TOPIC:

Alright, this is going to take some patience from all of us

I'm new to electronics and charging systems. I've been reading a lot of old posts and tried to follow the flow charts but it's almost lost on me. I'm not quite an idiot but I have no experience.

1983 kz550 ltd C4

Bike ran pretty well for a year, gave it away to a girl for her pleasure. It sat for a long time, came back into use, and now runs crappy. Tank has rust, fuel filter shows some garbage, the carbs need going through, drum brake is shot, and I think the clutch is slipping (what did she do to this bike!?). I have the carb kits and will be going through them soon, but these are unrelated problems.

The battery was a couple years old and showed around 12v when charged, dropped to 3v when cranking, and when revving the bike it would not show charging over 12.5v. Because the battery was old, cranked at 3v, and generally left me bump starting the bike wherever I went, it was replaced with a standard wet cell battery.

The new battery battery shows more like 12.5v fully charged, cranks at 10v, and will charge 13v at 5000rpm. This is weaker than 14.5v, but is it too weak? Are we flirting with disaster throwing this bike back into commuter status?

I have a manual but it is only for bikes through 82. With the help of a more experienced relative and his voltmeter we tried to diagnose the R/R. It looks like there were changes in the 1983 model because the wiring doesn't match up perfectly. The picture in the manual is useless, taken from inside the wheel well and poor quality. It's been about as useful as a parade magazine. I don't trust the wiring diagrams because it doesn't show my specific model, and I have enough trouble without proper references.

However, the R/R appears to be good. I will buy my own voltmeter and try checking all the connections myself to see if I get the same results as last time. Where do I go from here? If the R/R is a timebomb, we ought to replace it. Is there a particular weak link in this bike? No one wants to throw money at the problem but it's an old bike and we want dependability from it.

It could use a fresh set of plug wires too. Is there a convenient make/model of car wires I could get at the auto store?