener would burn out at 4500 rpm. If you can find a reliable zener it would work.  The OEM regulator uses two SCR diodes that are built like a tank and are very reliable.  The weak part of the OEM R&R is the rectifier.

[rep_movsd]

The zener will be lightly loaded, the transistor takes all the load. The capacitor will ensure I can run without a battery in emergencies.
I would ideally prefer to keep the OEM rec-reg unit, but the thing is it has failed in the past for no apparent reason, and it's a black box - Black boxes always worry me. 

I'm going to make it as simple as it possibly can be, as I said, just 3 wires on the main harness - 1 DC wire, 1 ground,  and one multicore singlestrand lan cable that brings signals to the toolbox to control stuff in the back that is controlled from the front and vice versa.
No taped or soldered or spliced connections. everything screwed or plugged in with good connectors.

I'll have to figure out how to fit several solid state relays up front, these are quite big and may not fit easily inside the headlight dome. Worst case I'll use MOSFETS instead of relays.

I'll need 1 relay for the ignition switch, 1 for the kill switch, two for the headlamps, 1 for the horn. The ignition relay will be in the toolbox, since it has to control everything else. The killswitch relay also lives in the toolbox.
The other three have to be up front.

I ordered a small digital volt/amp meter for about 8$ that can be mounted easily, it will be useful to test and monitor the system on the road - I can probably use it for various other purposes, as a thermometer or oil temp sensor or maybe even an A/F sensor.

I think I will start off using the OEM Rec/Reg and build my own system later once I have the new wiring working as intended.

[mrunderhill1975a]

Sounds like a fun project. Now that I think about it, I seem to remember a circuit for a honda using a transitor set-up.  I will try and find the link in my files.
 If it doesn't work, you can re-install the SCR regulator.  Be sure to take some photos and post them.