lighting problems?

hey folks been a very long time since i posted and i was looking for a welcome forum to greet everyone it's been so long. anyhow, i build choppers for a living and am currently working on a 1977 kz1000 police chop. i am giving it a retro police bike look and am running the full police lights/sirens ect. my question concerns the lighting issue. when the bike is running without lights or anything it does fine but as soon as i start turning on the lights(running lights/pursuit lights) it seems to start running like crap. i was driveing it to the gas station last night for it's maiden voyage and i ended up having to go part of the way without lights it got so bad. when i test the volts across the battery running without the lights it reads just above 12 volts, then i give it gas and it reads just above 13 volts. haven't tried with the lights on, will try today. i understand that those bikes had a rectifier for the lighting which i haven't put on. could this possibly be the problem i am experiencing? if so does anyone have a simple drawing of how to connect the rectifier? i have seen the diagram but i am not really too good at decifering those things! well, thank you for your time, Lou

That is because the Stock alternator output on that bike was about 12A at best. If you are running stock points the electrical system might be able to handle it but if you changed the bike to electronic ignition like a Dyna setup, it will draw about 6 amps. With a Quartz headlight that might be about 55/60W that is another 5A that leaves 1A for everything els. The 1979 and up bikes had a 20A electrical system because they had the headlights on at all time and had electronic ignitions.

Contact www.electrosport.com and see if they have a overwound alternator stator that will fit your bike.

Some other places to check with are:

www.rmstator.com
www.customrewind.com
www.regulatorrectifier.com
www.ricksmotorsportselectrics.com

well that should explain it. the bike came from the police department with the electronic ignition in it already(dyna). i would assume they corrected the problem. however, i still believe the lighting rectifier will help the situation out, just have to figure out how to connect!

A rectifier converts AC current to DC using diodes. Only way I imagine having a rectifier solely for the police lights, is taking energy directly from the alternator, which produces AC, or taking the "excess" voltage that the normal rectifier/regulator is cutting off.

It might make sense, as the alternator is capable of putting out higher voltage than a normal bike could use. Hence the regulator.

ok, still having trouble here. i ran a check of the volts across the battery yesterday in different stages(lights on, lights off ect.) when i ran the bike without the headlight on, the volts shot up all the way to 15 volts! best keep the light on. then i turned the headlight on and it was in the mid 12's at idle and in the 13's when i revved it up. then i turned on the running lights and headlight and it dropped into the 11's at idle and mid 12's when i revved it. then i left those lights on and added the pursuit lights and siren then it just barely stayed on in the high 9's to low 10's but i had to throttle the hell out of it to keep it on. i am attaching a link to the part i have(2 of these) i believe they are lighting rectifiers. i think if i can put the running lights system on one and the pursuit light system on the other this should help me out. i don't know how to connect them though. do i connect power to the red wire and then the brown wires go to the power leads of the lights? anyway here is what i have. also i am posting some pics of this bike which i finished this week in the projects section incase you would like to check it out. thanks, Lou

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RECTIFIER-REGULA...fPartsQ5fAccessories

That is an enormous drain. Try to use a higher output Rec/Reg and see if that takes care of it before you have to go to a higher output alternator. What size bulb do you have in the headlight. Is it a standard sealed beam automotive light or is it a semi-sealed light with an H-4 bulb. If it is an H-4 is it a standard 50+/- bulb or is it one of the high output 100+/- bulbs. If the later, get rid of it you will burn your system.

You deffinately need a new, high output stator/alternator, and a good, new Rectifier/Regulator unit, one that has a voltage drop sensor wire.

With that setup, You'll have headroom for foglights, floodlights, whatever

GL.