New guy needs help: Charging issues and not sure what I've got. (Pics Included)

[Tilly74]

Short version: 81 xs650 with non stock electronics and ignition. Not charging, and not sure what my bike has been put back together with over the years and need help identifying what I have so I can buy the correct replacement parts and wiring harness.

Long version of the story: Motorcycle enthusiast, bought an 81 xs650 earlier this year to ride and not work on because I currently have no garage. Test rode the bike which ran great and bought it for 900. Bought it from a mechanic who claimed it needed nothing and was ready to ride. I'm a self taught mechanic, and fairly knowledgeable about motorcycles and how to fix most problems. Paid more for a running bike since I don't have anything other than a parking lot to work on a bike in right now. Got home and got one 40 minute ride out of it before the battery died. Been trying to figure out the cheapest/easiest way to fix this so I can just ride the bike.

I've searched through and read about every article about charging problems and did my best to go through the charging diagnostic steps found online and my feeler gauge did not "slap" the case when I turned the ignition on. I haven't been able to make a jumper wire for the green wire to test the regulator rectifier because I'm keeping the bike in my girlfriend's friend's garage just to store the bike. Can't exactly hang out there and work on it. I have been sneaking over when they're out of town to try and figure it out. This time I took pictures. I'm hoping I can get some help figuring out exactly what I've got. It is apparent that the bike is not original, especially when it comes to the wiring. It's been butchered. I'd love to re-wire the bike, I just want to make sure I'm buying the right things.

What I know: Model is an 81 which I'm pretty sure originally had a TCI. This bike has points. When the bike is running the battery voltage stays right around 12 volts, but only goes up by .2 or .3 when the bike is revved. Leads me to believe that it's the voltage regulator. When I found the voltage regulator, I found factory electrical connectors that were unplugged. So now I'm really not sure what I've got and what year parts/wiring harnesses to get. Also, I checked the brushes and they are within spec. If you can, please help identify how my bike is set up so I can begin re-wiring and replacing with the correct parts. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Pictures:
1. The Bike
2. Left side of the bike
3. Right side
4. Butchered Wiring
5. Regulator/rectifier?
6. Mystery Plug? ( No Idea What This Goes To )
7. Other electrical things?
8. Coils
9. Another view of the regulator/rectifier?

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[retiredgentleman]

Tilly74;

The alternator rotor is a common failure as the bikes aged.

Remove the 2 brushes, and measure the resistance from one brass slip ring to the other slip ring. Use the lowest ohm scale you have. Normally they are 5 to 7 ohms.

Also measure from either slip ring to the rotor frame, using a high resistance scale.........that should be infinity.


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[XSLeo]

Lets get started by my saying welcome to our little corner of the XS650 world.
From what I see, your stock ignition, The TCI or Transistor Controlled Ignition, Box crapped out and a PO converted it back to a points ignition. Pics #2 and #3.
Pic #4 is your fuse box, It could be bad. Most swap it for inline car type blade fuse holders.
#5and #9 are your reg/rec. Stock on your bike.
#6 looks like the wires to the TCI pickups on the stator. With the points it won't be used.
#7 everything looks stock.
#8 is a set of coils. On the points bikes they use a coil for each cylinder.
Now as RG said check your rotor.
When you turn the key on battery voltage is sent to the reg/rec on the brown wire. The brown wire also sends voltage to one of the brushes. From there through the rotor out the other brush on the green wire back to the reg/rec where the reg/rec grounds the voltage to "turn on" the rotor. This is felt by the feeler gauge test.
No pull on the feeler gauge indicates the voltage is not flowing.
Often the rotor being so old it gets shorted out. This is the first thing to check. While you have the brushes out checking the rotor look at the brushes are the worn to less than about 3/8 inch?, if so replace them.
You can check for voltage at a few places while you have the alternator cover off. The brown wire at the brushes should get battery voltage when the key is on. The brown wire at the reg/rec should have battery voltage too. If low by more than about .2 or .3 volts trace it back along the brown wire till you find the voltage drop. Often the key switch itself, it can be removed, taken apart and cleaned.
That should get you started. Check those things and report back with the results.
Leo

 

[Tilly74]

Thank you so much for taking time to reply and welcoming me. I will test everything this weekend and let you know what I come up with.

Thanks! - Blake

 

[gggGary]

Good advice so far, what these guys don't mention is that you can't reach the inner ring to test the rotor unless you remove the stator or I just grab a drywall screw, remove the inner brush and test through the drywall screw. Either open or shorted is bad around 5 to 5.4 ohms is good.
Plus 1 that the fuse box is often junk. check all grounds and leads and load test the battery, no matter how good, the charging system won't charge a bad battery.

Here is the schematic of late model charging.

If the rotor tests good start checking the stator and wires between the components.

 

[XSLeo]

One more thing. Start at one end of the bike and work toward the other checking every wire connection. Bullet connectors can be cleaned and tightened with a squeeze with pliers.
THe multi connectors the wires have to be removed from the plastic to tighten them. A bit of dialectric grease will help prevent corrosion. Bright and shiny is a good thing.
The key and kill switches should be taken apart and cleaned to. Very important. No or low power on these switchs make it not run well.
The other switches should be cleaned too.
Leo