purpose of pilot light

new rider. what's the purpose of the pilot light? i rewired my '72 and have no headlight but the pilot works. i suspect the headlight is burned out. the red charge indicator light should go out once the alternator starts doing it's thing, right? sorry for the elementary questions but i couldn't find the purpose of the pilot light anywhere. thanks, rick

It's main purpose is for use as a parking lamp, along with the tail lamp, the use of which would be a legal requirement in many countries (certainly is in the UK) when stopping or parking on a public road during the hours of darkness in an area where there was no street lighting [Edit] I see the regulations have been amended to: "speed limit greater than 30 MPH) certain other rules also apply to the use of parking lights in the UK. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_069860

It also serves as an auxiliary safety lamp while riding at night, if the main headlamp fails, other road users will still be able to see your pilot light.

Your '72 model would normally have a 4 position ignition switch with a parking lights position?

The 4 key positions are (turning the key clockwise) = PARKING LIGHTS---OFF---IGNITION---IGNITION & LIGHTS.

The charge warning light should go out above idle speed if the alternator is working.

Also there is a toggle switch on the headlight itself that switches between the parking lamp and the main headlight bulb during normal running. It should be thrown to the right for the headlight.

Headlight is covered by the other responses. The alternator light goes out once the engine is running provided the warning light assimilator is working, which usually is not. This is the tin can mounted to the coil bracket with a spring wound round it. I just bought a solid state warning light assimilator from CoolCat Express Corp. It works great. I'm tired of replacing the stock can every year. Rest of the story why I even bother is I had an alternator wire break when the light wasn't working. The way I found out is the battery went dead, engine stopped.

rgrigutis said:

new rider. what's the purpose of the pilot light? i rewired my '72 and have no headlight but the pilot works. i suspect the headlight is burned out. the red charge indicator light should go out once the alternator starts doing it's thing, right? sorry for the elementary questions but i couldn't find the purpose of the pilot light anywhere. thanks, rick

Click to expand...

I think its main use is to drain the battery :wink:

Jean

thanks for the input. assimilator lite doesn't go out but i've 13.5v at btty at 3000. i'll test assimilator tommorrow. also test for 9v at alt/ manual. headlight still not on. 2.5v at switch, probably a corroded connection. if this was a keeper bike i'd probably deep 6 the assimilator for a volt/amp gauge. thanks again, rick