Taillight problem

[WILTBILT]

I Have a 67 triumph with no battery and a magneto with battery eliminator and the 1157 bulb is melting to rear lense i tried a 1157 LED and it does not even light up. Any thoughts on how I can fix this problem smaller bulb? Thanks in advance.

[Torch]

if you have a sparto style light, they are a little to cramped up in there for a regular incandescent light bulb.
The best thing you can do is change you bike to a negative ground charging system and install an LED bulb. the LED do not generate any heat and draw a lot less power witch makes you headlight brighter.
It easy to change you wiring over to negative ground if you have an aftermarket charge unit. just change the black and red wires around.

[KT]

yep bingo change to negative ground problem solved worked for me this way LED wont bust or burn ...I kept busting mine had to go to a LED

[WILTBILT]

Yeah I have a sparks and the battery eliminator with a magneto. so if I swap the red and black thats all
I have to do?

[juicybruce]

i recently put in an led taillite on a pos. gound bike. the bulb part aint glass and was actually just a plastic housing for a circut board with the leds mounted on it so i opened the housing up and the wires were accessable enough to reverse with a little soldering and then glued the housing back together. done deal.

[tattoo2303]

.............

[Torch]

Yeah I have a sparks and the battery eliminator with a magneto. so if I swap the red and black thats all
I have to do?

yep, that's it. but first lets clarify some stuff....
you say you have a "battery eliminator" are you meaning a capacitor? a blue round thing? if so the cap has color coded leads on top one has a red dot, that connection is always red or positive so don't switch those.
you say "you have a Sparx,and a battery eliminator" well Sparx makes a standard charge unit and a "Battery eliminator" charge unit that has a cap built in to it. and Sparx also makes an electronic ignition, and many people refer to a capacitor as a "battery eliminator"
and you say you have a mag, I hope you mean a "real" magneto like a Hunt or Morris mag and your not referring to the stator and rotor that all Triumphs have? some people call that a mag.

[MIKE47]

I have an 1157 in a neg. system that melted the lens too. Needs to be at least 3/8" between the bulb and lens or it'll melt. Mine was too tight. LED solved the melting but that blew out on the road and I had to replace with incandesant and melted again. I switched to a glass lens to avoid more meltdowns.

[Torch]

I have an 1157 in a neg. system that melted the lens too. Needs to be at least 3/8" between the bulb and lens or it'll melt. Mine was too tight. LED solved the melting but that blew out on the road and I had to replace with incandesant and melted again. I switched to a glass lens to avoid more meltdowns.

many times the cheapo LED bulbs can't handle the vibrations, the ones I like cost $25 a pair and last for ever.

[TRUMPNUT]

you say you have a mag, I hope you mean a "real" magneto like a Hunt or Morris mag and your not referring to the stator and rotor that all Triumphs have? some people call that a mag.

Lucas did make a mag that looked just like the stator and rotor but it was a true mag . It had 5 wires coming from it . and you could adjust the egap for street or race . They called it a energy transfer ignition . ran lights but no need for a battery .

[Torch]

ET's were a great ignition but the A/C powered lights were a little trickey to get dialed in , sometimes you ran a 12 volt headlight and 6 volt taillight some times you swapped it around.
But it all depended on magnet strength and rpm wether your lights were going to do the "super nova" burn out. there was no voltage regulation on the ET system.
It was outlawed in 1969 because DOT required a battery for emergency lighting.
E/T's can not be wire as a Negative ground