ducati scrambler with bronco headlamp assembly

[bw_nh]

Good morning again-

As mentioned, the 1966 scrambler runs. I am working on the electrics now.

I have converted the ignition to battery, DC, using an ignition coil that seems to work. I have battery power to the headlamp assembly, which, as it turns out, is likely originally from a Bronco. There is a square diode thing inside, and a coil.





The wiring diagram for the bronco shows these two parts...



listing the coil-thing as a "single impedance" and the square diode as a rectifer.

If I read this diagram correctly, I will want to take AC power from one of the leads of the stator (just one, right?) and run that to the coil/single impedance, and then to the square rectifer... and then out of THAT I will get DC voltage, hopefully just more than 6 volts. Which could, conceivably, charge the battery. Correct?

Does it matter which of the two AC leads I tap into? As I recall, two of the leads produce AC power, and the other wire... does not. Likely a ground?

Am I on the correct path to getting DC electrons back into the battery?

I appreciate all of the archives of this forum, and also the "live" help of other list-readers! Thank you all!

Sincerely,
Bob Woolner
New Hampshire USA

[mrkprsn]

Do you know what the schematic for the Scrambler looks like? It looks to the Bronco one you posted so you could wire it similarly to the Bronco.

When I look at the Bronco and Scrambler schematics it looks like all wires are hot(pos+). If you changed this original wiring to full battery and the battery dies or drains, you can't run the bike. With the original wiring the bike will always run since the spark coil (and the headlight) will be fed directly from the generator.

A Scrambler generator has yellow, red and black wires. Do you have these? Since you currently can run the bike off the battery, I would disconnect the generator wires and test each of them for volts and amps while the bike is running. This will give you a good indication of your generators health.

Using the Scrambler schematic, the yellow wire goes right to the spark coil, the white wire goes to the rectifier>ignition switch>light switch/(fuse battery/brake light switch/brake light), the black wire goes to the light switch/(headlights/tail lights).

I would follow the Scrambler schematic. Looking at the Bronco schematic it matches up closely and you might not need the resistor.

Electrons don't really move. Here's a great explanation of how electricity works. https://www.facebook.com/veritasium/vid ... 3831641362

Good luck. All you really need is a multi meter and the correct schematic.

[bw_nh]

Good morning-

I am getting closer! i have all lights working properly, except for the brake light, as I will need to clean and possibly re-configure the brake light switch itself. As I recall... the AC bike brakelight switch works differently from the DC bike brakelight switch. I am sure that when I have it apart for cleaning, it will make sense, how to re-wire that.

I do have a good multimeter, and I do have the wiring diagram for the scrambler, but... the wiring diagram isn't that helpful, as I am abandoning the 6v AC system, and wiring it up as a 6v DC system. This is the correct scrambler diagram-



Note the lack of battery, and the headlamp switch is totally different as well.

But back to the stator- I have three wires, a red, a yellow and a white.

White is a ground.

Red produces 6.7-ish AC volts at idle, increasing to 14.8-ish volts revving it up a bit. It jumps, but sort of settles at 14.8 volts.

Yellow produces 14.7-ish AC volts at idle, increasing to 29.8 (I saw 30 very briefly, but it settles to 29-8-ish AC volts.

Does it matter which I should run to the "single-impedance" thing, and then on to square diode thing? I guess I could TRY each one, and see what I get out of the other side of the diode thing.

(Originally, on the AC system on that scrambler, one of those (yellow?) ran to the lighting, and the other (red?) ran to the ignition coil, and brake light.)

As to electrons moving... well... I can't get the facebook link to work, but also, my understanding is that electrons DO move, but slowly, from place to place along the circuit. And they do "accumulate" in batteries... I'm pretty sure about that. Or we could fall back on the "Lucas smoke" explanation. https://www.whereisbobl.com/tiger/smoke.html Whatever, as long as the bike RUNS (it does...) and as long as the lights work in a relatively predictable manner. (almost there with that!)

One of my fuel taps is leaking a bit- I may try to re-seal/ rebuild that, or get a new one.

There is a little weep of oil coming from under the points plate. For now, I will just keep wiping that.

If I can get this scrambler to go around the lake (here in Acworth NH) one (or twice), then maybe I will bring up the Mach 1 and get THAT to behave!

Thanks again for the help-

Sincerely,

Bob Woolner
Hillsboro, New Hampshire USA

[mrkprsn]

Is your plan to use only 1 wire from the generator? My understanding is that all 3 wires provide current. When reading of people only using two of them they usually don't use the red one. Your testing the two wires suggest the red is at half power. Since you have a good multimeter and If this were me I would first test (volts/amps) the white wire and if it is "stronger" than the red wire.

Whichever two wires you use, since the scrambler alternator is kinda weak, I would connect one of those wires directly to an AC (only) coil and also to a grounded switch so you can turn the bike off.

The second wire you choose would go to either the bronco resister>rectifier or straight to the rectifier, then onto the battery to charge it.

I would then connect the lights and horn through a switch to the battery that way you can use LED lights (which draw considerably less power) and if your battery is dead your bike will stay running.

If you don't want to use an AC coil and use both generator wires to charge the battery, I'm not sure you can use that bronco single wire rectifier. I don't think you will have enough current to run your bike from a single wire. Maybe without the lights. I think you might have to upgrade to a 2 wire rectifier.

I always thought electrons carried current and they do move a little but not at the speed of light. And in reality its the electromagnetic waves that do it. I find that fascinating. Cheers.