DC and Battery conversion on 185s

[robgdds]

I recently restored an old 185s and registered it to be street legal. Now I am finding that the lighting system just isn't up to the task, I need a battery.

I had to install a taillight, brake light, and a horn. Already when the brake lights come on with the headlights on I am maxing out the system.

What is the easiest way to add a rectifier/regulator and battery? I believe honda has an OEM kit for this.

[350for350]

I don't know about the OEM kit, but I think that Ps2fixer was talking about making a setup like this for some of the trikes that didn't come with a battery.

[kb0nly]

If you look at the 185/200 service manual there is a diagram showing the DC Kit that Honda used to sell for them. I adapted this to my 81 ATC200, i had a spare regulator/rectifier from a 200E/ES in the parts bucket so i used that, made the adapter harness shown in the service manual wiring diagram and its plug and play. The battery got mounted in the trunk, i just used a small battery, i think it was a 3 or 4ah battery, i don't remember which now, but its enough to carry the DC load of the lights and my added GPS speedometer on it while the engine can still top it off. Just remember no matter what you do you are still limited to the output of the alternator coil, around 5 amps, so go with LED lights to reduce the load on the system. I went with LED headlight and taillight mainly because i wanted brighter lights but it really helps with the load. The other benefit of converting these to DC besides running LED lights is you no longer have the blown bulb problem, the stock system uses the bulbs to regulate the output voltage from the alternator, then one bulb blows and the voltage climbs to the remaining bulb and then you have both bulbs burnt out from the higher voltage. The other nice thing is having lights without the engine running, really nice at night. I put an 83 200E dash and ignition switch on my 81 and wired it all up the way it would be on the 83, ignition turns on power to the light switch and speedo. Nice having lights right away in the dark.. LOL.. I think i had a post on here about it with the wiring and showing how i made the harness.

[robgdds]

I found some old posts on this and started ordering some parts. Let's see how it goes.