Anyone know how to rewire lights to a dynamo hub or a shop that can?

I have a wiring problem with my lights to my dynamo hub. Since I changed a flat on the front of the bike, my lights are not coming on at all.  I am certain that the wires that go into the plug on the hub from the lights are just too short/thin to make proper contact in the plug because I stupidly forgot about the plug on the hub when I took my tire off and ripped a bit of the wiring. I tried to splice the wires to make them longer/thicker by wrapping them with more electrical wire , but couldn't get it to work. The dynamo hub is working fine, it is just that I need someone who knows how to re-wire (or at least knows how to splice wires properly) to utilize the hub.  

This is the hub dynamo: Shimano HD-3N30-QR 

Tail Light: B+M TOPLIGHT Flat Plus

Front light: B+M Lumotech N2 w/switch 

The wiring seems to be threaded inside the fork and comes out of a little hole in the fork near the hub.  Most of the wiring is hidden inside the frame, too. 

The little gray and black pieces are where the wires go through- sadly, my wires are just not long enough.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on February 2, 2012 at 7:07am

I'd try Boulevard Bikes first. They keep dynamo hubs & lights in stock, I bet they have the wiring as well. (also, radio shack has the stuff you need if you want to give it a shot on your own)

Your frame has internal dynamo wiring? That's really cool! What kind of bike is it?

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 2, 2012 at 7:45am

Thanks for the suggestions- I might try Boulevard Bikes.  The bike's a Globe Vienna Deluxe 1, not all that special although it is a Specialized brand, and the sad thing is when I bought it in 2009, the headlight and taillight is what sold me on it-it was the first bike I bought brand new and I have been regularly commuting on it. Not really sure if wiring inside the frame is that cool, as I have a bad feeling it's going to be a PITA to rewire it- although it does protect it a bit (except for when I take the front wheel off LOL).  

Thanks again for the suggestions. Well, until I get it fixed, I'm going to have to dig out a few blinkies I guess.

Permalink Reply by Allen Wrench on February 2, 2012 at 8:32am

you can get little crimp on clips either from a B&M dealer or just from Radio Shack or a car parts store where you crimp the little tube over your wire and the one you want to add, or you could  twist them together tightly and use heat shrink tubing and a cigarette lighter or even electrical tape to connect them. 

Make sure that you have the wires lined up on the correct side of the connector, too. If you flip them around by mistake the LED lights don't make any light at all. Try it one way and if it doesn't work flip it the other way.

To get new wire through the frame it's fiddly, but you basically hook a new wire (solder?) to the old one and pull it through, pulling the old wire up and out while the new wire replaces it. After that it must be easy enough to solder the new wire into the inside of the light, or alternatively use the clip terminals on the light. That might change how the on/off switch works so I'd solder them myself. You can also just run wire outside the frame and use a zip tie or two to hook it on - maybe you have enough wire already there to still do this.

You can get wire that's good for lights from B&M dealers as well, but perfectly decent wire for this is available anywhere. Copper is better, stranded is better, some people use coaxial which looks neater.

Nothing wrong with asking Boulevard or JC Lind (both sell generator lights) or any other local store to deal with it.

Permalink Reply by Allen Wrench on February 2, 2012 at 8:35am

Oh- lots more (!) about generator lights and parts to order at peterwhitecycles.com, who is also the wholesaler so your local favorite store can order through him if you'd prefer.

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 2, 2012 at 8:49am

Great advice from everyone! My splicing skills are not up to par since it was kind of a first timer, why-the-hell-not try by stripping some wire off of an old set of Christmas lights since that it what I had around the house (LOL).  Since it seems to be something fairly low-tech, I think I will just try to do it myself since I like to be able to learn how to fix things on my bikes and see how it goes.  If it doesn't work, then I'll have a professional do it.

@Chris C.- do you happen to remember the gauge of the wire that you used? 

@ Allen- thanks for the advice- I like the idea of using the heat shrink stuff to make it look a bit neater and more waterproof. I am also going to go and look up more at the Peter White Cycles site. I did happen upon it in my quest, and will explore the site further. 

I know my taillight works, the headlight was always a bit iffy and I planned on replacing it eventually anyway, but I really miss my taillight as I never had to worry about leaving a blinky on or getting a light stolen if I forgot to turn it off. 

Looks like I might have a project to do this weekend!

Permalink Reply by ilter on February 2, 2012 at 2:47pm

Sometimes (maybe usually) tail light is wired to the headlight, and headlight switch controls both lights. If headlight switch or internal wiring happens to be lose, lights can stay off although hub connection is fine.


Melanie said:

[snip]

I know my taillight works, the headlight was always a bit iffy and I planned on replacing it eventually anyway, but I really miss my taillight as I never had to worry about leaving a blinky on or getting a light stolen if I forgot to turn it off. 

Looks like I might have a project to do this weekend!

Permalink Reply by Allen Wrench on February 2, 2012 at 4:49pm

Ilter, you're right.

In more detail: On most B&M headlights intended for use with dynamos there is a hard wired black cable with a + and a - (or lightning bolt with black wire  and ground symbol with white stripe) that is intended to go to the dynamo, and one or two pairs of electrodes (depending on model) used to connect the rear light to the headlight. The on/off switch (if there is one) won't work correctly if you just cut off the black cable and use the electrodes, but the lamp should light normally other than that. The headlights sold for tire dynamos have no hard wired cable and usually no switch, since moving the dynamo to or from the tire sidewall turns it on or off. 

All that means is that if your headlight cable is too short or damaged, you can probably open the light and replace it by soldering in a new one, or you can leave the light itself alone and  trim the wire to maybe 2 inches long and clip on an additional length of cable (my favorite choice), or you can cut it off entirely and just use the copper tabs sticking out of the headlight. 

Again, this assumes that the lights worked fine before you ripped the dynamo cable. Ilter is right, that there are many other possible faults, but it doesn't sound likely in this case.

Another option is simply to buy a new headlight - they've improved and got much brighter lately. I like the Cyo without the reflector best, but it's too expensive. The Lyt isn't bad either. Make sure it has a Standlicht or standlight which keeps it on for a few minutes after you stop.

ilter said:

Sometimes (maybe usually) tail light is wired to the headlight, and headlight switch controls both lights. If headlight switch or internal wiring happens to be lose, lights can stay off although hub connection is fine.

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 3, 2012 at 4:30am

Thank you again, everyone!

I was going to replace the headlight anyway- the stock one that came with the bike went out less than a month after I bought the bike in Feb. of 2009, the shop replaced it after I contacted the manufacturer of the bike, then that one went out in less than a month, brought it back into the shop 2 more times, and after that the shop told me that had no idea why it kept blowing up and to get a new headlight for it as the stock light was crap and the replacements that they were getting from Specialized weren't working right. I also had one of the mechanics tell me that on this model, the headlight was always a problem- of course, by that time the bike was out of warranty LOL. I wish the salesman would have warned me, as it was the main selling point of the bike for me.   The standing taillights have always, for the past 3 years, worked fine, so I know the dynamo is running fine, but after 3 years of commuting and many front tire changes later, the wires have slowly been shredded, and this last tire change I ended up ripping the wires so that they are too short. 

Thanks for the info on the wire gauge- I am going to stop tonight and pick some wiring up, and attempt to fix it this weekend and give everyone an update when its done :)  

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 3, 2012 at 5:44am

Melanie -do you have a wired tail light too, or just a headlight on the dyno hub?

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 3, 2012 at 6:00am

Both are on the dyno hub- tail light and headlight. Once I fix the wiring to the plug on the hub, I'll see about replacing the headlight, but I am really only concerned with getting the tail light back to working order right now.

James BlackHeron said:

Melanie -do you have a wired tail light too, or just a headlight on the dyno hub?

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 3, 2012 at 6:09am

I was just wondering because some people have a problem with blowing out the headlight if they have the wrong-sized headlamp installed on some brands of headlights.  

If one has only a headlight then the bulb should be a 3.0 watt unit.

If one has both a headlight AND a taillight then the headlight should be a 2.4 watt unit.  

This is particularly important in Bush & Mueller headlights as running a 2.4 watt headlight without a taillight installed could cause the bulb to burn out.  Some tail lights are super-efficient LED types that use so little power that it is possible that a 2.4 watt bulb could still be damaged at high speed in a B&M headlight as the overvoltage protection will not be sufficient to protect the 2.4w bulb.

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 3, 2012 at 6:17am

Thanks for the info. I read that somewhere and it makes me wonder if the bike shop who replaced the light gave me one with a 3.0 watt the last few times- or just replaced the bulb with what they had on hand. I've never actually taken the headlight off to check it myself. I'll check on that just in case that is what has been happening with the headlight since I will be doing the other work on the bike.

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