Update, plus question about lighting

Last summer I had a devil of a time starting my '74 Commando and sought your advice here. Here's what I eventually found...... (and it was a combo of unrelated things that conspired together). 1) A duff capacitor. I bypassed it and, interestingly, the vibration that I had when the bike was below about 2,500 rpm is now gone. Smooth from zero up. Should I replace the capacitor, or just leave it out of the system entirely? 2) a slightly stuck needle in my new Mikuni, 3) a battery that showed it was OK, but under load was in fact not.

Here are my two questions for you veterans:

1) I'd like to convert to LED lighting for the turn signals and the running/stop lights. So far people seem underwhelmed with what's available. What's the latest, and please steer me toward a supplier if you think there are good systems out there.

2) my 60 year old hands tend to get a bit cramped up from holding the grip. Mine has the original (?) Doherty grips. Is there a solution that looks both period-correct and might help? I'm wondering if a fatter grip might be a good idea.

As always, thank you so much for your help. Forums like this are invaluable for those of us still on the steep learning curve.

Hi Nielson,
It seems that a lot of people just discard the capacitor but from memory Al Osborne (NOC UK electrical whiz) does recommend keeping a cap on electric start bikes, and coincidently he has a modern replacement available on his website (aoservices.co.uk).

Nielsen said:

2) a slightly stuck needle in my new Mikuni, 3) a battery that showed it was OK, but under load was in fact not.

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Pull the needle from the carb and roll it on flat surface. They are sort of soft and can bend easily. Even the slightest wobble can be subject to sticking.
Straightening it is straight forward.

Highest quality here.
http://www.oldbritts.com/15_067093.html

Fantastic! Those grips look like just the ticket! Will look in to the capacitor replacement.

how about LED lighting.....?

Cheers

Nielsen said:

1) I'd like to convert to LED lighting for the turn signals and the running/stop lights. So far people seem underwhelmed with what's available. What's the latest, and please steer me toward a supplier if you think there are good systems out there.

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If you're a hands-on kinda guy (and you have to be to maintain a Norton), try these on for size. diy-led-lights-cheap-t21177.html Be aware that the stock winker module will not cycle with the greatly reduced draw afforded by the LEDs. There's workarounds in the attached link for this issue.
As for the tail light, http://www.bulbsthatlast4ever.com/products/679-si.html is one that that allows you to keep the stock tail light assembly with no worries about polarity. A bit spendy at around $100USD.
One thing I found when trying to convert to LED by merely replacing the bulb with a red/white LED was that the bulb's stock positioning in the lamp assembly points the red lights the wrong direction. What you end up with is the white light shining through the red lens, and the red light down to the license plate. If you have the earlier (sexier) lamp assemblies, you could run one of the dual-color drop-in bulbs, such as https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... b/170/767/ These folks also sell LED bulbs that will drop directly into your stock winker housings. There'll be issues with the yellow indicator in the headlight shell, but there's also workarounds for that. 'Sorry; I don't have the link in front of me.

Nathan

Is your bike still positive ground? If so most aftermarket LED bulbs won't work and they don't really buy you all that much anyway power wise (though the faster illumination of the brake light IS a big plus). The brake light and turn signal bulbs pull 21W each but since they are only on occasionally they generally don't run the battery down. The tail light bulb is normally only 5W. If you have an H4 headlight FWIW 45/45W and even 35/35W bulbs are available can make a noticeable difference on charging on a bike with a single phase 120W alternator....might be a good option if you don't ride after dark.
Andover Norton sells some very nice repro Gran Turismo grips, better than the original IMHO but last I heard they were back ordered, don't know if that is still the case.

I installed the LED tail light Nathan linked above and an additional bonus is that it is way brighter than the stock lamp. Love it.

These work well.... a period cheap knock off of the Granturismo

Thanks for the replies. I'm still running positive ground.

I checked the link and noticed that these people also have flasher units. Anyone have any experience with these latest ones?
http://www.bulbsthatlast4ever.com/products/cd1004.html

Nielsen said:

Fantastic! Those grips look like just the ticket! Will look in to the capacitor replacement.

how about LED lighting.....?

Cheers

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I got a LED light from China last spring. Cree bulbs aren't polarity sensitive so that saved me from changing to negative ground. Now I had a HD light so the bulbs are different than stock> But, I think they maybe making them to fit the Lucas headlight now. Others on the list can confirm that or correct me.

John Ebert
Texas

Powereng03 said:

http://www.britcycle.com/products/led/LED.htm

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This is the company that Nathan mentions above--which sells its products through others. That tail light looks wonderful, but Jean has inspired me to try my hand at making my own.

This company has a lot of positive earth bulbs. I installed one of their tail light bulbs on my '75. Even though the red LED's face downward and the white ones face the lens it throws out plenty of light. They ship fast and arrive quickly.

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/

Deets55 said:

This company has a lot of positive earth bulbs. I installed one of their tail light bulbs on my '75. Even though the red LED's face downward and the white ones face the lens it throws out plenty of light. They ship fast and arrive quickly.

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/

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Wow....... they have everything! Thanks for that. I was going to make my own, but now I'm feeling lazy.

concours said:

These work well.... a period cheap knock off of the Granturismo

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Hmmmmm...

Titillating!