Holy cow , man! Get while the gettin's good! And I had the nerve to complain about a little ole possum in my furnace! :-D. Sorry to hear 'bout the roof, glad to hear its fixed. Go have some fun!

 

This year i blew up the engine of my ironhead, went thru 4 machine shops before i got the work done correctly, the roof leaked, the basement leaked, my pond liner leaked, half a dozen other things went wrong, then my newly rebuilt ironhead got totalled by a lady driver from behind looking for a place to shop.

Hope your roof gets fixed OK, and that that is all!

 

WOW, you guys make me feel pretty lucky! although, yesterday , everything in the charging system seemed to be in order. Today, the indicator light wont go out. Friggin' A . I'm goin nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Flashed the field before start up, and all. Well I just checked and the light isn't grounded, so back to the output test. If thats ok, I'm changing that DARN regulator, if for nothing else, to feel like I'm getting something done! Ugh!

On the up side, knock on wood, that's my only major dilemma right now.

 

I don't get it. The other day, when I checked the output, the gage was reading positive 18 amps. I took a pic of it. Last night I put it on the battery minder, today I flashed the field coils,( armature to pos batt terminal, with all connections made) disconnected what I needed to and did the output test and it's reading NEGATIVE 12 amps. The only thing I can think of is the regulator is for an XLH. I have an XLCH. So I'm gonna put the old Bosch type on from the other XLCH I have, make all connections, and with the key off, try flashing the field coils again and start her up to watch the indicator light. If its on, why , I'll check it for ground ...again and then switch the wiring around and do the output test...again.

I checked voltage across the batt terminals not running. got 13.02 volts. Checked it while running and got 11.41 volts.

Any input would be wonderful! am I missing something? Reallt trying to keep it on an even keel and think logically, but I feel like I'm going in circles. What could have changed overnight?

don't know if it makes any diff, but the armature wire on the reg and the gen wire on the reg were disconnected while it was on the charger. Last thing I did last night was check the ind. light for ground.

Thanks!!!

 

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention that I thought was a bit alarming. When I connected the ground from the field terminal to the chassis, It sparked. This was with the lead from the armature connected to the + on the ammeter and the neg on the ammeter not connected to anything. I connected the field to ground while the bike was running so it didn't have to be connected any longer than absolutely necessary.

 

Woohooo!!!!!! Well, I think I've got it. I put on the bosch type regulator and made all connections. I then "flashed the field coils". I got more of a spark than I had in the past. The generator clunked, but the regulator didn't make any noise. At the time, I didn't know if this was a good or bad sign. I checked the voltage at the battery. It was 13.02 volts. I turned on the key. The generator indicator light turned on. I fired her up and the gen light went out. I then checked the voltage at the battery while it was running and it was 14,38! Aah! Shut it down and the voltage was 13. 28. Good! The generator is charging, not drawing. Problem solved...I think. I did not perform the output test, but I'm not sure it is necessary as the battery is definitely being charged.

Now, I don't know if it was because the regulator from an XLH is not interchangeable with one from an XLCH or if mine was bad. It was REALLY cheap, and I know that a lot of times, you get what you pay for.

All that said, I want to thank you guys for your patience and knowledge. This past spring, all I had done to a bike was change the plugs. Now, I can't wait to start my next frame up! Not only have you taught me alot about bikes, but more, I think, about understanding why things do what they do and general mechanics diagnosing. I really enjoy being able to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. Not just experience trouble and buy new parts. This winter , I'm going to re-build my old generator, just so I can figure out whats really going on in there!

Thank you guys again!