Post by xsleo on Jun 17, 2010 15:38:24 GMT -5
As many of you know our 650's have an at best marginal charging system.
I and many others have been doing mods to improve this.
I have used several of Pamcopete's mods to improve the charging by replacing the stock reg with a soild state reg and building the Radio Shack rec. This keeps the alternator working at it's peak.
I have also replaced my tail/brake light and turn signal to LED's. The LED's draw way less current than the regular bulbs.
I recently got one of the resisters that the 79 models used to light the good element in your headlight at about half power when the other element blows.
I got a nos one of ebay. More than I really wanted to pay, but the only other I could find was a used one and they were the same price, I got the nos one.
I have a 40/50 watt stock bulb to do some testing with. The resistor is 1.9 ohms. I have a small battery I use for testing.
I hooked the low beam of the bulb up to the battery .
I checked voltage and current flow both with and with out the resistor inline.
The starting voltage of the battery was 12.2 volts, If it were at 14.5 volts the numbers would be slightly different.
Low beam 2.85 amps with the volts while lit were 11.88.
Low beam with the resistor 2.26 amps, 11.90 volts
This gives me a result of .59 amps less draw on the battery, about 7 watts less.
I thought that wiring the resistor in with a later model safety relay, one that turns the head light on when the engine starts. So that the relay would turn on the low beam through the resistor would work as a daytime running light.
With the resistor inline the draw would be less and still have a fairly visible headlight for safety.
At night when I turn the headlight switch on it will bypass the resistor to have a fully lit headlight.
With only saving about a 1/2 amp, 7 watts, it doesn't appear to be worth the trouble of wiring it in. This is about the same as two bulbs in the dash.
I and many others have been doing mods to improve this.
I have used several of Pamcopete's mods to improve the charging by replacing the stock reg with a soild state reg and building the Radio Shack rec. This keeps the alternator working at it's peak.
I have also replaced my tail/brake light and turn signal to LED's. The LED's draw way less current than the regular bulbs.
I recently got one of the resisters that the 79 models used to light the good element in your headlight at about half power when the other element blows.
I got a nos one of ebay. More than I really wanted to pay, but the only other I could find was a used one and they were the same price, I got the nos one.
I have a 40/50 watt stock bulb to do some testing with. The resistor is 1.9 ohms. I have a small battery I use for testing.
I hooked the low beam of the bulb up to the battery .
I checked voltage and current flow both with and with out the resistor inline.
The starting voltage of the battery was 12.2 volts, If it were at 14.5 volts the numbers would be slightly different.
Low beam 2.85 amps with the volts while lit were 11.88.
Low beam with the resistor 2.26 amps, 11.90 volts
This gives me a result of .59 amps less draw on the battery, about 7 watts less.
I thought that wiring the resistor in with a later model safety relay, one that turns the head light on when the engine starts. So that the relay would turn on the low beam through the resistor would work as a daytime running light.
With the resistor inline the draw would be less and still have a fairly visible headlight for safety.
At night when I turn the headlight switch on it will bypass the resistor to have a fully lit headlight.
With only saving about a 1/2 amp, 7 watts, it doesn't appear to be worth the trouble of wiring it in. This is about the same as two bulbs in the dash.
