HondaLavis
Senior Member
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It's nothing personal; the other one came first.
Posts: 451
Plano, TX
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No need to be hostile, cavie mike. The great thing about a forum is that it is a collaboration of brainstorms. Sometimes you need a consensus to point you in the right direction; sometimes you need a variety of ideas. It's hard to tell if you're helping or hurting until it's all said and done with the problem found.
Here's the method behind my madness: His bike is an '87. How old is the battery? If the fluid level up? How often does he run it or charge it? Could he be suffering from severe sulfation? Could one of the lead plates be cracked or broken due to vibration or corrosion? As batteries get used, the plates shed their active material. This collects at the bottom, and will EVENTUALLY short out the plates. This is true of ALL lead acid batteries. So if his battery is old, that could be an easy culprit. Battery voltage is also one of the absolute easiest things to check. From there, the way I interpreted "barely got it running" was that he had to crank on the starter for a while - ok, so I'm assuming. He got it running, so wouldn't a properly working charging system bring that battery up to speed? Nope, the bike stalled - no more sparkies. Maybe his rotor isn't putting out what it should, and that battery fell off it's last leg. Maybe his battery is shorted out internally, so his charging output wouldn't have mattered. Maybe something else... Cavi, I'll give you this: charging system problems are a lot less common. Just because it was the first thing that popped into my head doesn't mean he should be checking it first.
Drums also said he already checked the connections under the seat and as tank. This leads us to believe that it could be something less obvious. Maybe his ignition switch or his solenoid are giving out after 25 years. Corroded internal contacts on his ignition switch would also fit the given symptoms.
Hopefully you have a multi-meter. Check straight voltage on your battery first. If that's good, load test. Then check the contacts on your ignition switch using an ohmmeter. There are 4 wires: red, orange, gray, and brown. In the OFF position, resistance between any wire should be infinite. In the ON position, resistance should be low between red and orange as well as between gray and brown. In the P position, resistance should be low between red and brown. Have fun, and give us an update!
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