Will the headlight and other lights work with a dead battery

[amanda11270]

My battery is shot and I went to get a new one today for my project Wombat, but the fellow that sold me one insisted on charging it properly overnight so I can't pick it up til Monday. But my latest problem is no lights. Will the lights work with no battery or dead battery? Mine do not.

[rlkarren]

Simple answer is "No".

Long answer: The key switch has two positions called "day" and "night". 1st position is the "day" position and all it does is grounds your battery circuit and UNgrounds your ignition so it will run. In this position, motor off, you will have the Horn, Speedometer Light and Stop light ONLY, as long as you have a working battery. With the motor running, you get the same, but the AC current from the Magneto is converted to DC current via the rectifier and is now re-charging the battery. Position 2 is the "night" position. It enables everything that you get with the "day" position plus the headlight, high-beam indicator, (when it's turned on), and taillight; but... the headlight, Hibeam indicator and taillight run off AC current, so the motor must be running for them to be seen.

And there's always an exception... There is a switch on the underside of the headlight bucket. This is called the emergency switch and is marked DC or AC. Normal operation is in the AC Position. If you switch to DC, everything turns on, regardless of key switch position and is being powered by the battery. This is not recommended because it's hard on the battery. Keep it in AC position unless you are testing lights, the circuit or really need it.

If you wanted to test your DC circuit, I've attached a my trickle charger to the battery leads and tested with success. Don't do it with the engine running though... That could be disastrous.

Roger

[Dale]

We Hodaka fans are really fortunate to have Roger in our group. He not only understands the circuitry, but is able to explain it so well. Thanks for that Roger. I want to add that since we believe that your bike is a model 94A Wombat, that you are going to have a current limiter in your circuit. Before the 94A, the model 94 Wombat had nothing in the AC circuit to protect the headlamp from over voltage during engine revs. The current limiter was added to the 94A, but it is not sufficient to protect the headlamp. Later models, such as the Road Toads, were equipped with a 6V voltage regulator. It is very much recommended that the current limiter be removed and replaced with the voltage regulator. There are other posts here on the forum that explain the wiring.

The reason for this is that the price and mostly the availability of the 6V headlamps. The best way to protect them is with a 6V voltage regulator installed.

I hope all of this leads you to an answer for your original question??? With your motor running and with your Key Switch in the 2nd position and with your emergency switch in the normal (AC) position, you should have AC voltage to the headlight regardless of a battery installed or not.
Dale

[DGardner]

I'm glad he lives over the hill from me so he can fix all my wiring problems. DG