Well, like most of us, life has gotten in the way of what we REALLY want to do. I've tried a few itterations of Viet's EI, and as helpful as he is (really a great guy to deal with) I wasn't able to maintain the timing. I suspect the system works, but my installation just wasn't meant to be.
I've installed the points and the bike starts up, or rather it did start up great last week. Before I finish up the wiring of turn signals and tail lights, I wanted to verify the charging system. (I've read Sonreir's, CrazyPJ, searched and read a lot of other posts on checking the charging system). Here's where things get interesting.
I installed a Kohler integrated Reg/Rec unit, and I believe it is (was?) doing the job. I'm getting about 2 - 3 ohms across the stator connections. But when testing the voltage, what I'm now getting I believe defies the law of physics:
With the ignition "on", I get a little over 12 volts:
In the background you can see the Kohler unit, and the positive lead is plugged into a charging lead, and the negative is touching the ground (Don't be fooled by the red wire, it's a ground. Red was the only color I had that is 12 gauge). 12.88v, about what you'd expect.
Now the weird part:
With the engine NOT running, and the meter set for 200 AC volts, I'm reading 24.7 volts! I'm wondering how can that be? The stator is dead still with only the battery dc voltage running through the system.
Not content with this result I checked it with a different meter:
About the same, 27.9 AC volts. I am not an electrical engineer, but I assumed that without the stator turning the AC voltage would be zero.
As I move the positive probe to each of the 3 inputs I get the exact same voltage, 27.9 ACV.
I want to check the voltage of the stator with the engine running, but I can't get it started at the moment. I've had the gas tank on and off a lot the last few days, so I'm thinking it's a carb issue. I've checked the spark and I'm getting a nice hot blue spark on both sides.
I would greatly appreciate if anyone has some thoughts on the stator, or the Reg/rec setup. The Reg/rec is wired with the pink and yellow wires going to the outside terminals, the center terminal is wired to the battery circuit, and the unit body is attached to ground.
Thanks guys.