As Pete reported, my new lighting upgrades are working out pretty well. Still a few bugs to work out to get to full function, but I'll post a schematic and such as soon as those are worked out.
Pete was tactful enough to leave out that on my way to lunch (10mi) Stella stopped three times. On the way home, she stopped twice more and for good. I was in a rush to get things buttoned up in time to meet Pete, so I only have myself to blame for not doing responsible in-the-neighborhood testing. This was the test ride, and testing she needed.
On the first stop the starter button didn't do anything (it was fine at initial startup) and for the rest of the day wouldn't do anything. On all stops prior to the last one, she would kickstart fine after a few moments. When she stopped for the final time, I found a blown main fuse. Replacing it, with the key off, immediately blew the next. At that point I decided I had work to do, and trying to figure it out on the side of the road with a work shift coming ever closer was bound to cause more frustration than I enjoy. I called a tow and have been troubleshooting at my leisure since. Here's what I've found:
Lighting circuits are A-OK. No faults found, voltage where it should be, nowhere it shouldn't. Works perfectly well as long as the issues below are removed from action. Starter also works perfectly fine with the soon to be described faults taken out of play.
By isolation, I've narrowed my issues to two obvious sources, not that they are necessarily the only ones:
1 - Key off, with the red and black wires attached to their rectifier posts and the 3 whites unattached, I am able to put a new main fuse in. As soon as I touch either the A or C phase to it's terminal, I hear the SSR (stock) click. If I don't pull back right away the main fuse blows. Diode checks on the rectifier come up with the following.
- Red lead on +, Black lead on the AC terminals. .000, .447, .800
- Black lead on +, Red lead on the AC terminals. .000, .464, .449
- Red lead on -, Black lead on the AC terminals. .448, .465, .000
- Black lead on -, Red lead on the AC terminals. .808, .924, .000
Seems to me that the rectifier is shot and acting like a direct short to ground. Is the voltage possibly going through the alternator to energize the yellow wire, tripping the SSR? That would explain why the starter button wasn't doing anything. Now, with the rectifier removed, the starter works.
Rectifier: Ebay 3ph 30A bridge rectifier, mounted with heat sink compound to a plate of 1/8" aluminum about 6" square. New with this upgrade, and I admit to not testing it beforehand. I'm not 100% sure it was working perfectly from the start. New one on the way.
Regulator: VR-115 mounted to same plate as the rectifier. This component has been in action since October. With just a quick test before heading out to lunch, I found 12.7v at idle, 14.3v @ 2000rpm. Before the overhaul, with the stock rectifier, I saw a max of 13.8v. Rectifier short (blowing main fuse) occurs whether regulator is in line or not.
Alternator: Stock. Testing shows 0 ohms between all white wires. No continuity between any white wire and ground. I haven't yet checked the rotor and brushes.
2 - With this issue set aside and the rectifier left unplugged, I went through the different circuits. Main switched (brown) all good. Lighting (blue) all good. Ignition (R/W) not so good.
I find the Gill coil that came with the Boyer Micro Power blue box blows a 5A fuse in about 2 seconds. When testing for resistance, I get an intermittent 2.7Kohms (correct reading if it was solid) on the secondary coil and .3/.4 ohms (should have .6 ohms) on the primary.
On the primary, when I touch the leads it first reads 0.0 ohms and ramps up to the .3 or .4 in about the same time it blows a fuse. I'm thinking the coil was somewhat questionable to start, given the horrible corrosion I found on one the output towers. Must've been working overtime. I have an email out to Boyer to confirm my readings and the coil's health. If I need a new one, I'm looking at the Nology Profire 06D, but am very early in my research.
So there you have it. Bad rectifier. Probably bad coil. Everything else seems to be good, but I don't know what caused to faults to begin with. Could they be related? Could one cause the other?
I'm using a digital, auto-range, mid-grade Klein meter with resistance calibrated for zero.
The good news is before things went south Stella was idling much more smoothly, at lower RPMs, than before. The badly corroded lead was on the R cylinder and it's exhaust note is perfectly regular now, matching the L. I will reiterate very valuable forum advice that I failed to follow; do all of your electrical tests and optimization before moving towards carbs.