FH - wiring the dashboard

 This will be the first time that I've wired up an Ariel with the separate instrument panel fitted to the swinging arm frame bikes with the headlamp nacelle. Looking at the wiring diagram it makes sense to wire up the panel separately from the rest of the bike, to be fitted later.

As you've seen, and in line with the wiring diagram, I have fitted a 5-way bullet connector between the main harness and the front end. Some of the cables from the instrument panel will go into this multiple connector, and others will stay on the panel whilst further connections will go into the headlamp. 

I made a start on the panel by fitting the ammeter and the light switch. I had the speedometer fitted as well, but found that the speedo lamp fitting was loose in the speedo body and the bulb holder could not be removed so I've sent this off for this to be repaired and the speedo overhauled.

Here's the initial layout. I've put all the wires in and crimped the ring terminals; the next step is to try this on the bike and see where the cable is going to route and how I can tie these cables together in sleeving.

This is the result. You can see I've terminated all the wires now, and added some sleeving and routed some of the wires around the top of the speedometer. I can't do much more until the speedo is back from Russell.

I need to clip the switch in and add the rubber ring around the switch and the ammeter, but it does work and I have both a rear lamp and a stop lamp. For some reason the horn doesn't work? 

It's alive!

Next stop on the wiring list is to add the combined horn button and dip switch. This is the original one and I have just removed the old wiring and clean the switch up with degreaser. More of that later.

Lights - not so fixed

Well the W/NG had a nice little trip along the coast to Cromer with its new double dipper LED headlamp, supposedly adjusted for focus and in the W/NGs shiny new reflector. Here it is, waiting to go home again:

The trip home was a lot less fun than the trip out, mainly because it started to rain, but also because the horrible BPF 'contact holder' decided to let go of the dip beam contact - fortunately main beam was still good, and whipping off the reflector by the roadside - no tools required, we have a nifty spring clip:

Secondly, despite the new reflector and 'supposedly' adjusted focus, the beam was really no better. In fact, the halo around the trees close to me was a lot worse - the bulb performs better in the old 700 reflector fitted to the SQ4, suggesting that the Indian reflector fitted to the W/NG is poorly designed or perhaps that I made matters worse by moving the BPF flange on the LED.

Here's the main beam with the LED:

Anyhow, the old 35/35W halogen is back in the W/NG and looks like this. Dip beam:

And main beam, showing better focus than the LED:

I'll check it out on the road later.

One more thing - I noticed that the speedo bulb was a bit dim. Pulling it out, it had '12V' faintly marked on the case... No wonder it was dim on the W/NG's 6V system!

Lights fixed...

After a trip out on the SQ4 recently, I realised that some improvements to the lighting would be helpful. The SQ4 has a LED headlamp from CDRC - one of their 'double dipper' lamps in an old BPF reflector. Dip is very good, and high beam goes a long way but doesn't illuminate much when it gets there...

Looking at this lamp against a tungsten BPF bulb I have realised the it needs a little focus adjustment (its quite old - later ones are apparently adjustable) and axially it does not align properly.

I've de-soldered and moved the mounting ring to fix both the alignment & focus problem, but to sort the reflector out I have put it in the W/NG, which has a relatively new reflector.

We'll need a night time test run to see how we get on, and where we go with the SQ4. In the meantime, the W/NG also has a new dip switch:

Only problem is, the dipswitch is too close to the ignition lever on full advance...