Hello everyone, I'm about to start doing the wiring on my recommissioned 1940/41 16H and need to know where the earth cable should terminate, and where horn live feed is taken from, is it direct from the battery? I'm also looking for all the clips for the wiring if anyone has any spares or knows of a source for new ones. Any help would be much appreciated thank you.

On the WD Nortons, the power for the horn is taken from the right hand terminal of the ammeter. It has yellow and black tags. This photo doesn't quite show everything, but it gives the idea. It is then taped with black cloth tape onto the main rubber sheath and down to the horn.





Period photos certainly show a cable running to the grub screw on the magneto end plate. Based on my original loom, I'm sure that the 'E' from the voltage control box goes there. I suspect that the short earth from battery negative went to the frame stud that retains the top battery carrier mount..but I'm open to correction.

From my experience, they are all basically wired the same. Rik is right about the regulator earth connected to the mag grub screw terminal and the horn wire from the ammeter. As it happens however, I never connect my horns this way as it's already too crowded for my liking. I pick up the live feed from under the tank by connecting into the ammeter cable with a double bullet connecter and soldered bullets. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron and Rik,
Many thanks for your info on the 16H wiring. I've always wondered what that grubscrew on Magdynos was for, why run an earth wire to the mag when it's already bolted to the engine? I'd never considered that this may be a connection for earthing other electrical parts! I've now looked at Rob's 16H page and see that the wiring diagram for 1945 on machines shows the battery earth going to the mag grubscrew as well as the MCR1 earth, so this is what I will do, and hope that the earlier bikes were also like this. The 1940 diagram shows the horn feed to be spurred off the battery live with what looks like one of those brass Lucas connectors, so I'll go for this option as well.
Best Wishes, Tony

Tony in 1940, Royal Enfield were also doing it that way. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron, Thanks for this, If this diagram is from the Enfield handbook it's exactly the same as the one shown on Rob's page for the 16H from 1945 onwards. It's more "illustrated" than the diagrams for the pre '45 bikes in that it shows actual drawings of the various electrical components, not just text, eg "battery", "horn" etc. Probably by '45 generic Lucas diagrams were used for all machines that used the Magdyno and MCR1 reg box. Cheers, Tony

Gents,
I have been studying the electrical wiring of the WD16H latetly after stumbling over two basically unrestored 1939 machines found in the last 2 years with the original wiring still attached and my search to see the differences in colour coding.

The wiring for motorcycles was basically identical for all motorcycles with Lucas equipment apart from the individual makers solutions where to fix the earth connection for the battery and CVC and where the live feed for the horn comes from.
The shown mid war scheme (post Ron Oct 13) can be found in both BSA and Norton instruction manuals and are in line with pre war civilian Lucas wiring diagrams (apart from items like dipper switch and brake lights).
Pre war Lucas wiring diagrams also have two versions wrt Horn live which either is fixed to the ammeter + side or directly to the battery positive.

For early Nortons, the battery earth was fixed to the upper bolt of the battery carrier and the CVC earth was fixed to the grub screw on the magneto CB end plate. Battery neg. to frame is specifially given in one early document and found on the original 1939 machines.
For the later Nortons it is not fully certain as I have seen no description or original example yet. I wired my MC with earth at that point but it was then (45 years ago) the most logical for me.

I am re-writing the website page to show examples of all variations that have existed in more detail and colour codes as far as I have been able to determine them. There are some differences in given colour codes by Lucas and actual applications.
Not yet fully clear yet but it looks like late 1939/early 1940 some things changed in wiring colours.

cheers,

Rob

email (option): wd16h@telfort.nl