Can anyone solve this bicycle light mystery??

I am a duffer when it comes to bicycle lights. I might know just enough to be dangerous but that is about it.

I'm trying to understand how the lights in my Mercury Pacemaker could have ever worked.

I'm told that they worked at one time.

Here are some pictures. It is obviously not the original setup. (NOTE: The horn button is there but the horn seems to be missing.)

I'm trying to figure out how this could be made to work. It gives me the impression that the switch literally turns on the lights (doesn't just create a ground).

If so, how would a battery have been hooked to the switch and to the dual lights? The battery tray is obviously improvised and I don't see any way that it could hold a battery that would make contact with the lights.

Is there a battery that could somehow be connected to the wires from the switch and from the dual lights?

Thanks to whomever can help solve this mystery for me.



This is a picture of what the battery tray looked like in an original Pacemaker:

I will explain this in terms of 1 light to make it easy. One wire should be attached to the negative battery terminal on the holder and then attached to one end of the switch. another wire from the other terminal on the switch would be attached in one of two places. it either gets attached to the side of the light housing or if its grounded attach it to any part of the tank but since you say its not grounded, the first option is correct. The positive end of the battery should be touching directly onto the back tip of the battery which in your case appears to be the little copper strip behind the bulb.
Now onto two light. the light on the opposite tank half. The wire that connects from the switch to the light bulb on the first half needs to be spliced so that it goes from one wire and connects to two. The second wire in the second tank should now be attached in the positive end battery terminal. That will allow all lights to work. To bad I am not close I have rewired a few lights/ tanks with horns using radio shack parts and I could have done it for you. I have a Murray womans tank that is similar and I will take a picture of the wiring I did so it may be more clear.

sfhschwinn said:

I will explain this in terms of 1 light to make it easy. One wire should be attached to the negative battery terminal on the holder and then attached to one end of the switch. another wire from the other terminal on the switch would be attached in one of two places. it either gets attached to the side of the light housing or if its grounded attach it to any part of the tank but since you say its not grounded, the first option is correct. The positive end of the battery should be touching directly onto the back tip of the battery which in your case appears to be the little copper strip behind the bulb.
Now onto two light. the light on the opposite tank half. The wire that connects from the switch to the light bulb on the first half needs to be spliced so that it goes from one wire and connects to two. The second wire in the second tank should now be attached in the positive end battery terminal. That will allow all lights to work. To bad I am not close I have rewired a few lights/ tanks with horns using radio shack parts and I could have done it for you. I have a Murray womans tank that is similar and I will take a picture of the wiring I did so it may be more clear.

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Thanks very much for your explanation on my light mystery.

I'm still not sure what kind of battery to use.

What I'm assuming to be the battery holder on my bike doesn't seem to have any contact points.

I've printed out your instructions and will see if I can figure out how everything should be hooked up but it would be a tremendous help if you could point me in the right direction as to what kind of battery might work in my setup.

sfhschwinn said:

View attachment 200157

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Thanks much for the diagram. Now I just have to figure out what kind of battery.

sfhschwinn said:

View attachment 200157

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don't mean to be critical but,, ya donna wanna be setting up dat ther diagram, ya want to be switching positive, and hitting Pos on the pos part of bulb. Your diagram hitting pos on side of bulb is a short. Because the, screw portion of bulb mount leads to ground.


here's a simple single bulb diagram. add a bulb to this in series. add wire from ground (negative) side of bulb to next neg. side of bulb, etc for positive side bulb. too bond it to bike, add another wire, either from neg side of bat or from neg side of bulb bonded to frame or tank screw.

Or, keep you diagram, only, turn your battery around to switch positive verses neg. [wink]

Jeff- thanks I didn't even realize I had the battery in the wrong direction! I had snow shoveling on my mind along with a lemon krate on CL

Diagram ok but you never break the negative leg always break the positive leg through a switch only. When a relay is involved then you can but the right way is positive way.

I'll add this in defense of newer positive, negative switching idealism.. Although it's been years since I wired a house, in the old days, light switches pulled the positive wire. But then sometime in the 80-90's I was rewiring an 1890's home, and putting in some 4 way switches, them are a little tricky so I did some homework to refresh me memory, and I kind think it's dumb but to prevent electrical shock, our ever conscious home safety, GFI, etc, etc. business wants us to wire switches off the ground. seems kinda dumb to me because that means changing a bulb has a hot wire inside of the socket we can stick our tongues (Ref. Murphy's law) into. Exactly what we'd been trying to prevent, licking sockets and killing off the husband, is now safe. Go figure? I.E. Ladies, accordingly, that trick wont work, but the old 'toss the electric heater in the bath trick', is still on, unless it's got a GFI switch in the heater, or the plug or breaker . . .

So,,, and but, in a DC circuit negative switching is still a no, no.. especially in these types of small bulbs. as said, the screw in portion of bulb socket was then and is usually bonded to ground.

And soo,, I were thunking, sfhschwinn: "wonder if he's a home electrician?"

Could a person use one of these setups instead of 2 D-cell batteries ? ~



http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-PCS-3-x-AA-Battery-Batteries-Holder-Box-4-5V-Case-With-Wire-Lead-bc3aa/170873718192?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D522fa389fdf948fd8d78fe807a06a969%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D381174207474&rt=nc

Your getting 4.5 volts out of three AA batteries as opposed to 3 volts from 2 D-cell's

pap
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