Heathkit Hilltopper

[copyman]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and wanted to say hello. Not sure if I can of much help because I'm new to Mini Bikes and have no where near the experience I see most here have. Ha-ha I can help with copy machine & printer tech support. Been a tech for 40+ yrs. But that's a whole different forum...

Anyway going to restore this Hilltopper I picked up a few months ago. I posted in another thread about needing the lighting accessory manual for the wiring. The manual is GTA-101-2. I will buy it if anyone has it.

One of the questions was hoping to find out is the old TEC H50 engine has 2 yellow & 1 green wire in the 3 pin connector. From what I read TEC yellow wires are 6 VAC not DC and assuming the green is ground?

I have the regular Hilltopper assembly manual GTA-101 if anyone needs a copy but I saw someone already posted it on the forum.

Thanks

 

[Charles S]

Hello and welcome! Nice bike!

 

[Rapidrob]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and wanted to say hello. Not sure if I can of much help because I'm new to Mini Bikes and have no where near the experience I see most here have. Ha-ha I can help with copy machine & printer tech support. Been a tech for 40+ yrs. But that's a whole different forum...

Anyway going to restore this Hilltopper I picked up a few months ago. I posted in another thread about needing the lighting accessory manual for the wiring. The manual is GTA-101-2. I will buy it if anyone has it.

One of the questions was hoping to find out is the old TEC H50 engine has 2 yellow & 1 green wire in the 3 pin connector. From what I read TEC yellow wires are 6 VAC not DC and assuming the green is ground?

I have the regular Hilltopper assembly manual GTA-101 if anyone needs a copy but I saw someone already posted it on the forum.

Thanks

 

[Rapidrob]

https://oldminibikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/heathkit-hilltopper-find-and-build.169365/

Yes,it is AC. Please read all my post on converting to DC.

 

[copyman]

Thanks for the link to the hilltopper rebuild. A lot of good stuff and sure to help.

 

[capguncowboy]

It would be a shame to restore a beauty like that! It's only original once

 

[markus]

One of the questions was hoping to find out is the old TEC H50 engine has 2 yellow & 1 green wire in the 3 pin connector. From what I read TEC yellow wires are 6 VAC not DC and assuming the green is ground?

the system (if original to the bike) is 12v ac (3amp) In that era. on the 3 prong plug, the wires coming out of the are usually black red and green, Later years the powered leads went to yellow on both powered leads, If yours has 2 yellow wires and not altered they should be the power leads, (wire one to headlight/taillight circuit and one to the brake light circuit. The green wire (or one that is on the single wire side of the 3 prong plug) is the magneto shut off. Its for the kill switch to be wired to, NOT to ground the lighting to, you do that at the headlight/taillights

Assume nothing, common sense seems to go out the window with people when you put a mini bike in front of them, so its best to start the engine and do a test to on the wiring while running to verify its wired correctly before plugging it in if you have not verified the wiring is correct at the magneto or alternator that is under the flywheel.

Heres the testing check procedure and the typical wiring intentions for the Mini bike/RV applications:



An orignal Hilltopper used the AP4600 Peterson/armacost headlight, with the on/off (for the headlight) and High/low beam switches built in so no remote switches on the bike for that, It should only have one or two wires going in. One for the power and one to ground to the bike (some have the ground wired inside the housing already). Taillight, the body of the light should complete the ground for it and only 2 wires one for the tail and one for the brake light. A kill button on the left handlebar (that your green wire on engine goes to) It is just a simple single wire as when you depress the button in comes in contact with the metal handlebar and grounds the magneto out, The Hilltopper I had the switch was a really rare white push button made by Miller, and the Brake light switch was on the right handlebar, Inline cable switch located at lever adjuster. Wiring ran up through the hollow handlebars. Bulb sizes are noted in the Tecumseh specs I uploaded above.

 

[copyman]

It would be a shame to restore a beauty like that! It's only original once

I agree and would only restore to original condition. Only original parts if I can find them but most of the bike is already original with most parts on bike. If I decide to fully restore I will send frame to my friends body shop and he will match exact paint with computer to original gold. Has the original TEC H50-65286H engine. Whoever had the bike before painted or dipped the engine with some thick paint that cracked (see pics). Had to chip off this crap just to see serial number! Not sure what this person was thinking!
I have the flywheel cover off and stripped all the old paint off of it (took almost a whole day and 4 coats of paint stripper and lots of elbo greese. Going to paint with Dover/Arctic white that I read on this forum was closest to original TEC engine paint?
Already installed a new genuine TEC carb because engine wouldn't stay started. Dumped old gas and cleaned a lot of dirt out of gas tank. Haven't started bike with new carb yet.

I added a few more pics of the bike before I did anything to bike, just the way I got it. Just put first coating of stripper on the engine flywheel cover to get that thick crap off. Hope the stripper will even work! You can see in pic how there were cracks all over engine cover plus the bright white paint sucks and sticks out like sore thumb!

Thanks again for the help

 

[Rapidrob]

Your bike looks to be mostly there. The gearing on these bikes is low making it a very good climber. As in "Hill-Topper". Top speed is around 22 MPH but off road,on trails, 10-15 is more than enough for lots of fun for hours at a time on a little gasoline.

 

[copyman]

Hi, Just curious, does anyone know if this bike was made under another name or anything that looks similar? Usually Heathkit would buy the rights from a company to make their radio, etc into kit form. One company was Zenith with TV's. Can't imagine Heathkit would of completely designed this bike when most of their expertise was in electronic kits.

 

[capguncowboy]

Hi, Just curious, does anyone know if this bike was made under another name or anything that looks similar? Usually Heathkit would buy the rights from a company to make their radio, etc into kit form. One company was Zenith with TV's. Can't imagine Heathkit would of completely designed this bike when most of their expertise was in electronic kits.

I've never seen one labeled as anything else. They did use a lot of the same parts as Heald, and if I recall correctly, operated out of the same building.

 

[Patrickb]

Following. I have same bike with many same questions about wiring.

 

[copyman]

Following. I have same bike with many same questions about wiring.

If original H50-65286H engine with 2 yellow and one green wires than it's the 3 AMP A.C. Lightning Alternator. I had seen the wiring diagram Markus posted before and is what I was going to try first. That looks straight forward.

 

[copyman]

This is engine after stripped off all that thick crap that was on there. Got it down to bare metal. Primed with high temp primer and dupli color Dover / Artic white. Then several layers of dupli color clear coat with ceramic. The engine was really white before clear coats. Seems like it got close to the yellowish tint on paint can lid after the clear coats The clear coat definitely made it change color. Only thing not sure about is the decal, if this is correct one for early 70's engine. Also didn't paint the Carb yet. I used single wire clamps on gas line, this what they show in original Heathkit manual.

The first two picture are the before. Like I mentioned in previous post I wouldn't have done anything to engine and left everything original but couldn't look at that cracked paint & red gas line anymore! Ha-ha

On to the electrical stuff.....

 

[copyman]

the system (if original to the bike) is 12v ac (3amp) In that era. on the 3 prong plug, the wires coming out of the are usually black red and green, Later years the powered leads went to yellow on both powered leads, If yours has 2 yellow wires and not altered they should be the power leads, (wire one to headlight/taillight circuit and one to the brake light circuit. The green wire (or one that is on the single wire side of the 3 prong plug) is the magneto shut off. Its for the kill switch to be wired to, NOT to ground the lighting to, you do that at the headlight/taillights

Assume nothing, common sense seems to go out the window with people when you put a mini bike in front of them, so its best to start the engine and do a test to on the wiring while running to verify its wired correctly before plugging it in if you have not verified the wiring is correct at the magneto or alternator that is under the flywheel.

Heres the testing check procedure and the typical wiring intentions for the Mini bike/RV applications:

View attachment 267976

An orignal Hilltopper used the AP4600 Peterson/armacost headlight, with the on/off (for the headlight) and High/low beam switches built in so no remote switches on the bike for that, It should only have one or two wires going in. One for the power and one to ground to the bike (some have the ground wired inside the housing already). Taillight, the body of the light should complete the ground for it and only 2 wires one for the tail and one for the brake light. A kill button on the left handlebar (that your green wire on engine goes to) It is just a simple single wire as when you depress the button in comes in contact with the metal handlebar and grounds the magneto out, The Hilltopper I had the switch was a really rare white push button made by Miller, and the Brake light switch was on the right handlebar, Inline cable switch located at lever adjuster. Wiring ran up through the hollow handlebars. Bulb sizes are noted in the Tecumseh specs I uploaded above.

Hi, Have the wiring connected and working good but have an minor issue or wired wrong. Headlight, tail light, 2 brake switches.

I still haven't put bike totally back together yet. Wanted to get wiring done first. To test I'm using using a power supply with 2 AC outputs at 6 volts each (max ac voltage on this pwr sup). Problem is lights wont work unless I run wire from bike to com on pwr sup. Where will I get the ground once I put the leads into the 3 pin connector and using the engine electric? Not sure if this offers any insight but the bright brake light works without this wire but not the reg tail light or headlight.

Thanks again for all the help