unknown charging problems

Okay, I am getting very annoyed with the problems I am having with this bike . The bike is an 83' Heritage. At first, I found that I had a bad Stator. I replaced the stator with an older model, and tapped out the position for the pick-up. I replaced the brush assembly from my 83 stator to the older stator due to the constantly grounding. I was getting some charging and then it stopped again. I tested the rotor and it tested good. I tested the reg/rect. and was not getting the spec readings. I built the chryler reg/Rect. and mounted it and then I checked the rotor and was getting really low readings. I replaced the rotor with a new one from TC Bros. The rotor tests good. I measured the brushes and they are between 11 and 12 cm.

I followed Curly's guide and:
1: completed
2: Slap test --Failed
3: Jumped the ground on the reg/rect. no change in voltage
4: I have checked the brown wire and have gotten voltage readings similiar to the battery, however, i put the red probe on the screw that holds the brush to the stator and I do not get any voltage readings????
5: I am getting 5.5 ohms on the slip rings
6: The testing at the stator connector, I am getting no readings. I have the meter set to AC (200) and i am placing both probes on different combinations of the white wires and I am not getting any readings. Everything says 0.00
7: I am getting right about the spec readings

Please help i really want to ride and not have to push the bike home when it sucks the power dry.

The brown wire at the brushes is the one that needs the battery voltage. Unhook it from the brush and check voltage.
One test you can try is with the meter hooked to the battery, engine running, hook a jumper wire from battery positive to the brown wire brush, This bypasses the wiring from the battery to the key switch and brown wire. With the jumper in place does it show a charge of 14.5 volts to the battery at 3000 rpm's?
If it does charge then the wiring from the battery to the key switch and the brown wire has a problem. Trace it out to find it.
Leo

Leo,
hey, I tried to place the jumper at the battery positive and the the brush positive, top left brush. As soon as i touched thed positive brush i was getting sparks. Do i need to start the bike first and then put the jumper wire on?

A few small hardly noticable sparks are normal. Any large sparks, not so much. If you get large sparks and the wire gets hot then you have a short to ground somewhere. Most likely in the rotor.
You say the rotor tested at 5.5 ohms slip ring to slip ring. What reading do you get from a slip ring to ground? It should be an infinite or no reading.
Leo

I checked the rotor again and was getting between 5 and 6 ohms from slip ring to slip ring. I checked the slip ring to the bolt and read infinite. I went through and tried to make a jumper wire straight from the harness connector to the stator to the brown wire on the positive brush. I noticed that the main fuse was blown before i turned the bike on so i put in a fresh 20 amp. As soon as i turned the key, the main fuse blew again. I am using the brush holder that has the brass nut on the top right and the bottom left to help avoid the ground. Should i get the nylon screws and see if that changes anything and avoids the short?

On your brush holder thats the way it should be. the nylon screws are for converting the older grounded brush stators to work with a later solid state reg/rec.
Did you have the jumper hooked when you blew the fuse?
I'm looking at a wiring diagram now. When you turn the key on it sends power to the brush on the brown wire and the reg/rec on the brown wire.
The brown wire also feeds power to the other three fuses. If the short was after the fuses it would blow one of them before it could blow the main fuse.
Have you checked for voltage at the brown wire at the brush with the brown wire unhooked from the brush? If so what was the voltage?
It's possible the brush holder itself is damaged in some way to short to ground. I think I read once that was thier problem. With the wires to the brushes unhooked check for continuity from the brass nut to the case of the stator. If you find continuity there then maybe a new brush holder will fix the problem.
Spraying the brush holder with electrical contact cleaner won't hurt.
I know on some of the older bikes a short in the tail light housing can blow the main fuse, but I haven't heard that on the later models, That wouldn't effect the brown wire at the brushes.
It might be the reg/rec. I can't say I have heard of the brown wire shorting to ground there but it could happen.
You can try unplugging the reg/rec from the harness and see if the fuse blows.
Leo

Hi All,

Was slip ring fitting a cruise control stalk at the weekend that I managed to pick up, but as per most jobs it never went as planned! The cruise control works ok, which was the difficult bit, but there is a clicking noise coming from the clock spring behind the steering wheel. It sounds like a cable tie is connected to the steering wheel and every 90 degrees or so its catching on something. I was careful with it and didn’t move it in between changing the stalks…but something isnt right