I have a vstar 1100 that kept burning head lights and at the same time the battery would not hold a charge.
Evan sugested that the problem might be the battery , if the battery was bad enough it would allow the charging system to over charge and that would burn lights. so i went out a got a new battery(W-Mart)
and that seemed to fix it but it did not last.After three or four weeks the battery stared to not hold a charge.
I now have a second new battery(EXITE) and want to make sure it keeps on running.
I charged the new battery for ten hours at one amp,put in the bike and started the bike.
After the bike stared i checked the charging and it showed 17volts so i turned the bike off( i thuoght that was to high) so i started and stopped the bike several times over a few hours and checked the charge rate and it was different every time but allways over 14 volts, is that normal or does it sound like a rectifier.
17 volts is WAY too high. 14v at higher RPMs isn’t uncommon, but at an idle it is a little more than expected. Rectifier is a likely culprit and is the first thing I would investigate and replace.