TOPIC:

You say the bike is wired bare bones. Are you still using some of the stock wiring or did you rewire the whole thing. Whatever you did, trace the black wire. It might be connected to hot or shorting out on a hot wire or something. maybe the insulation is chaffed somewhere. ??? Maybe the voltage regulator is shot & shorting out inside or the other stuff. just guesses. ??? Or maybe I don't understand the black wire either.

Good point, he might have a wire transposed. The ground will arc if the battery is charged at max.
Steve

Hello Steve & Martin: Thanks for your help & Steve thanks for the diagram. I wired the reg &stator following the diagram and I have 14.3 volt when running at the battery. I feel like the system is charging as it should. When I rewired the bike I did not understand the brown sensor wire & I did not have the ground hooked up at all. I will guess the spark from the ground wire when I touched it to the frame while running must have been some open circuit voltage. THe sun is shining in Idaho today so I will take my winter project out for a short test ride to see how it works.
Thanks RH

The bike looks to be in good condition. You may already know this, but the clutch cable is routed incorrrectly & it may be too long. If you plan on doing something about the seat & if a one-piece is your preference, I'm pretty sure you can use a seat from any 750H or 81-83 650-CSR.

This is before the wireing