I'm no mechanic, but I have a 1991 softail chopper, and a friend of mine said I need a new generator, runs fine, battery is new, just won't start without a jump. I've been looking for replacement part but there's a lot that pops up, but I have no idea what to order. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

This bike doesn't have a generator but rather a stator\rotor style alternator. Check Ronnie's parts fiche for part numbers, but best thing to do is go to the Electrical forum and follow the troubleshooting stickies.

 

Before you go out and troubleshoot with your wallet, do some simple things..

Charge the battery and have it load tested, it doesn`t matter if the battery is new, they make bad ones all the time...

Clean every electrical connection in the starting circuit, battery cable terminals, battery posts, starter connection, ground cable.

Until you do all these things, you are wasting your time on troubleshooting.

Stop listening to whoever told you the bike needs a new generator...

 

As already suggested, diagnose your actual problem, don't guess! For starters, a new battery is most unlikely to be fully charged, regardless of what you were told when you bought it, so remove it from your bike and charge it fully, using a proper charger, not a tender. Then you will be better placed to follow the advice above.

 

the FSM is your friend, got one.
if not, i see what i got but J&P cycle has a pretty good tech service write up on it, might be on another machine but the same.