I just bought a 94 Vn750 and the previous owner didn't take care of it. He broke off they key in the ignition and then started using a screwdriver to start the bike. The bike also backfired quite a bit from the left exhaust. I replaced the ignition, regulator, and brought a brand new battery because he had the wrong battery in it. Now I'm running into the problem where the bike wont start unless it's jumped. The bike will run fine for a few minutes and then die. This is my first bike and I'm at a loss here. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Wet cell battery? Should probably have it tested, a new battery shouldn't need jumped.

AGM type battery is best for this bike, it hates low voltage.

Hook up a voltmeter to your new battery while it's off, and while the bike is running (rpms should be maybe 3k rpm? higher than your 1k rpm idle, anyway). The voltage should be much higher (14v) when the bike is running because the stator and rectifier/regulator are generating the power to run the bike as well as recharge the battery for the next start. If your voltage is tapering off slowly while the bike is running, then your charging system is messed up. The stator is a common failure point on this bike, and is the reason a lot of them sit for a long time and are then sold off.

It's one of the gel batteries. I was with my buddy and we tested it when we first got it and once we got it running. Everything was showing up fine at that point of course. I know we had to start out with a screwdriver(before I swapped the ignition) and I think the ignition wasn't fully disengaging and creating a drain and killed the battery. I'm headed back over tomorrow to look at it some more and I'll actually be able to use a multimeter and check it all.