79 XT500 vintage?

Anyway, here's my dilema...


I have a 79 XT500. I want to make this a dedicated ice bike. It has electrical problems that I can not track down. It keeps on blowing the rectifier. I've tried changing the CDI and stator and neither worked.

I want to strip this bike down, take all the heavy parts off of it and eliminate all the elctrical components to the bare minimum. I don't want lights and don't care about anything having to do with the charging system if I don't need it.

How do I go about this? What compenents do I get rid of? Do I need a different wire harness?

How do I make this bike operate on the bare minimum of electrical components?

Correct me if I'm wrong... But doesn't the TT500 dual sport/endure/dirt bike have a very similar motor? I would assume that since it's a dirt bike, it doesn't have E-start, and all the fancy do-dads of the XT. Maybe you can scrounge around and find the magneto off a TT and get rid of the charging system entirely.

The TT is basically the XT except the XT was street legal.

What components would I ditch? Everything on the XT and swap over a TT wire harness and Magneto?

Hmmmmm