I have had a problem with lack of spark, and it seems that my bike (1951 WL) has been running on battery power alone. To the point where it killed the battery and i had to be recovered.
Today I replaced the blown headlight and Generator bulbs, and after starting the bike, all seemed well, the gen bulb going off as revs increased as you would hope.
But then as I turned on the headlight again all seemed well with the headlight getting brighter as revs increased, but then again it all went bad. the generator lamp came on, got really bright and then blew, at the same time causing a backfire from the motor. So I again replaced the Gen bulb, and the exact same thing happened again.
Ignition Cutout
32E Generator
It is fitted with a 32E Genny, but I did find the two wires were connected to the wrong terminals (would this cause a problem?) I swapped them over to the correct position, and once again replaced the blown Genny lamp, but still had the same result? I seem to be getting a spike in voltage from the Genny?
With the voltage “spike” thing in mind, I put my voltage meter across the battery terminals, and had a steady 7+ volts at the battery, but I would also get a hit at 14 volts? what is going on there.
So the day ended in frustration, trying to catch the fault all to no avail. So I had nothing else to do except drag out the Panhead and go for a ride….
Backstreet Thunder 