I inserted bulb in bulb holder, connected it up secured all fastenings on the speedometer nacelle. I located my ignition key and correctly inserted it into the ignition switch ensuring the battery was connected. I turned the key and attempted to start my bike. It would not start. I kicked away for a while but nothing. I flooded it. So only one thing for it, remove the champion N4 Sparking plugs and go have a cup of tea. It was however at this point I discovered one of my sparking plug caps was not on correctly. So while I was drinking my tea it corrected the spark plug cap issue by removing it and trimming back the High Tension lead from the Coil.. I thought to myself hmm best do the other one while I am at it. Belt n braces and all that. I finished my cup of tea and went back to the bike. After refitting the sparking plug caps in the correct order I once again inserted the ignition key correctly into the ignition switch, I turned on the fuel tap and primed the amal monobloc 375/35 carburettor by depressing the "tickler" turned on the ignition and kickstarted the bike. It took 4 kicks but away it went. I warmed it up and led it idle on tickover to get the oil circulating.
I turned on the lighting switch and checked my headlight dip OK main OK stop n tail OK pilot OK then noted how wonderful my Smiths Chronometric speedometer look. It was illuminated in a crisp white light the dial bathed in a clear crisp contrast. Before it had only been a dull yellowy glow. But now it was crisp clear and easy to read. I checked the ammeter with all my lights on and the reading was only 2 amperes a considerable amount less than the standard incandescant bulb. I went into my garage and eventually located my multimeter.
It took me a while as my garage is a bit untidy. I had not put it back and found it on the floor with some old oily rags. By this time some 40 minutes had passed by and I thought to myself I must have a tidy up in here, thought to be fair I did put several Whitworth spanners away.
I checked my battery with my red multi meter that i think i bought from halfords some while back. I think at that time i had and electrical fault with my solid state rectifier.
while my 1959 Triumph 5ta speedtwin was happily idling I located the positive and negative terminals. Did you know that 1959 Triumph 5ta Speedtwins are positive earth, I hope that info may help someone one day. I placed the probe of my multi meter on the negative terminal and the positive probe to the fram and it displayed 6.7volts. For a standard 1959 altenator that is a good reading and shows it was charging. All this time that little bulb was still crisp and white illuminating the face of my Smiths Chronometric Speedometer clearly. Did you know the the chronometric speedometer hand ticks and does not sweep as it is gear driven not magnetic. Few people realise ho complex Smiths chronometric speedometers are..Well I must close now as I need to shut the bike off and put it away, once I have done that I will have a well earned cup of tea with some biscuits, I am probably going to try my jaffa cake hobnobs. Anyway just a recap the bulb works.
