84 xt 600 runs great low voltage on lighting side
 

Howdy, new to these forums.
I have an 84 xt600 converted to a cafe racer, got it with a dead battery and bad rectifier, fixed those and everything was fine for a few months. The battery was really in the way so I replaced it with a capacitor, everything still good for weeks, currently I have a low voltage problem I discovered after the turn signals stopped working. I've spent the day going through the wiring rat's nest and corrected a couple errors of the builder. Need that 12 volts for the blinkers to blink and I only have about 5. I'm a motorcycle noob and need expert advice. I seem to be getting good AC from the stator and 12+ volts from red and black on the rectifier out, what should I have on the brown? Should I be looking for a short?
Thanks in advance

Dave

only difference between the red and the brown is the brown is switched through the ignition switch. Check for the red wire and the brown wire at that point. Voltage should be the same when the switch is on. If not then the switch is bad, if voltage is the same then you have a corroded, broken or unplugged brown wire somewhere. Just trace out the brown wire and check at each point you find it.

Let us know what you find so others can learn from you efforts.

Steve

Thanks for the quick advice.

So today I started by bypassing the ignition switch, still low voltage. I then took apart the entire brown wire connections one by one until I got back to the rectifier/ regulator which seems to be the problem. After cutting that brown wire the voltage jumped and I managed to blow a couple turn signal bulbs.

Since this is not the first rectifier and I've read it is a common problem I started looking for better, more robust solutions and found this:

The upgrade fix >> no more charging/regulator/rectifier problems - Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum

Replacing with a better unit seems like the way to go, unless somebody knows better. I certainly did learn a lot more about motorcycle wiring than I ever wanted to but it will probably come in handy later.

And this wiring diagram kept me from going completely insane:

https://www.google.com/search?q=84+x...X0WWHfVmc6M%3A

I might even wire in a better speedometer with some indicator lights if I get ambitious, but before that I need to do some work on the suspension to lift the tail back up a bit.

I am still running the original rectifier/regulator on my 84 and 86 XT600. There are good ones out there but also lots of junk. Don't buy Chinese knockoffs.

Yeah, that's the ones I had, going for the better one this time around.

Does anyone have info on switching over to a more modern and available stator?
I feel I should be mentally prepared for that to fail next.