Diode or Light for alternator?

devozoo

Member
Doing some work on my Jubilee and have had some electrical issues in the past. As I'm looking at my wiring and reading, I realize there is no light or diode in line with the black/white exciter wire from the
alternator. Matter of fact, I don't think the wire was even hooked up to anything. So, where does it hook up to and what do you recommend, diode or light? And where do you purchase them? I'm struggling to
find the right part(s).

Thanks.
 
I use a 4.9 watt amber bulb from Advance Auto and a bulb holder socket. You may have to get creative on how and where to mount it. It lights up when I turn on the ignition switch and goes out when the alternator starts charging.
 
Thanks for the reply. Did you mount the bulb? On the dash? I can't bring myself to putting a hole up by the other gauges.
 
There are so many way of doing the excite wire it is not funny and I used many over the years.
I do not like the light bulb because if it blows out and you do not notice it can/will leave you out in the wood sooner or latter. The diode will work and keep working for decades and is the most common one I use. I have also used a ballast resister in that wire and that is what I have on my Oliver S88 but it was there when I got it. I have also used a simple push button switch so as to excite things but if you forget to push it your in trouble. Or an oil pressure switch also works.
As for where to hook up the wire most of the time I do so at the coil the ignition side just to save wire.
And there are a number of other ways of doing it also but the diode is the one I use 99% of the time
 
Did you use a external resister on the coil? If so you may not need ether. Some change overs I've done the alternator wouldn't feed back enough power to over come the resister.
 

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