I see JetBlackChemist went through and deleted most of the information he supplied in this thread. Some of you have said that you did the conversion. Can you tell me exactly what you did? I have a 65' benley I am looking to convert. Thanks!:)

Basically, he retrofitted a modern 12v headlight lamp into the original sealed headlight. Installed a 12 volt bulb in the taillight. I don't recall if he did anything with the rest of the wiring. He contended that the electrical system was robust enough handle 12 volts.

One draw back is if you leave the ignition on without the bike running and just by random chance the points are closed, you will fry the coil in minutes with 12 volts, whereas you will fry the coil in maybe 1/2 hour with 6 volts.

One good point was the 12v modern headlamp is way brighter than the old 6 volt and the starter really turned over fast.

The argument was if the conversion was worth the effort. We argued the point back and forth. Jet did not like to be challenged so he moved on.

thanks for the reply spokes. The starter will crank off of 12V? I assume the horn would have to be changed over as well.

The starter can handle the 12 volts. The one question I have is the alternator output. Doesn't it put out something like 7.5 volts at speed? You won't charge a 12 volt battery with that. I haven't read the thread to determine if this was addressed already.

I don't really know the output of the electrical system. If it is 7.5 volts then the 12v battery won't recharge.

IMO these little bikes are for daytime pleasure scoots. The 6 volt replacement parts are still available, so I can't justify trying to convert my projects to 12 volts. But, if anyone wants to do a 6 to 12 volt conversion, go for it.

I even considered combining the two separate windings of the stator, since the second winding is only charged when the key switch is set to run the headlight. If the voltage rises at the same time in both windings, then wiring them in series could bring it above 12 volts.

In the end, I decided to keep it original and stick with 6 volts. besides, I use the kick starter most of the time, to reaffirm my manliness, and I don't ride at night with the CA95, so 6 volts is fine.

I did the conversion in 2012 when I put my bike together. It works really well but it charges slowly. I occasionally ride my bike at night and wouldn't go back to 6 volt if you paid me. It fried the coil in less than two months and I replaced it with a modern 12 volt unit.

Otherwise, it was as simple as finding a 12 volt battery fit, wiring in a h4 headlight socket and modifying the stock head lamp to fit the bulb and replacing the rest of the bulbs.

Alright thats it im going for it! what battery did you end up using? I got this bike as a box of parts and a frame, alot of stuff is missing. so i figured i'd resto-mod it. Do i need to stay with the same wattage or less for the taillight? i think its a dual filament 6w 22w, which i cant seem to find in 12v however there are plenty of 8w26w

This is the battery I bought for the 12V mod...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SSB-12V-R...item4ac9017c1f

and these for the stop/tail light....
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-X-White...item3a7f1e7b94

and these for the head light....
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/6245Y-Chi...item416268f57e


Kev.:)

thanks for the info kev. this is next up on the to do list