Post
by Richard Negus » Sat May 25, 2019 10:32 am
'Morning,
You're talking about the big capacitor by the battery?
If so, it's nothing to do with the ignition system but was fitted to IP2 machines with police equipment to smooth out voltage fluctuations as, say, the air horns compressor was switched on. That sudden voltage drop was alleged to affect some ignition and radio systems. As you noted, it was connected in parallel with the battery and was always live. There was a Service Release in 1987 on this subject.
A secondary advantage was that it improved push-starting when the battery became flat if the blue lights had been left on at an incident.
For a conventional road bike, it's unnecessary IMHO, and a potential source of problems.
R.
Slower slower, no faster faster - the joys of old fogey mode to hooligan mode at the flick of a switch