Curly's Charging System Trouble Shooting Guide

[arugula]

im having trouble understanding this:

"3. On the solid state regulator models all you need to do is locate the green wire at the regulator plug and make a jump from it to ground. That bypasses the regulator and allows full battery current to flow through the brushes out of the rotor through the green wire to ground."

do i just disconnect the green wires at the coupler and put one to the ground on the battery? which end do i use? the generator side or the regulator side because from what i understand power from the battery goes through the keyswitch then down through the brown wire, into the regulator then goes from the regulator to the alternator through the green wire

so lost

[xsleo]

In Curly's guide he is talking about stock systems. When he says solid state regulator he means bikes that came with one, as in 80 up models. Your 79 came with a mechanical regulator and a seperate rectifier.
If yours has been modified to use a solid state regulator then if might have been with parts that work the same way as the srtock parts or rewired to work with the later models stlye regulator. What you need to do is figure out what your regulator is.
Leo

[terrys650]

i have 2 rotors and they both measure 0.ooo touching both slip rings they are supposed to measure 5.4 so i can asume they are bad?

[ash13brook]

72 XS2. Electronic ignition put on by the guy I bought it from. Pamco, I think. Solid state rectifier/regulator. Looks like part #24-2089 from Mikes XS.
I got a link to here from another forum.
Did #1
Didn't pass #2.
In #3, am I supposed to stick a jumper into the plug with the green wire from the rec/reg or unplug it and run a jumper from the plug opposite the green wire or from the green wire itself to ground?
A little confusing to a non electrical guy.

[xsleo]

On the 72 the regulator is before the brushes. The reg sends power to the brushes through the rotor then to ground.
To bypss the reg jump from battery positive to the green brush wire. This turns to rotor on at max so the alternator puts out max power.
This test tells you the stator, rotor and brushes are working. The battery voltage should rise up, don't let it rise above 15 volts. Your electrical system won't like it much.
On the 80 up bikes the reg is after the brushes. Battery voltage is sent to the brushes on the brown wire, through the rotor, out on the green wire to the reg and the reg grounds the green wire to power the rotor. On this set up you bypass the reg by grounding the green wire.
No need to unplug any thing. On the 72 just hook a jumper from battery + to a screwdriver or such, then touch the screwdriver to the green wire brush.
On the 80 up run the jumper from ground instead of the battery and touch the screwdriver to the green wire brush.
If your rotors measure less than the 4-6 ohms specified they are bad.
Leo

[ash13brook]

Sorry to need so much hand-holding here.
When you say the green brush wire, is that the green wire at the rec/reg unit plug or is it inside the alternator cover?
I assume the engine needs to be running?
If my battery voltage rises, then my rec/reg unit is bad?
Thanks

[ash13brook]

I see I read it wrong. Green wire brush. OK.
And then measure the resistance of the rotor. The rings on the rotor. Yes? Measure resistance between them? Or each independently?

[xsleo]

One slip ring to the other. Each end of the winding inside the rotor is hooked to each of the slip rings. Measure from ring to ring and ring to the metal body of the rotor.
The ring to ring, 5 to 5.5 ohms is very good. 4 to 6 ohms is ok.
Much less or more is questionable.
Infinity from rings to body.
You want continuity from ring to ring, no continuity from ring to body.
Leo

[awoody]

81 xs650 stock charging system, not so stock harness.

been chasing a charging issue for a while, I can not get the slap test to work.
ground the green on the reg/rec, no change in vdc

I am not getting matching voltage on the brown wire on the back of my brushes. I have consistent voltage from battery to key switch and so forth. my brown wire off my brushes goes straight into my brown on my reg/rec.

So I am confused on how to track the voltage from there. My power goes to my reg/rec and is at battery voltage on the hot lead. I am not getting the same out the brown of the reg/rec that connects to my brown heading to my brushes. there is nothing else in between. What am I missing?

thanks for any help/impute

[xsleo]

awoody, Power flows to the brush on a brown wire, this should be at or very near battery voltage. It also goes to the reg/rec, it should read the same as at the brush.
The reg doesn't use this voltage to power anything, it just uses it to tell battery voltage.
If you have battery voltage at the brush and you get no slap then it probably is the brushes or rotor. I would first check the ohms of the rotor. From slip ring to slip ring and from slip ring to body of the rotor. If the ohms are more or less than 4-6 ohms or you get less ohms than infinity then you have a bad rotor.
Leo

[awoody]

My ohms are exactly 5 at the rotor. my brushes are brand new and full length. My main issue right now is not having matching battery voltage on the positive side of my brushes (brown wire.)

(key on, bike not running) So where I am at is I have battery voltage around 12.5 that voltage matches through all my connectors to the hot lead (red) on my reg/rec. The brown that leaves the reg/rec and heads strait to my positive brush, is not near battery voltage even at the exit of the reg/rec. I have 3 reg/ rec that I have tried and two have been on running charging bikes in the past months so i figured it would be hard for them all to have failed.

So is it sounding like a failed reg/rec or am i doing something wrong? there is not suppose to be a hot strait to the brown... just kinda at a stand still at the moment

[awoody]

am I suppose to have a hot directly to the brown?

[xsleo]

5 ohms on the rotor is good. New brushes are good.
With bike on Engine stop switch off, you should get battery voltage on the brown wire at the brushes.
The brown wire comes from the key througfh a fuse TO the reg and the brush. Power does not come FRom the reg to the brush. If you have battery voltage at the reg but not at the brown wire brush you have a problem at the connection of the brown wires wqhere it splits to go to the reg and the brush.
If you look at a diagram you can trace the brown wire from the fuse to where it connects to several items. It splits off thefeed the light checker,the brake switches, the horn, the flasher canceler unit, the the neutral light, the tail/brake light failure indicater light. In the diagram it shows these as seperate joints, on the bike they all come together in one place. The wire from the jpoint to the brown wire brush may be damaged. Try running a jumper wire from the battery direct to the brown wire brush, Does this get your bike to charge? If so you can unwrap the the wiring at the plug the stator wires come up to towards the main harness Keep onwrapping till you reach the joint where all the browns come together. You may find a bad spot in the brown wire or a weak solder joint where the browns come together.
I might just unsolder the joint and replace the brown wire to the brush.
Leo
In your second post Yes full battery voltage at the brown wire TO the brush and the reg. The brush needs full voltage to produce fuul voltage in the alternator. The reg needs full voltage to tell when the battery is fully charged.
If thereg reads less than full voltage it will continually charge the battery to get it to full voltage. If the brown wire reads low the reg will charge no matter the battery voltage.
Leo

[awoody]

so I replaced my hot to my bushes. but it seems to be pulling to much power. with the brushes hot unplugged the bike runs great. with a hot off the ignition plugged in it bogs out and seems to be miss firing. the second I pull the 10 amp fuse off the hot lead to the brushes it runs great again?

[xsleo]

Awoody, your bike being an 81 it has the TCI. The TCI uses a magnet in the rotor to sence engine position and rpms. The pick ups on the stator do this as the magnt passes the pick ups.
As the magnet ages it gets weaker. It can get so weak that when the rotor gets full voltage and creates a very strong magnetic feild it over powers the magnetic feild the pick ups need to sence engine position and rpms. This is why your engine runs better with the charging system disdabled.
To fix this go to your nearest Radio Shack and buy item #64-1895, $2.19 last I checked. This is a pair of very strong magnets the same size as the one in your rotor. Also stop buy somewhere and get a package of JB Weld.
Once at home remove the stator. Place one of the new magnets on the magnet in the rotor. Color the outside of the magnet with a sharpie. I use red, easy to see. Now pull the magnet off. Clean the rotor magnet off very well. Very fine sand paper and rubbing alcohol works well. Now mix up a bit of the JB Weld, put a small dab on the rotor magnet, place thenew magnet on the dab of JB Weld, with the colored side out.
Let it set over night.
Replace the stator.
Now with the very strong magnet the rotor can't over power it and the bike will run with the charging system working.
Leo