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Morning guys, is there an easy way to check the health of the alternator charging coils? I'm only getting 12v at the battery when measuring across the terminals at 6k rpm. I pulled out the blue book and verified i'm getting 60v across the 2 yellow wires. Only I cant find 14v anywhere. Then I remembered that this bike didnt come with a key so I replaced the ignition switch last winter. So I verified all 6 poles were correctly wired. I'm suspecting the ignition switch may be faulty. Can I pull the red wire off the back and expect 14v at 6k and then trace it back through the fuse box? I will check for proper amperage on the red wire tonight after work.

1980 Strada w Estart/mag wheels, regulator has 2 yellow wires and a brown going up to the fuse box. I replaced all the fuses.

Thanks,
Toby

The regulator will not turn on unless it has a switched feed from the ignition switch.

Check the voltage on the terminal with the Brown wire.

Hi Paul, I put the meter on the brown terminal of the fuse box and rev'd it up, it shows 12v at any rpm. This was with a fully charged battery showing 13v's.

Regulator terminal with the Brown wire.

Regulator terminal measured and its all over the place. At low rpm its constantly cycling back and forth 5/10/12/2/5...... At high rpm its similar but much higher and went past 30v.

You should be seeing battery voltage on this terminal with the ignition switch on.

Check for bad connections.

Paul, I tried it again with the brown wire on its terminal. Last time I disconnected the brown wire from the regulator terminal. This time I left the brown wire on the regulator terminal, moved the plastic boot up and put the meter clip on the connection. It measures the same as the battery at idle but as the RPM rises the voltage slowly drops. I never had a constant reading, it still cycles but much less so with the wire on the terminal. Any ideas would be helpful. I did check the brown wire connections and its fine.
idle = 13-14k
2-4k = 11.6-12.6
5-6k = 10.8-12

Meter is set on DC voltage

Bad connection.

Possibly a faulty ignition switch.

Paul, thanks for the help. I found a very yellow battery cable going down to the starter relay. I cleaned it up and soldered new leads on it. Replaced the fuse holder and wire. Then added a ground from the regulator body to the neg battery terminal. Also took the starter relay apart and cleaned the points. It seems much better now.
Toby