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Old A** Electrical!

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partsguy

Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
It never fails. Everything works. New bulbs, switches, battery compartment, whatever. I restore and rebuild my bikes to work like they did from the factory. It never fails my hard work is in vain every fricking night before a show. I can never get them to work and STAY working!

I bench test everything before I put it together. But, once it’s together the clock starts ticking on when something will go wrong.

How in the hell do you guys keep the old *** electronic parts on your classics working? Getting them to work once is one thing, to make them STAY that way is another. Open to suggestions!
 
I have several Schwinn S lights. I learned the switch spring loses tension after 50+ years. I put a piece of tape between it and the switch. Works fine so far. I also put a piece of rubber from a cut up tube on top of the batteries so they dont clang around. Works good. I've had 50/50 luck getting Delta tank horns to stay working over the years. I even bought a new one from bicyclebones (I think?) Its so weak,nothing like the old one when working properly and now it doesnt want to work either.
 
It's all pretty simple , it's just a loop and somewhere there's a break in it or in your case a reoccurring break, it's most likely in the switch .
on Delta lights with plastic toggle switch like " S " lights and torpedo's there's little tabs that hold the toggle to the battery contact , at least 1 of the 4 must make contact with the light shell bottom , loss of spring tension on the battery contact and it won't snap back and make contact . The fix is either remove the rivet and bend the contact wider for more tension and replace or slightly dent the bottom light shell inward so tabs on battery contact make contact with shell . Other lights with block sliding switches , pry the tabs that hold it together apart and clean all parts and stretch the spring a little if it has one . Also the little brass contacts that get worn down can be built back up with a small dot of solder . And most important make sure all points of contact are clean and tight , a loose switch will always cause a bulb to burn dimly or flicker on & off or both. Oh and front loader's , you're screwed , you must remove the battery tray and see if there is anything left of the switch and contacts you can repair.
 
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