Charging problem 02 300EX... help....

[Splashman]

So my quad runs great but it won't start without a jump. First I tried charging the battery. No luck. Next I took my bro's brand new battery out of his ZX-7, charged it and still no luck. So then I jumped the quad, then while it was running I removed the battery. It stayed running. I took my voltage meter and read voltage across the unhooked battery cables. I got 2.9 VDC. I would think this should be somewhere arround 14.0 VDC. So I got out the wireing digram and traced the wires back to the voltage regulator. Which from the way everything is wired I figured should be the single item which charges the battery. I read voltage off of the load side of the voltage regulator and I am still reading 2.9 VDC. Is this the way it is suppose to be? Or has the voltage regulator died? Could the altenator be the problem? I didn't see a way to read voltage off of the altenator. Maybe I could find a way. What should that read?

[RadRacer]

seems like an alternator problem to me. Same thing happend to my mom's van, charged the battery, but it was dead by the next day. Changed the alternator and it was fine, so that's what i think it is.

[Splashman]

ok I'll buy that. Now what to replace? I did an OHM reading threw the 3 windings , they are all equal so nothing is shorted. I'm wondering if its the pick up. I'm starting to lean away from the rectifier/ regulator because all that does is take the AC from the alternator and turn it into DC and it appears to be doing that. I'm just not getting enough juice.

But still I would like some confirmation that I should be getting 12-14 volts at the battery cables with out a battery hooked up and the quad running. Not the 3 volts that I am getting. Then I know somthing is wrong and it's not just a bogus battery.