Also a new guy to motorcycles...
heres the situation..
got the bike87600f...starts up and ran fine.. for about 3 hours.. then it would not start.. heard clicking like it wanted to turn over but did not.. charged the battery and it started and ran fine.. for a while.. battery puked again.. charged the battery talked to some people who seem to think it was the alternator.. they advised charging it starting it and unhooking the negative lead.. sure enough when the lead was d/c the bike shut off.. does this mean it is the alternator for sure? if so how to change it.. any help would be apperciated..

 

what do you mean "battery puked?" Like boiled and spit up acid?

You need to get a multimeter if you don't have one. Charge your battery and hook it up correctly. Check the voltage. It should be between 12.4 and 13.2 for starters. Start the bike and let it idle. Check the voltage. It should be more than it was and should go up as you rev the bike up a little. It shouldn't really go over 15.5 or so, but should definitely be more than the 12.5 or 13 you started with..

If it does show more voltage when the bike is running, then your alternator is fine. If it shows more than 16, 18, etc then your voltage regulator has gone bad and you may need a new one. Too high of voltage is what makes a battery boil.

If the battery shows 12 volts or something and you start the bike and nothing changes or it gets lower when you start the bike, then you probably have a bad alternator.

It's possible you can have a bad battery that will only hold a charge for a day or so. Take it out of the bike and give it a good charge and check the voltage. Leave it alone and come back in a day or so and if it's less than 12, your battery is bad. Even if it's 11 or something you could stand to get a new one.

Even if the bike starts, if you have a bad battery it will make the bike run poorly at low rpms and if you leave a bad battery in there you will eventually fry your alternator, because it will always be trying to charge up that dead battery.

 

Oh yeah and whoever told you to start the bike and then disconnect the negative lead . . . . . don't listen to that ****. If your alternator wasn't bad, you might have broken it by doing that. Don't do that.

 

Thanks so far I will be trying that later today

to clear things up.. when i said puked.. i mean the bike just stopped running.. when i charged the battery i rode around for about a week with no problems... then as i was cruisin along about 55-60 the engine just shut of, the bike had lights on still so it had some power, but when i tried to start it, it tried to turn over a few times and then the battery was drained... so the battery held the charge for a while, thats why i figured it was the alternator... does that change your thinkin?

 

It might be the alternator, yes. Just use a multimeter and check those things out. There's also a multimeter test you can do on your stator to see if it's bad.

 

Had the same problem. Chances are it is the regulator / rectifier.
battery was OK and so was the alternator. Replaced with aftermarket
reg. / rectifier and runs great now. http://www.bikebandit.com/product/A3390319
Check previous threads for more info on this problem.