Well, "Hi," and welcome to the club! You DO know that having plunged in this far, that you are now infected with an incurable disease, don' cha? These old bikes are nothing, if not addicting. There's a whole world that attaches to them, and a language to become familiar with.
First off, let me suggest you get ahold of a Service Manual for your model bike. You din't say what model it is that we're talking about, so that could be any of about four different models, if you're even speaking Harley-Davidson. You mentioned Harley only as where you bought the battery, but Springfield Indian doesn't have any dealers, anymore, and 6v. Harley batteries have been known to be used to lend a little Milwaukee Magic to tired, old Indians!
Okay, I looked and found your other post. You have a 48FL. Great! First year "Panhead," last year Big Twin (what we call all the 61 and 74 and 80 Harleys, though different models over the years) to come from the factory with a Springer fork. Yours is a highly-desired "crossover year," coveted by collectors of Harley-Davidsons. You know the type: they hafta have an example of the first, the last, & the rarest of each type of whatever they're collecting.
Your Panhead is overhead valve (an "OHV" around here) and the manual you want is the factory 1948-57 Service Manual for Big Twins. They were called "Hydra-Glides," beginning in 1949 with the change to a more modern hydraulic fork. Your fork is a leftover from the previous, "Knucklehead" model, iron-headed, Big Twin (1936-47).
The bikes were
basically unchanged, but dubbed "Duo-Glide" when they got shocks on the rear in 1958. Panhead Duo-Glides were made through 1964, then got electric starters, finally 12 volts, and were called "Electraglides" (notice: no hyphen in "Electraglide:" Hydra-Glide, Duo-Glide, Electraglide).
Back to yor prollum, you have a 6 volt model "32E" unregulated generator on that 48 Pan. The only "control" is a Delco automobile horn relay (I kid you not!) that closes when the engine starts and the generator tickles its coil, and is supposed to open, so that the battery that it has been charging doesn't drain in a few minutes to ground back through the generator's coils. When the dashboard switch is turned to "lights," a third brush inside the generator is connected, and extra power is provided to the system. The third brush is actually adjustable, by loosening it and sliding it this way or that, under the end cap of the generator there on the lower front of the engine, near your left toes, when mounted on it.
When you get a Panhead Service manual, all the diagnostic and service procedures for checking electrical system and generator output are covered in there, all the way to taking the generator apart and testing each of its armature windings for an open circuit on something called a "growler," a specialized piece of equipment. Often, the only problem with an old "Three-brush" 32E generator can be traced to the carbon brushes on that left end leaving enough of themselves behind as it rotates that the armature coils become connected together. That's cleaned out with a hacksaw blade, judiciously applied between the armature commutator segments that the brushes run on.
All parts are available, on the web, through eBay, and "all over," for these Old Harleys. If you're not up, or into such a rebuild, there are plenty of enthusiast/entrepreneurs more than willing to take your generator and either rebuild yours or exchange it for one already rebuilt. (a side note: if your generator has the little, brass ID tag on it, that alone makes it more valuable than a new one, or a rebuilt one that has lost its own)
You'll find repair and restoration people who specialize in every aspect of our Old Harleys, from seats and saddlebags to speedometers and electrical, to motors and transmissions. You can do it all yourself, and you'll get plenty of advice if you ask for it, right here or on the other specialized websites for the various models, frequented by people who've "been there, done that."
Take
all advice you get on the internet with a grain of salt until you grow to know the ropes, and with whom you are dealing, but like I said, you might as well call the wife and kiddies and tell them you'll be late for dinner. A lot. You've gone and done it, now! It's like life: it's a terminal disease. No one gets out of it alive! But I could think of worser things to suffer from.
BTW, here's a tutorial I wrote long ago here on the ins-and-outs of hand shift, foot clutch. It may give you a tip or two:
Handshift Help
You can look up "anything" in the over 32,000 posts already in the archives of this forum, just by deciding on some key words and spending some time in "Search," above.
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