ELECTRICS
Contact breaker points rely on moving to stay shiny; if they’re left stationary for long periods, tarnish can easily prevent contact and kill the spark. Slipping a bit of fine emery paper or even card between them may be all that’s needed to get it back. Batteries also hate being ignored. If left to go flat, terminals corrode; wiring specialist Ferret tells me this corrosion can extend to connectors throughout the system. Trickle chargers or regular bench charging are worthwhile.
Alternators don’t generally suffer from standing, but dynamos can lose the residual field magnetism that gets the charging party started – so if a dynamo mysteriously ceases charging after a long lay-up, connect a wire from the live side of the battery to the dynamo ‘F’ terminal and start the engine.
If it still doesn’t work, either dynamo or voltage regulator may be faulty. If charge is restored, remove the wire after a minute. If charging continues, all good; if not, the regulator may be at fault. If it’s a mechanical regulator, try cleaning both sets of contact points; if it’s solid state, buy a new one.
If you removed your battery, make sure you reconnect it the right way. If the system is negative earth, battery negative goes to the lead that attaches to the frame. Electronics hate mis-polarity – it’s an easy way to destroy rectifiers and regulators, but mechanical dynamo regulators are less bothered; repolarising (again, connect a live lead to the ‘F’ terminal) will fix it. I always leave the positive terminal bolt on the battery and the negative in the harness ring terminal so I don’t get confused.
‘CONTACT BREAKER POINTS AND BATTERIES HATE BEING IGNORED FOR LONG PERIODS’