...the 1961 ES2 I bought for rebuilding has 6 coils of which 4 have thick wire and fewer turns, and 2 coils have fine wire and many turns. I have been told that Norton never used this system, it is an old system with HV voltage for quick starting.
The stator has now been installed with 2 pairs feeding a battery and the coil. The HV windings are not used.
Now, there is no charging - even with no consumers on other than the coil, until about 35 - 40 mph in top gear. Around town the battery will go flat.
Not realizing that the '61 ES2 was 6V, I have fitted a 12V battery. It has a Wassell control box/rectifier fed by 3 wires from the stator, the fourth wire is not connected.
To improve the charging, should I have the HV coil pair rewound as the LV coil pairs are, or fit a 6V battery, re-magnetize the rotor or anything else that someone cleverer than I am, can suggest?
Facinating , I have never…
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I heard that...
...it was used on army Triumphs so they would start irrespective of the battery condition.
The HV AC coils feed the coil only, the LV coils feed the other consumers through DC
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Maybe the best thing would…
Maybe the best thing would be to go back to the Army setup. Sounds ideal!.
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Some Indian Enfield's some a…
Some Indian Enfield's some a similar system but on 12v, not liked and usually converted to full DC.
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Difficult to ...
... set up as the HV supply has no rectifier so is AC to the coil.
This means that at the instant of points opening the AC supply must be near its peak, on top of the wave form. The only means of adjusting this is by rotating the stator to the next securing bolt hole. This gives a change of (360/6= ) 60deg. If two positions lie either side of the peak the only achievable spark may be too weak.
If possible I will get the two HV coils rewound as LV and join them into the other four.
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Energy Transfer
This stator is Energy Transfer, used on Triumphs especially, needs a special ignition coil to use energy transfer side of things, this would take the ignition load off of the battery charging coils hence 4 coils would be enough to balance the lights and battery charging.
I very much doubt you will find anyone to rewind the two coils and then of course they have to be correctly interconnected with the present 4 coils which are most likely 50 years old. I would suggest having the whole stator rewound properly, again the company who does this will need to know how and what they are doing. (if anyone knows of such a company please let me know as I have plenty of business for them). The short term answer is a new alternator. If your rotor is the original it will be 70mm dia, new ones are 74mm so a complete new rotor and stator is needed. Cheap answer is to find the right Energy Transfer ignition coil fit and use, but as you say AC voltage due to magnetic timing might not be good enough, it often wasn't, you had good starting but limited top end performance, also you had to have a limited range advance retard -never used on a Norton. But then if you have the ignition 18D1 as you should this was used on some BSA that might have used the ET ignition, Soooooo you have to find the right BSA ET using the 18D1 and confirm it has the correct ltd range A/R (then you find it advances the wrong direction!) I think a new alternator is required. Please let me know what you find?
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Thank you Al and others.
I live in South Africa and the chances of finding the BSA parts and going through what you describe, doesn't bear thinking about.
When I got the bike - about two years ago - I stripped it completely. A local rewinder rebuilt the stator completely, but as it had been originally. He did a good job. At the stage I wasn't aware of the implications of the HV coils, or would have asked him to rewind it with 6 LV coils. I'll take it back to him and ask him nicely if he will rewind the 2 coils and join them into the LV circuit. Hopefully he will agree.
But should I be using it as a 6V system, or 12V? If 6v, then I'll have to change the battery and the ignition coil, bulbs. What about my new Wassell control box?
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Facinating , I have never heard of that system. I was guessing that it was a home made repair using whatever was around. Lets hope that Al or someone is familiar with it and can advise.