things that Kill regulators.... for a while back in the 1960's the regulator could be fried just by jumping the bike you know jumper cables correct polarity to a good car battery.... Not that is not so much the case you can do that and get away with it with no problem.... SHOCKS to the electrical are the biggest Killer
so if you Jump your bike do these things... make sure the key is off...
hook up the jumper cables and make darn sure the polarity is correct one Touch with the wrong polarity can fry the regulator.
once the jumper battery is hooked up you can start the bike like normal
if you hit the starter and nothing happens or you just get a real slow turning over stop turn the key off and then work on the electrical connection between the jumper battery and the bike you don't want to do that with the key on
once a good electrical connection is established the bike should start like ...normal ...... then leave the bike running and disconnect the jumper battery.....( positive first) if the bike dies like you turned off the key the voltage regulator is already fried.... and it needs replaced if it continues to run the voltage regulator is probably ok. and obviously just the battery needs replaced....
....
it's a good practice to remove the battery, charge it and then try starting if the bike has been sitting a long time 3~4 Months or longer.... if Sta-bul360
was put into the gasoline before hand the bike should start ... if you didn't put a fuel stabilizer in the gasoline the gasoline should be drained and the carb bowls drained as well....
you do NOT nessarally have to clean the carbs on a bike if a gas stablizer was used prior to storage ! just because it sat for some time does not mean the carbs will be crusty..... the gas stabilizer is a yearly thing on my bikes
I swear by it ! ....
be aware that you can fry a voltage regulator easily by Jumping the bike to start it.... that is why alot of guys won't jump a bike ! but if you do it correctly there is no problem
....
the biggest cause of voltage regulator failure is Shorts and shocks to the system.... they will not survive a intermittent connection very long in any part of the system.... a dirty headlight switch took out the regulator in my VT700 Honda one time.... and there was no other problems with the wiring
you could turn on the headlight and it not come on , hit a bump and it come on.... that intermittent connection is what took out the Voltage regulator
and it cost over $120.00 at the time.
tearing apart the switch and cleaning up the switch contacts cured the problem.
Bob.....