Motorcycle Repair: 1974 Tx500 Voltage doesnt stay constant and jumps from 5 volts to 19 volts., continuity test, battery recharge

Question
I have been looking around all over the internet for an answer to this question
and I for the life of me, can not find a straight answer.  My bike can run just
fine, and it doesnt kill the battery but I can not get a constant voltage reading
from the battery, which leads me to believe I have a fairly major problem.  I
just bought a new battery and a new reg/rec.  When the bike is off, my
blinkers blink at a normal rate and my headlight works fine.  Just today I
burnt out my headlight lamp and my blinkers are very erratic.  Is this a
common stator problem?  Or is it something else?  Any help would be much
appreciated.

Thanks -  Kevin.

Answer
It sounds like a stator problem. It's possible the stator wires overheated at some point with the old reg/rect and there's a short somewhere. The service manual should have a procedure for doing a continuity test on the stator.

If you want to run the bike until you get this resolved, I would try disconnecting the stator wires and running just off the battery. Recharge the battery with a charger. It will run for a few hours like that.