Motorcycle Repair: electric on a honda gl500, honda gl500 silverwing, rectifier unit

Question
my battery remains good I had to change it I just bought the bike it is my first and need to find out whats going on. it is a 1981 honda gl500 silverwing when started and running the batery terminals are puting out 7.7v I needed to find out why. I have checked the starter and the relay everything seems to be fine I dont know what I am supposed to do.I read on here there are coils I have 2 can one be bad and if so how do I check the alternater and the coils? all I have is a volt meter I dont know what an ohm meter is. Thank you

Answer
You should read about 14V across the battery when the engine is running at more than 3000 RPM. It can be a bit lower at idle, but not as low as 7.7V.

A few possible causes come to mind:
- There are 3 yellow wires that come from the alternator's stator inside the back of the engine and run to a connector under the left hand side cover near the battery. The contacts inside the connector have been known to bcome corroded and stop conducting. Sometimes the connector becomes hot and melts, which can be even worse. Many people have removed the connector altogether and simply soldered or crimp spliced the wires together. If you are lucky that's the cause of your problem.
- It is possible that the regulator/rectifier unit has failed.
- It is possible that the stator has failed.

I highly recommend joining a good forum that specializes in these bikes. http://choppercharles.com/cs/forums/ is probably the best there is. The people there are friendly and more than wiling to share the accumulated knowledge they have.

You can learn how to use your meter properly (and what an ohm meter is) here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/study.htm

If you don't have a shop manual you should get one - your bike is an antique and you will have a hard time finding a shop that will work on it. The sad fact is that a lot of the mechanics working now are too young to remember bikes this old and aren't interested in learning about them so that they can do a proper job since yours may be the only one they see this year. This means that you will have to do most of your own work, and working on a bike without a good shop manual is just not worth the headaches. (My bikes are from the same era - that's why I fix them myself.)

I recommend that you get two manuals - a Factory Shop Manual and a Haynes or Clymer. That way when you don't understand the explanation in one you will probably figure it out when you have read the other too. There are links on the forum to download the factory manual for free.