3 amp charging coil wiring to rectifier/regulator

[Inventorpardue]

Don't risk the Kohler part doing experiments.

Use a cheap 12 Volt light bulb for load tests, for example a turn signal bulb (an 1156 is 25 Watts or less).
Test slow and easy. Make good connections. Label your wires.
Insure you have no short circuits, bare wires or things that will get tangled or mangled.

POST whatever results you get, before connecting that shiny new regulator, frying it, and then posting how its fried.

Connect one coil to the bulb. Idle the engine, measure AC Volts across bulb. Rev engine, note Voltage.
Stop engine. Disconnect coil from bulb.
Connect the other coil to the bulb. Run engine idle and fast, noting AC Voltages across bulb.
This indicates both coils produce AC Volts.

Now connect coils in series, and wire the bulb where regulator connects.
Run engine, measure AC Volts across bulb at idle RPM. You are looking for double Volts. If something seems wrong, like LESS Volts than just one coil, shut it off.

Swap the connections to one coil. Now idle the engine, measure AC Volts across bulb. Any improvement? If it looks like double the Volts from the single coil test, you may have something.

If neither series test produces Voltage, parallel connect the coils.
Idle the engine, check Volts. The bulb should be BRIGHTER than with one coil.

If you have an AC ammeter function on your multimeter, you should also check Amps on all these tests.

The goal is, once you blow out (maybe) a cheap bulb verifying what works, you then try the regulator and let it power the bulb with DC Volts. Idle the engine first, shut down quickly if you get no Volts.

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

Don't risk the Kohler part doing experiments.

Use a cheap 12 Volt light bulb for load tests, for example a turn signal bulb (an 1156 is 25 Watts or less).
Test slow and easy. Make good connections. Label your wires.
Insure you have no short circuits, bare wires or things that will get tangled or mangled.

POST whatever results you get, before connecting that shiny new regulator, frying it, and then posting how its fried.

Connect one coil to the bulb. Idle the engine, measure AC Volts across bulb. Rev engine, note Voltage.
Stop engine. Disconnect coil from bulb.
Connect the other coil to the bulb. Run engine idle and fast, noting AC Voltages across bulb.
This indicates both coils produce AC Volts.

Now connect coils in series, and wire the bulb where regulator connects.
Run engine, measure AC Volts across bulb at idle RPM. You are looking for double Volts. If something seems wrong, like LESS Volts than just one coil, shut it off.

Swap the connections to one coil. Now idle the engine, measure AC Volts across bulb. Any improvement? If it looks like double the Volts from the single coil test, you may have something.

If neither series test produces Voltage, parallel connect the coils.
Idle the engine, check Volts. The bulb should be BRIGHTER than with one coil.

If you have an AC ammeter function on your multimeter, you should also check Amps on all these tests.

The goal is, once you blow out (maybe) a cheap bulb verifying what works, you then try the regulator and let it power the bulb with DC Volts. Idle the engine first, shut down quickly if you get no Volts.

Ok just to be clear before I proceed, am I hooking the coil UNGROUNDED/full wave to the bulb meaning 2 Ac wired to the bulb?

Also should I use a bulb socket or bare bulb?

Wire the bulb where regulator connects.....meaning the dc output?

 

[Inventorpardue]

Full wave, yes. The diagram I drew shows full wave connections.

Use any kind of bulb or socket, just make sure its connected solidly and insulated well. A socket with 2 wires is safe and easy.

Wire the bulb to the coils. Leave the regulator out of the circuit. This powers the bulb from AC, and explains why you would be measuring for AC Volts across the bulb terminals.

Re-read "Don't risk the Kohler part doing experiments." "Connect one coil to the bulb."

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

Ok sounds good, gonna do just the Ac coil to bulb test, if I hook the coils in series will it blow the bulb because of high volts?

 

[Inventorpardue]

Ok sounds good, gonna do just the Ac coil to bulb test, if I hook the coils in series will it blow the bulb because of high volts?

If it does blow the bulb, that is good news! It means you have enough Volts and Amps for the regulator to have something to do. Its why you connect a cheap automotive bulb... its not a big deal if you blow a couple during testing.

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

So I was able to unground 1 coil and check continuity...it gets zero continuity to ground.
On the original coil it reads continuity with coil wire grounded.

So it looks like at least I can make them Full wave.

 

[Inventorpardue]

Excellent, now you can run a test or two. I have another light bulb test to check phasing, if you get that far.

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

Excellent, now you can run a test or two. I have another light bulb test to check phasing, if you get that far.

I'v soldered thousands of things, plumbing , electrical, etc. why are these damm coil wires so hard to solder.
I'v tried liquid flux to clean, lots of heat, etc. solder won't stick on second coil, did the same on the first but liquid flux did the trick.
They look copper, are they copper? For something so thin small amount of heat should do it.

 

[Inventorpardue]

Make sure and use rosin core (electronic) solder. Use a cigarette lighter to lightly scorch the end of the wire to be soldered. The heat breaks down the clear insulating coating on the wire. Now use fine sandpaper to remove the scorched coating, exposing clean copper wire.

Tin a 100 to 300 Watt soldering iron or gun with the rosin core solder, then apply heat with solid mechanical contact between tinned iron and the bared wire. Add a little solder and when it flows onto the wire, its tinned. Now you can easily solder stranded wire to it.

 

[Full Throttle]

Hey , this is good stuff. Been waiting on someone to start this thread on charging coils. Now i have some info to start my own setup on one of my clones. Hope to join back in soon with more questions .

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

Make sure and use rosin core (electronic) solder. Use a cigarette lighter to lightly scorch the end of the wire to be soldered. The heat breaks down the clear insulating coating on the wire. Now use fine sandpaper to remove the scorched coating, exposing clean copper wire.

Tin a 100 to 300 Watt soldering iron or gun with the rosin core solder, then apply heat with solid mechanical contact between tinned iron and the bared wire. Add a little solder and when it flows onto the wire, its tinned. Now you can easily solder stranded wire to it.

Gotta check my solder, maybe there is something on the wire. I'll do the flame thing first this time.

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

What should I rewrap the coil with? Will it charge through electrical tape?
That old tape was a cloth tape with a hardener on it, it crumbled when removed.

 

[Inventorpardue]

It will charge through electrical tape, but heat will make a mess of that. Don't do it.

Lightly coat the coil with Hondabond (a tube of goo available from the motorycle dealership) on the coil winding, wrap it while wet with a strip of model airplane fiberglass, then coat that in a thin layer of Hondabond... or use the right stuff for a coil winding which is Glyptal.

 

[Triple A Arsenal]

It will charge through electrical tape, but heat will make a mess of that. Don't do it.

Lightly coat the coil with Hondabond (a tube of goo available from the motorycle dealership) on the coil winding, wrap it while wet with a strip of model airplane fiberglass, then coat that in a thin layer of Hondabond... or use the right stuff for a coil winding which is Glyptal.

Great I better test everything first before making it permanent. I just got the socket/bulbs to test...first thing Sat morning.

 

[Briggs950]

I'm hoping to try and run a small LED headlight and a LED tail light when i go ice fishing and wonder if that can work off a Predator Engine? Would a simple rectifier hook up supply enough DC voltage for the LED lights?

 

[Inventorpardue]

The lighting coils will handle small LED's just fine. Adding an electrolytic capacitor across the rectifier output will smooth out the Voltage for the LED's, especially at low RPM. A 1,000 uF electrolytic (polarized) capacitor rated for 50 Volts would be plenty.