Another PMA question

[johnno3au]

Hi All,
This is my first foray into classic bikes & I must say its been good mental therapy working on my old girl.
I have a 78' Special. Essentially stock except for the usual mods, Pamco, bronze swingarm bushes etc. I've just completed the PMA swap. Its working great except My brake/tail indicator light on the dash is permanently on & the electric starter overruns a little, none of which were occuring before the swap.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give me.

Regards

 

[pamcopete]

john...,

Don't know about the permanent tail indicator, but now that you have a PMA you no longer have the safety relay that used to shut off the starter the instant that the engine was running.

 

[johnno3au]

john...,

Don't know about the permanent tail indicator, but now that you have a PMA you no longer have the safety relay that used to shut off the starter the instant that the engine was running.

Thanks Pete, any suggestions for a fix? Cheers

 

[retiredgentleman]

johnno3au;

Yes, once you removed the stock alternator, you no longer have the yellow wire supplying an AC voltage to the Safety Relay. The SR normally does 3 things.

1)Cuts off the starter motor when the alternator produces voltage.

2)Keeps the headlight off during starting, and switches the headlight on after the engine has started.

3)Removes a 12 volt+ input to the "Light Checker" unit, as part of its "failure" logic.

With the 78 SE Special, you have a Headlight switch, so you can leave the switch off and then manually turn on the headlight and meter lights after the engine has started.

The "Light Checker" unit is no longer going to work, without the SR working. Solution..................remove the small 3.4 watt failure bulb. Just form the habit of checking the tail and brake lights before each ride, since you have lost the "failure" alarm light.

You could also do what I did..................install an LED tail/brake light; no need for a failure alarm, because they never fail. When I installed the LED tail/brake light, I had to remove the failure bulb because the LED uses a very small amount of current, and the dumb "light checker" unit kept the failure alarm on.

It was reported by someone on this site, that they connected the safety relay yellow wire directly to one of the 3 phase output wires, that come out of the PMA. I can't say for sure if that is a good idea, but it should work.

 

[Punkskalar]

johnno3au;


It was reported by someone on this site, that they connected the safety relay yellow wire directly to one of the 3 phase output wires, that come out of the PMA. I can't say for sure if that is a good idea, but it should work.

Yep, I've seen it done a few times on customer bikes. Seems to work well, but i always delete all that stuff anyhow

 

[johnno3au]

Thanks guys, your advice is really appreciated...