Update time! *Out of beer.... cracks open a Dr. Pepper instead...* Remember that I am almost certainly ignorant about everything I am about to talk about.
I'll start with, the bike doesn't start. Part of me hoped it would be one of those stories of, "wow, I just cleaned the carbs and it kicked right up". That was not the case here. Lets go back to how I got there.
Here is what I did yesterday. I Installed the Airbox and Carbs with the new Airbox boots from Paul Gabor. If I had to do that with 30 year old boots, you would probably find me at the bottom of a river somewhere. Made sure the fit between the Filter and airbox was nice and tight. Installed the carbs using a method I saw on a thread here somewhere using a large clamp to get the rubbers back on the head. *curse words and an hour later* I changed the oil and filter, hooked up new fuel line and in-line filter from DCC from the tank to the carbs. By then my Father in law showed up and checked the old battery. It had some charge in it (somehow) so took it in, checked the levels and charged it up. He used some hi speed charger, got it to over 12v. He knows more than I do so I said go for it. I was just planning on kicking it anyways.
Pulled the spark plugs, they didn't look that bad at all. I cleaned em up and gapped them, put them back. The battery is now hooked up at this point, but when we put the key in and turn it, no idiot lights, headlight, nothing. Now for me, I have no idea if this battery is crap or not. He told me it's hold the charge over 12v so I'm thinking, even if its half dead, I should be getting some sort of light somewhere. So by this time it's too dark to go looking through all of the wiring.
First problem, I turn the fuel on, and my (I believe #2) carb overflows. Looks like I'm going to have to wrestle them off again and fix the float and/or valve. Anyways, I know the jets are clean and that there is gas in the bowls so I just turn the fuel off, clean the spilled gas up and we think we should at least get something. I give it a few kicks, he gives it a few kicks. Does not sound like its doing anything at all. We can't hear anything that sounds like its getting spark. So we pull the point cover and we see that one of the points isn't really moving. So I decide to pack it up for the night, do some research at home, and tackle the points in the morning.
Today, I read up on cleaning and setting the points. I go buy a point file, clean em up, set them to the gap stated in the Clymer manual. I turn the crank and the points are now going back and forth. Give it a few kicks, still sounds the same, nothing really going on. I decide to start looking into whats going on with the idiot lights not turning on. I find the fuse box, and wow, there is this short fuse in there barely touching the other side, one has melted the plastic around the ends of it, and I'm like crap. I really don't know what to do when it comes to electrical work in cars or bikes. Like, I can check if a fuse is blown and know to replace it with the right fuse, but that's about it. So I decide to just take a lot of pictures (I know everyone wants pictures) and see what I can find out. It looks as though the ends of a few of the fuses holders have lost their solder and are most likely not connecting to anything in the box.
Now there are so many things I don't know but this is what is going on in my head right now. Are these fuses only for lights or is this what's keeping it from starting? Are they even needed to start the engine using the kickstarter?
Next, I'm going to need to learn how check the coils to see if they are any good. I know those are definitely needed for it to run. Now, I still don't really know how they work (yet) but I just know those are needed to get spark to the plugs.
Next I'm thinking, well if the idiot lights don't turn on, does the bike know that the key is turned on and that the killswitch is on? If not, and these fuses are making it seem as though there is no key, and the killswitch is off, then that could be the cause.
I'm definitely going to search the forum, my manual, and the Honda manual for any helpful information but right now I'm kinda stumped as for what I should be searching for. Is it fuses, coils, ground, points, or everything? I'll also be looking up how to read the wiring diagram without going cross-eyed and learning how to test all of these different parts in the not running state that it's in.
Any Help is greatly appreciated. Trying to keep my motivation after running into electrical problems.
I will post pics after this post of everything I thought might be relevant.
--Paul
