Ace main switch - using early type on B+ ???

[relic]

I've got a little electrical issue to sort out as well. I've searched and read; lots of good info on the forum, but I haven't found anyone who has done exactly what I need to. I have a B+ with the magneto harness that has the two wire connector to the coil and the four wire square block connector, (black, green blue, yellow) to the main switch.
The main switch I have is from an earlier Ace and has individual bullet type connectors. (white, brown, black,green, two reds, male blue and female blue)
I understand the difference---the early bikes didn't have the emergency light switch in the bucket, (allowing DC power to the light) that the later B and B+ had.
I don't need the emergency capability and just want to use the early type switch on my bike. So I can cut off the block connector from the mag harness and use bullet connectors but I need to know what to plug into what.
Obviously the black and blue to the coil don't change. (from the mag to the coil)
I'll eliminate the emergency switch.
I have both wiring diagrams to work with and think that:
From the early type (bullet connector) main switch that I'll use -
The white will go to the rectifier.
The male blue will go to the battery.
The black will go to the mag square block black.
The green will go to the mag square block green.
One of the female blues will go to the mag square block blue.
The other female blue will go to the speedo light, high beam indicator and headlamp.
The one set of reds will go to the rectifier and the fuse.

And this is where the confusion sets in.
The early wiring diagram the yellow from the mag bullet connector goes to the dimmer switch. (is this a/c from the lighting coil?)

The late wiring diagram has the yellow from the mag square block connector going to the main switch.

Can I just take it from the block connector and route it to the dimmer switch?


Where do the other set of reds go from the switch? Are the reds "day" and "night" power?
Where does the brown go from the switch? Is the brown "night" power?

If so, I think the brown should power the dimmer switch, speedo light, tail light and the reds should power the stop light switch and horn?



I have no main harness so I will make up whatever it takes to work.
If anyone has done this before and can help out it would save me time and as Jethro used to say "ciphering".

thanks, Ken

[Zeek]

Feel your pain
I'm working on something similar.....Wombat harness to Dirt Squirt.
Don't have an answer for you, but happy to follow

[relic]

I've been following your build here. Amazing work you are doing Zeek. That's a much bigger challenge than I face and I did learn some from your electrical query a few days ago. Including reading the posts that Dale linked to.

Ok, don't know if I'm getting this but here goes---

Yellow and green from the mag are lighting coil a/c outputs.
The early type takes the green to the main switch which in turn feeds the white which gets rectified, turns red and then feeds the d/c consumers that come on with the key switch in the day position, (stop light switch, horn and charge the battery).
The yellow from the mag goes directly to the dimmer switch and feeds the a/c headlamp and the high beam indicator if selected.
The brown from the main switch is only powered when the key is in the night position and then it powers the tail light and the speedo light.
Blue from the main switch is the ground for head lamp, high beam indicator and speedo light.
Horn is grounded by pushing the switch.
Tail and brake lights are grounded to the frame.

But as I describe and read the diagram wouldn't the head lamp be on in the day position as well as the night?

The B and B+ type sends both the lighting coil a/c outputs to the main switch.
From there an a/c output (green) is routed to the emergency switch. And if in the normal position it then feeds the dimmer switch and tail light.
In the emergency position this feed is changed to the red d/c power from the rectifier.

There; clear as mud. Am I on the right track here?

thanks,
Ken

[BrianZ]

Hi Ken;

Here is what I can figure out:

- The yellow wire from the magneto is AC power for the lights. Yes, you can route it to the dimmer switch.

- The green wire from the magneto is power to charge the battery, which in turn powers the tail light. It needs to go to the rectifier. In the early model wiring it does this by connecting to the switch terminal C1 which also connects to the white wire.

- The blue wire from the magneto needs to go to ground. This is a little confusing as the wiring diagram shows two blue wires connecting to the switch. It appears one blue wire connects the battery to ground when the switch is ON, and the other should be connected to the switch body. You'll need an ohmeter to verify this.

- The black wire from the magneto is ignition. The switch grounds this wire when set to OFF. Connect it to the black wire on the switch.

Brian

[BrianZ]

Oh, and one more thing. According to the workshop manual, early Aces had a three position dimmer switch, off, low and high.

Brian

[Dale]

Oh, and one more thing. According to the workshop manual, early Aces had a three position dimmer switch, off, low and high.

Brian

Brian is correct. They had three positions and were marked 0, 1 and 2.

[relic]

Ok, great! Thanks guys. The three position dimmer switch explains why I thought the headlamp would be on whenever the engine is running. I guess it would until you turn it off at the dimmer switch.
I have the later switch (high and low only) so if I wire as described I'll have the light always on. Which works for me.
Although this bike predates Ontario's "always on" law, its best not have that conversation with the folks who write the tickets. That will only lead to the "where's your turn signals?" question and then "why is your serial number not 17 digits long?" and one could spend the afternoon at the side of the road...

Ken

[BrianZ]

For a man who lives in north eastern Ontario, surely a bike with "off road" capability would provide you the opportunity to avoid answering those questions.

Brian

[rlkarren]

I've really been wanting to respond to this and the other wiring post, but I'm having trouble finding the time to sit down and write. Writing is not my strong suit.

I spent a great deal of time studying the wiring diagrams for the hodakas and I noticed a pattern that will be helpful. The basic wiring diagram for ALL Hodaka's is the Ace 90 diagram. This is as basic as you can get. It is claimed that every bike after the Ace 90 was an improvement or addition to the Ace 90. This is also true for the wiring. Study the Ace 90 Diagram so that it makes sense to you, and then you can compare the later diagrams to see what changes were made. This makes it MUCH easier to understand the later diagrams so that you'll be able to see rather quickly if something will work or not.

I don't mean to make this sound like an RTFM post; my apologies if it does. I just wanted to point out this pattern that I noticed when studying the Ace 90 diagram for my own projects, and thought it might be helpful. The only thing I would do differently is to place a Voltage Regulator on the AC lead in ANY application. Even though the Ace 90 probably doesn't need it, I would probably still use one.

$0.02

Roger

[Zeek]

I guess at the end of the day it's not like we're going to frizzle any high priced black box if we get it wrong
So a bit of "suck it and see" probably can't hurt?