newbie with electrical woes!

[bicyclegraduate]

gents,
picked up an '81 650E last week. haven't been able to ride it because it needs headlamp & directionals. anywho, battery is kicking out 12.5v, and i have 12.2v at headlamp connector, is this not enough to power the headlamp? also, can't run it yet since i have the carbs off for a deep cleaning to hopefully rectify the throttle hesitation it had when i brought it home (btw, awesome carb rebuild post on mainpage! i've also checked into the throttle hesitation threads, great tips and tricks) i'll get a pic of my heap up shortly!

[t3rmin]

Sounds about right. In fact sounds great if that's with the bike off. Should be getting 14+ volts (but not more than 15) with the bike on and the engine at a few thousand RPMs.

Go through the Stator Papers for more info. http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_garage.htm

And welcome aboard!

[txironhead]

First off, check the acid level on the battery. If it's low, add distilled water and charge it. Then have it load tested at Autozone or another parts place.

Once you've verified the battery is good (or replaced it if it's bad), go to the garage section of this site and check out the Stator Papers. This will tell you how to test your stator and regulator.

The main electrical culprit on these bikes is 20+ year old connectors. Clean all of your connectors, check all of the grounds (especially the primary ground from the negative battery cable to the engine, sand the engine part shiny and clean the connectors on both sides), and then add a ground from one of the regulator mounting bolts directly to the negative side of the battery. The factory ground is a bad design, grounding to the battery box which is rubber insulated.

[txironhead]

@#$#$% faster typists.......

[t3rmin]

That's right. Eat my keyboard dust...

(keyboard dust...?)

[txironhead]

I don't know about dust, but I occasionally have to take Gojo and a q-tip to my keyboard, too many searches while doing a repair.....