electrical question

Hello everyone, I have a question in regrard to my 1994 501 FE.

I am in the final stage of a street motard conversion on the FE and my current project is wiring up the burg to meet DOT standards.

The FE has OEM wiring for Head and tail lights that run straight out from the stator, Last night I tested the leads with the FE running at idle on a DC volt meter and came up with a funny reading, I thought the battery was dead in the volt meter or I had a bad lighting coil because the volt meter readings made no sence what so ever.

So this morning, I got to work came to this site and looked over the threads on electrical questions and came up with this thought in regards to the odd volt meter reading.

Is the voltage that powers the head and tail lights on the FE AC current ?

Thanks John

have a look at the bulbs see if it sais 12 v dc on them i dunno its just an idea
also look in the manuel i dont think it is tho

cheers doug
(another informormative post by doug :lol: )

Have a look at the wiring diags in the downloads section. If your bike has a battery then the lights should be DC. I don't think it was till later there were mixed AC/DC systems. The bulbs don't care which it is & they won't say on their markings.

If the lights will remain on when the engine is not running you probably have DC power to the lights.

If the lights flicker at low RPM and go out when the engine is not running you have AC to the lights.

If the juice comes right off the stator and is not "filtered" by the battery again it is mosy likely AC.

On most bikes DC goes to the brakelight, starter and horn while AC goes to the headlamp.

I looked at the parts list for '89 onwards. Does anyone know if it is true the electric starters and DC systems did not come onto the scene until '95? There is no rectifier, battery or starter stuff listed for years prior to this.

If this is true, the '94 would not have originally had a battery, and would have run an AC-only system. If you need to add a battery to meet your DOT standards you will have to fit a rectifier into the circuit between the regulator & battery. Note it does not have to be OEM!

The same regulator as yours, while not perfect, was used in later years except it had to be mounted so that its body is insulated from the frame. It was mounted on the plastic of the rear mudguard as OEM.

You can run either all, or only some of the lights DC. Post if you want any help how to hook it up.

BundyBear said:

I looked at the parts list for '89 onwards. Does anyone know if it is true the electric starters and DC systems did not come onto the scene until '95?

Click to expand...

I believe you are correct in that 95 was the first year for e-start.

AC/DC

Hey everyone, thanks for the responces!

I fired up the burg and plugged in my voltage meter to the headlight plug socket. 1-Red wire positive 1-Brown wire negitive.

I set the meter to test A/C, and at idle the meter read 11.6 volts A/C, and 11.0 volts to the taillight.

So the lighting coil seems to be working.

I guess the next step is to purchase a regulator / rectifier to convert from AC to DC.

Has anyone attempted this? Any input would be a great help.

Thanks
John

I am not the resident electrical expert here (BundyBear is) but I am curious if your bike came with a battery?

If it did come with a battery your taillamp wiring is probably already DC and headlamp AC which is DOT compliant I think. I don't think the headlamp has to stay on with the engine off but the taillamp does. If this is the case I don't see an imminent need to run full DC power unless you intend to run high wattage headlamps. I could be wrong about the DOT stuff so do get a copy of your local DMV handbook.

No, my 1994 501 FE did not have a OEM battery and no mounting hardware, no leads to the battery, just two wires to the headlight and two wires to the taillight.

At the auction when I purchased the Burg, the bike was crated and the head light and tail light assembly/fender along with manual and title were packaged in the crate. The Burg had acerbis yellow front number plate and mx style rear fender on the bike.

I was told at time of sale the burg was a FE/FC model.

john

I remember your original post now. What a find. Nice pics in your gallery.
Just an idea: Since you have no battery you must have AC all the way. One way to keep it simple may be to get a very small 12 volt battery just for the brake and taillamp inspection.

Trail Tech has some of the parts you may need.

husabutt said:

(BundyBear is)

Click to expand...

Sorry I can't live up to Husabutt's claim, however, if you already have a battery and sorted mounting it all you need is a rectifier bridge of at least 100 volt / 10 amp capability, available from any electronics shop (eg Tandy) for <$20. The OEM one is a SEMIKRON SKB25/02 rated at 200V/13A.

To fit the DC system these steps might help:

Make sure the case of the regulator is insulated from the metal frame. Unbolt it & either make up a plastic bracket or put a mount bolt through the plastic rear mudguard. If your regulator still has the brown wire intact, its connections will be its two flying wires. If the brown wire has been clipped off, use a wire end eye under the mount bolt to connect a wire to its case. The brown wire is connected internally to the case.

The output from the stator is between the large blue wire & either one or both of the large yellow wires. Only use one yellow if you don't need lots of power. Connect the regulator directly across the stator output.

Bolt the rectifier bridge to the frame somewhere, you don't have to worry about its case connecting to the frame. Connect the stator output (same wires as across the regulator) to the two terminals on the rectifier bridge marked AC or ~.

Connect the rectifier terminal marked -ve or DC- to ground - ie the frame of the bike. Also make sure the battery -ve terminal is connected to ground, preferably under the same bolt.

Connect the rectifier terminal marke +ve or DC+ to the battery +ve terminal. You can now draw DC from the battery +ve terminal, preferably through a 15 amp fuse, to power the bike electrial system. Note that hooking it up this way lets the headlight operate without the engine running. Decide for yourself if this is a good thing.