Think im not charging. . . 1980 ltd 1000 minimal wiring . . . what do you think

okay so i stripped my hole bike down including wiring. . . i miniamalized every aspect of the wiring, all i got is brake light switches, head light and tail, ignition switch and rectifier. If you have a wiring schematic or manual look at the brown wire that comes off the rectifier, it powers the tail light and ft and rear brake light switch. I guess thats when it starts and the alternator starts charging it sends power to these. . . so i started it and now power, not to any of these things, not to the test light !!! So i get my first thought its not charging ( no voltage meter or gauge here at home) so i wire these in to the keyed switch so that when the key is on there powered up and go ride it. . . runs great, come back put the headlight in it which comes from the ignition switch and man its cutting out and missing but i made it about 10 miles. Come home unplug the headlight and its running almost as good as the first time. . . so i think that it may not be charging and running off the battery.

Im going to try and find a volt meter at work tommorrow, but if it runs good until you power up accessorys dont you think its the charging. . . also wiring gurus dont your schematic show the brown wire from the rectifier to be "hot" once the bike starts ????

it looks to me like the brown wire should be hot all the time since the brake light s run off of it and you shouldnt have to have ignition on to make brake light work.id check for 12v at the brown wire coming from regulator,if you have power from the brown start checking ground wires;)there is also a 10a fuse where brown/white wire tags into red/blue wire after 4 pin connector that goes back to ignition switch.check the fuse,one of these wires might be used to power up charging system

Chopperdaddy wrote:

look at the brown wire that comes off the rectifier, it powers the tail light and ft and rear brake light switch. I guess thats when it starts and the alternator starts charging it sends power to these

Just went thru this w/ my bike...
The brown wire is a signal wire the regulator monitors to see when the bike is on and when to stop charging.
It should be ignition switched positive. There is no output from it.

loudhvx wrote:

The original reg/rec worked as follows:
3-yellows: 3-phase AC from stator to reg/rec.
Red : 12~14vDC output from reg/rec to battery via starter solenoid.
Black/Yellow : Ground. It connects to battery via harness
Brown: Switched battery voltage from ignition switch to reg/rec. This is what the stock reg/rec used to measure the system voltage in order to know whether to increase or decrease output. It is a switched wire so as to not drain the battery when the bike is off.

enormiss wrote:

Just went thru this w/ my bike...
The brown wire is a signal wire the regulator monitors to see when the bike is on and when to stop charging.
It should be ignition switched positive. There is no output from it.

Well that seems like a simple fix !! And makes sensce !!!

well, looks to be charging fine and the hole headlight unplugged thing probably didnt have anything to do with it !!! Just a freaky deal that it ran a little better. . . i rode it to work yesterday and had to ride with the choke on . . . about 10 miles one way . . . and i found its way lean so i pulled the carbs pulled the bowls again and what i thought was 120 was 102.5 thats a huge difference !!! So i think im lean and will be jetting up today 1!! stay tuned !!!