Bicycle Mechanics - getting bottle generator to work on old bike

The lights were working just fine on another bike, but i decided to transfer them over to another bike. I have the generator bracket earth screw contacting the fork and the bracket for the lamp grounded to the neck, one wire connecting the lamp to the generator. There's enough contact with the tire to spin the generator, but is not working, am i missing something?

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q4/shellshock_photo/bike/IMG_2706.jpg

wire will be neatly tucked, wrapped away once i can get it to work

First of all, I suggest you move the generator a bit higher and make sure it's truly radial, otherwise you'll get excess tire wear. The driving roller should hit on a curved section of tire with the actual point of contact in the center of the roller, not either corner.

Now to the electrical problem. I suspect that you didn't tighten the small grounding screw on the generator bracket through the paint to close the circuit on bare metal. (paint is an insulator).

One easy way to check is to use a length scrap wire to connect the generator bracket to the light bracket. If that works the electricals are OK and you just need to make sure that the grounds are OK too. If a direct connection doesn't work, then the generator or bulb are NG, or you have a short someplace.

you can also substitute common lamp cord 2wires eliminating ground problems thru headset.use of crimp- on lugs for neatness

No scrub angle... axis of the generator wheel has to be lined up with hub axle,
on the radius line.

If you raise it higher you can run off the thicker tread rubber
rather than the thinner sidewall band.

bring a battery light for wet weather, as there is slippage.
dynamo hydroplanes on the tire

Fixed!! Thanks guys, turns out the generator was at fault, a wire inside was disconnected, Sodered it back on now works with no problem!

Fixed!! Thanks guys, turns out the generator was at fault, a wire inside was disconnected, Sodered it back on now works with no problem!

you sodered a wire inside the generator? is inside the light?

yeah a loose wire got disconnected inside the generator it was easy to fix, just popped off the cap and there it was one single wire not connected to the screw on the end. think it got ripped off when over tightening the screw to hold the wire that connected the lights to the generator.