I'm still waiting for the road test waiver to come in from the DMV so I can go get my license. In the meantime, I have time to mess around with my bike and customize it a bit.
First order of business was fixing the charging system. The seller of the bike (an '87 Virago 535 w/9000 miles) told me it needed a regulator/rectifier, so I found one on eBay and ordered it. The exhaust system must be removed in order to get to the old rectifier, so I went about removing it. Problem is the back pipe is secured to the cylinder head by Allen bolts.... and the lower one was stripped perfectly clean inside.
OK, no big deal, I can get to the place where the plug for the rectifier is, so I'll just try out the new one to make sure it works. Well, I plug it in, let it dangle off the side of the bike, and fire up the bike... and the charging system still doesn't work. Damn guy who sold me the bike probably knew about the stripped bolt and that it wasn't the rectifier
So what else could it be? I think the problem might be the stator even though it tests out according to the manual. I don't want to bring it to a shop so I'll just try replacing the stator. Order that off ebay. I sell the rectifier and drop it in the mail to its new owner.
While I'm waiting for the stator to come in, I'm still messing around with the bike....... when I notice something. The output of the rectifier is only a single red wire... where's the ground? Oh no. It must be grounded through the bolts securing it to the frame! And I already sold the new rectiifer!!
So I order a new rectifier, it comes in, and I wire the metal case of it to the negative battery terminal. Fire up the bike. Voila.. everything works.
So, I feel pretty stupid, but the bike finally works. My buddy came over the next day with his stripped bolt extractor kit and we remove the exhaust. I install the new rectifier and we're good to go.
