my 73 sporty is not charging the battery. tried re polarizing the generator and to no avail. took generator out to get rebuilt was told by shop that their was nothing wrong with generator and it tested out fine. checked continuity of all wires and everything checked out fine. replaced regulator and followed factory wiring diagram, and re polarized. started to charge battery a little bit went from 11.5 to 12.3 volts while running at 2000rpms connected to multimeter. generator indicator light went out then while going down road came on then dimmed and then went out again. happened several times until on third ride of the day, light stayed on whole ride. have tested everything possible i could think of. any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

Tried a new battery? How old is the old one? What is its standing voltage after be put on the battery charger until fully charged, then left to stand for an hour? Should be over 12.6v.

Or it could be bad connections, battery terminals through to reg to loom etc.

What kind of regulator you using? Is regulator grounded properly?

 

Sounds like brushes sticking. Brushes should move freely in the brushes holder. Uninstall gen, remove end cap, remove brushes holdder. Check spring for each brush. Should be no binding.

What often happens is that the insulator under each brush expands and curls up. This causes the brush to jam at the top. The fix is the use sandpaper to trim off the height of the brush until it moves freely.

 

Get yourself a zero to 30 amp ammeter if you don't own one.
Like this.......


Hook it up as per these instructions to see if the generator is working.......



You want 10 amps or more output.
If the output is 10 amp or better the generator is fine.
The next place to check is the voltage regulator.

The only thing left to check is to make sure the generator indicator light is not grounded.

You check that as follows
and I have placed an arrow and high lighted the text covering this test.........



pg

 

the thing is i have had the generator tested by a professional. passes all tests. as for the age of the battery not sure but when it is fully charged cranks over fine. tightened up all connections on battery/regulator/generator and the type of regulator i believe is the accel ordered directly from a bike mechanic

 

So what you are saying is you have had the generator checked for output by a professional......
Your wiring is good................
You have installed a new regulator.........

Well it should be charging then! But it is not.
So what is the problem?
Maybe your generator man is missing the boat with his diagnosis?
maybe your wiring is not as good as you think it is?
Maybe the regulator was a bad unit right out of the box?

One of the above is the problem.
I cannot say any more than to tell you you must check out all of this stuff yourself.

Forget letting someone else check your generator.
Spend $15 for an ammeter and...........
Do it yourself and do it when it is installed on the bike.
Likewise with the wiring.
Likewise with the regulator.
It is one of those 3 things.
pg

 

+1, good advice.

 

had the generator tested by a professional

that's funny.

Your bike is almost 40yrs old. You are the professional now.

Follow PG's advise and learn how it works.

You start with the genny. If that passes, move on to the reg and batt.

 

ok so i got my hands on an ammeter (multimeter that tests amps as well) continuously reading over negative (-) 10 amps. tried polarizing through regulator. tried to polarize directly to generator. nada. is this where my issue is?

 

A-hhh, are you sure you have a Multimeter that reads DC amps?
The reason I ask is because such meters cost over $600. They measure amps in a Direct Current and almost no one owns such a meter.

Multimeters that an electrician will have can read amps by clipping the jaws over one of the wires but this is AC (Alternating Current) and will not work on a DC circuit.

So the answer is to get a meter like I showed in the pic for a few dollars at a parts house and use that.

If your multimeter is for DC reading it is going to be a very expensive piece of equipment and I am left wondering just how you connected such a meter to get the reading that you did?
Please advise on that.
pg

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