Joe Hunt magneto on Triumph UNIT construction...

Hey ya'll..!

I have this Joe Hunt magneto that I want to put on my Triumph, it's a UNIT construction bike...

The magneto will only have the two plug wires and a ground wire on which the kill switch should be mounted.

I will have the alternator to deliver the power for my head-, tail- and brake lights...

My question is this: I will have to install a regulator/rectifier on the bike and from there, run the wires to the lighting...
There's no ground wire at the alternator. Old English cars and bikes usually have a "plus" wire to ground.. Not a "minus" wire.. That's not gonna work with the magneto I think... How am I gonna fix this..? I will have to ground the lighting...

Has anyone dealt with this before? I'm pretty much an ass when it comes to electricity so don't laugh at me if I'm asking dumb questions...

Hopefully someone can help me out with this or even get me a little diagram or something...

Thanks...

Maurice...

 

Yes you will either need to run a stock rectifier or an aftermarket regulator such as a PodTronics. There are others I just cant think of the names right off.

pages you might be interested in:

Joe Hunt Mags on BritCycle

PodTronics

and I couldn't find the exact site but here is a Google search of Boyer products, Boyer

 

You could use a mity max and get rid of the battery. Look at the diagram at the following address.

http://www.ironcross.net/images/trump%20mity%20max%20w-magnetoA.gif

It's also a good idea to put a key on your mag. Otherwise, thieves only have to cut the ground wire from the mag and take off with the bike. The Horse showed how to do this a while back.

 

Those mighty max battery eliminator things do work but forget driving at night. When you drop revs down to idle the headlight will dim. It is usually best to stay with a sealed beam light on those too to keep the load up and the alt working.

 

Since you have a mag, you don't need a mity max. Mity max works good if you have a bike with no battery, and no mag -- it works with a podtronics or tympanium.

You do need a podtronics or tymapnium unit though, along with your magneto. They are both around the same price, with the same performance. The podtronics is a better looking unit though (finned black housing) the tympanium is ugly (bare metal housing, green schlack on top).... I guess it all depends on availability and where you plan to mount it. Let me know if you have trouble finding one of these units locally, I can get one for you.

Here's a photo of a unit triumph we just finished that's rockin a hunt mag and podtronics system.... it's called the "Durty Sanchez"

 

Podtronics, tympanium AND mity max all do about the same job, go for the cheapest one. You DON'T need a tympanium or podtronic with mity max though. Look at the British Cycle Supply (BCS) web site, they are all called power units. I only mentionned mity max because it was the one that was used on the wiring scheme I linked to.

You can find better wiring schemes on the BCS web site and tons of other info.

You don't need a battery on a bike with a mag since spark will come from the mag. The alternator will supply enough power for your lights.

And for other people with standard ignition that choose to eliminate the battery, yes your headlights will dim at stoplights when the bike idles, but not enough to prevent you from driving at night. Who needs to see that far when they are stopped? A friend of mine did the conversion and it never kept him from riding at night.

 

Its not my ability to see at night that Im worried about

It is the ability of others to see me, these bikes are small enough to be missed by careless drivers durning the day and invisible at night. Just want to add as much visibility as possible.

Just so you know, my regular ride is a 1957 T110 with a converted 12V positive ground system with a Podtronics regulator and a KR2FC mag.

 

Thanks guys...
I'm gonna figure out a little how to get it all workin' and where to get the parts needed...

 

Hey man, could you find this page again. I could use a look at this diagram for my project and its not there anymore. Appreciate it...

 

i ran a joe hunt mag on my 69 tr6...also ran a mighty max to run the lights... ran a single sealed beam high beam headlight and had no issues with lights at night....my electronics were bullet proof...was a one kick bike..if it took two something was wrong......whid

 

oops just saw the dates....nevermind.....whid

 

i ran a tympanium on my 65, it worked great. i wired the whole bike from scratch and went with a negative ground. here is a youtube link i posted when i was selling it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crh8Qhd7YI