General 5 star electrical testing.

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General 5 star electrical testing.

Blorp Blorpmonger /

Oct 08, 2014 10:18AM

First of all, thanks for all the previous help on the engine work. Engine is putting like a dream now.

Now, On to electrical. I currently have the blue wire grounded. Engine fires up fine, and the headlight fires. Without the blue wire grounded, it will not start. So I am assuming it is a tail bulb or a turn signal.

I found a couple of wiring diagrams, however I have not messed with 6 volt AC systems before. So, 2 questions:

1) A burned out tail light will kill the ignition, but will a burned out turn signal?

2) Can i simply ground out all the lights, and then go through and trouble shoot each one one at a time? Or will grounding out the light cause a short that will kill the engine?

thanks.

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Mo Peds /

mopagen

Oct 08, 2014 11:02AM

im pretty sure the battery ran the turn signals system.

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Blorp Blorpmonger /

weblamer

Oct 08, 2014 01:14PM

No battery on this. Space for one, but the previous owner said he never used it. However I am fairly sure the brakelight did not run on a battery.

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Born to be WillD /

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willd

Oct 08, 2014 01:42PM

the lighting and ignition are ALMOST entirely separate. a few manufacturers, this included, decided to use the ground wire from the ignition to power brakelight.

Basically, the switches on the brake levers were always on(closed), and connect to ground, allowing the bike to run. hitting the brakes open the circuit, dumping power thru the brakelight and illuminating it, while continuing to run.

In this case a blown brakelight'd result in a no-ground condition for ignition and it'd die. sometimes that was the taillight instead.

By grounding the blue wire you bypass all that, a wise move as it WILL save you from an inevitable and annoying breakdown at some point.

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Born to be WillD /

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willd

Oct 08, 2014 01:44PM

However, to run a brakelight you need to get always OPEN (NO = normally open) switches, and run them from the head/tail power from the stator and to the brakelight. that way pulling the levers closes and completes the circuit sending power to the brakelight without needing whacky ignition ground nonsense

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Born to be WillD /

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willd

Oct 08, 2014 01:45PM

You'll benefit from a battery for that style brakelight, and probably need it for proper blinkers, because otherwise your brakelight and blinkers will draw power from the lights, and they'll get really dim or totally nonfunctional at low speed and especially at idle.

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Re: General 5 star electrical testing.

Steve Clark /

anybody

Oct 08, 2014 02:22PM

You have to coils on the stator ,one is for ignition and maybe brake light, the other is for everything else. Are the turn signals stock, or aftermarket like Cateye . The moped in the picture has after market Cateye turn signals on the back, some ran off of four D batteries, and stock type on the front . Turn signals and headlight have nothing to do with ignition system. Try the blue wire on the tail light and see if it runs. I don't know general that well except if it has Mineralli motor(LTD), some had Sachs 505. If I am not correct someone will point it out I am sure. Good luck.