What am I?

[Sealark]

Good morning gentlemen
I’ve recently bought a 1959 Matchless G3 which has the dating certificate from the club.
All well and good, but I don’t really know what I have here; it has a magneto at the front, and an alloy primary chaincase housing a 3 wire alternator. There’s a switch located in the toolbox area and a light switch on the headlight. Flipping the switch on the toolbox brings on the electrics; brake light, lights via the headlight switch, and horn. It obviously doesn’t need to be on to start the bike. My problem is that the charging system is dead, and I’m about to delve into that, but I’m wondering if it’s a standard model, or if it’s been bastardised by a previous owner. Doesn’t really matter, as I like it, but it would be good to know what it is.

[SPRIDDLER]

1959 is a bit modern for my first-hand experience but according to the factory literature it seems that it was only the comp models that had a mag and an alternator, the rest had alternator and coil ign. Is it an N1 (road) or K2F (comp) mag? Comp models had a quickly detachable headlight so maybe the toolbox switch was fitted to isolate the alternator electrics when the headlight had been removed?
Details here:

http://archives.jampot.dk/promotional/S ... alogue.pdf

[Reynard24]

Beware the curse of the previous owner!
Seriously, for 1959 your bike should have coil ignition via the PRS8 switch on the headlamp. This switch should control the lights and ignition and alternator charging by switching the coils through the switch depending on load.
I’m guessing the PO has simplified the wiring, possibly removing the PRS8 (without photos it’s difficult to tell), fitting a 3-way Lucas type headlamp switch instead and added a battery cut out switch in the toolbox. With the magneto it does make the wiring a simpler job.
Unless you are striving for a concourse, factory correct machine, I wouldn’t bother with trying to source the coil ignition gubbins and timing chest as the magneto will be just as good, if not better (depending on your point of view).
Many of the auto advance/retard units for the coil ignitions are well worn and they don’t come up often on eBay etc.
If you don’t have a workshop manual you can download one from Christian’s archive - www.archives.jampot.dk where you can find wiring diagrams that relate to your bike as built. You can also use the search facility on the forum to look for wiring help. If you are confident with electrics then it really is a very simple job to re-wire and upgrade to 12V if you want to use the alternator for a decent headlamp.
If you can upload a photo it might help with identifying exactly what you have.

[Sealark]

Thanks for the info, gents. Primary chaincase off reveals a lightly scored rotor with good strong magnetism. The stator looks ok. Cant see how I’d check it for centre though. Toolbox mounted switch fell apart when I operated it which is slightly annoying. I won’t be putting it back to standard as for reasons I won’t bore you with, i overpaid when I bought it, so I’ll just get things working ( hopefully). I’ll look into posting a pic or two shortly. Thanks again.

[Sealark]

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[Sealark]

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[Steve]

Very nice