Hey Joha. I can pass along to you what little I have absorbed so far from the deluge of helpful information members here have given me and from what I learned.
For your smoking headlight, you should definitely post in the SOHC / 4 Bikes forum. I am willing to bet anything that there will be a member who can provide the right answers to your problems. You should check behind the headlight, maybe there are wires that touch from time to time...
For anything electrical, buy a multi-meter. That way you can read the strength of the current running through the wires and where they may not be running. I replaced the rectifier with a new one from Oregon Motorcycle Parts after frying some wires. I also took off the electronics panel from underneath the left panel so I could clean the harness and connectors and tape them back up if they were in poor condition. At least your wiring is decent if you can get the bike started, maybe you just need to go over all of the wires and check for exposed wires and bad connections.
