Battery/ Charging issue + made worse by me

[n9643750]

Hello folks,

Thanks in advance for taking a look, I have found this site to be a great resource.

I am having two problems with my 2007 GZ250. Unfortunately I think I caused the second one while trying to rundown the original.

Yesterday I came out to ride the bike to work. It had been in the 40's the night before, but only two days since I had last ridden it. The starter spun, but the engine wouldn't turn over. The starter sounded strong, but I only tried it three or four times as the bike has always started right up. On the drive to work I remembered noticing the headlight flickering with engine idle a few nights ago and wondered if this isn't an electrical problem. Also, the previous owner of the bike told me he had to replace the battery twice in the last year so I began to suspect the charging system. After browsing the internet, I found this site. Wow! what a great resource, you guys are awesome! I downloaded the PDF of the shop manual and found multiple threads that reinforced the idea that batteries need to be charged fully before being installed initially. I don't know if this one or it's predecessor were.
With the day off today I decided I would try jump the bike from another one to see if the problem was electrical. Started right up. I let the bike run a bit and then took it around the block a few times. It ran for a total of about 20 minutes. Then I started following the sequence for testing the electrical system as found in the shop manual:

-no current leaks
-voltage across the battery is 12.4v
-with the engine running at idle the voltage across the battery is 13.7v
-with the engine revved the voltage drops to 13.4v (shouldn't it go up?)

I pulled off the gas tank and started the next steps, however this is where I am less sure of myself. I disconnected what I believe was the stator coil coupler (black coupler with three yellow wires, picture attatched) and started checking for resistance.

-across the female side of the coupler, all possible combinations read .8 ohms

Then I reinstalled the fuel tank and started the bike (from it's own battery).

-voltage readings across those same terminals read around 60v

After killing the power I put my multimeter in diode mode. I have never used this mode before and wonder if I did the next test correctly. When I looked at the diagram in the manual for testing the regulator/ rectifier, it wasn't clear to me which side of the couplers I was supposed to be testing (socket or pin). I started testing things and getting numbers that look nothing like the manual's
-my numbers were: 1000 for R-B/W and around 480 for R to each of the Y as well as B/W to each of the
Y
-additionally the multimeter would only register a reading in one direction so I could not reverse the
probes as suggested in the manual's chart.

Here's where I think I blew it.

Along the way towards figuring out what to test, I connected the two male pins inside the black coupler and got a small spark.

After putting everything back together to call it a night, I turned the key to "on," and now there is no power whatsoever. Nothing. I tested the voltage at the battery, still 12.4.

Did I fry something in the electrical system? Am I overlooking something? What do I not know about testing diodes?

Guess this is a learning opportunity.



Thanks again for looking this over, any advice is hugely appreciated,

Brandon