Weak and sporaddic electric signal

[jd750ace]

The rectifier diodes are reverse current protection. Your meter uses a very small voltage to check the circuit. It should be able to flow freely one direction, and not at all the other. Some higher end meters have a diode check funtion. According to the readings you posted, your diodes are good. Sounds like the regulator side is shit, but the rectifier should be working. You say you are reading 10.5 volts on white-to white wires. That seems like a pretty low AC output to me, but I didn't write the book.

Noticed you said your grounds "seemed fine" yet your stated output with the new battery is almost a volt lower than you had in your original post. Grounds can "read" good with a meter, and be marginal under load. That's why most of the time we way to check and clean your grounds. If the visible copper wire in your cable ends for the battery and the grounds have ever had any green shit scraped off of them, the wires inside the insulation are pretty much guaranteed to be corroded to some degree. Also, if the wires within the shield are seperated from each other, as in when the end gets twisted, it adds resistance and contributes to voltage drop.

 

[xjwmx]

Does the '79 have the solid state reg yet? If it's still mechanical, those are adjustable for output voltage. Most of them have a screw, and some don't but on those you can adjust by bending. You can take the mechanical reg apart to examine and adjust.

If it is solid state, the one on mine was giving me fits until I discovered a crimp that had gone bad in a connector. I could force the voltage high by forcing the detection voltage so I knew the reg wasn't broken but it was narrowed down to that. It was a a connector that runs to it that was the problem.

 

[Maxx650]

Sorry I think I typed that up wrong and what you described is correct...

I actually did a forward and reverse test on each diode (swapped black and red on each diode). What it showed was that 3 of them showed a short circuit (both forward and reverse showed 25 ohms) and the other 3 showed an open circuity (infinity - both forward and reverse infinity)

Also, @jd750ace the measurements made in my original post were I believe done with a wonky multimeter.. it was giving a lot of fluctuating results and wouldn't short itself properly.. Since buying the new battery and doing Curly's test I have purchased a new, functioning multimeter..

 

[xjwmx]

^I'm suspicious of three one way and three another way. Be absolutely sure you're measuring right. If you already are, sorry, but I've read some wild things in these threads