Topic: 1978 CB550K Starter button won't work

[bjornbrandt]

Hey all -- Proud owner of a 1978 Honda CB550K with 4,800 miles on it.
Never been a mechanic, but I can build you a house from scratch. Have extremely little knowledge of how an engine works, but in the last four days I have ascertained this much about my non-working starter assembly. Here is the information I have for y'all:
•Starter assembly when opened up has no corrosion.
•Kill switch works perfectly fine
•Headlight dims when you depress starter switch button
•I tested solenoid with screwdriver trick and it sparks and fires up the engine immediately
•Battery is at 12.8 and is brand new

The other thing is I have a feeling the charging system is potentially down. I have limited knowledge of electric and circuits, but I'm doing my best here. Tested the following:

RPM test at 2,3,4,5000 and recorded battery. Something is awry.
Tested field coil and it is between 4.6-5 ohms
Tested stator coil and it is at .1 ohms. Manual says .35 so not sure about that one....
Tested rectifier and seems fine

I included a couple of photos of her. Just rode 100 miles through the Catskill mountains yesterday, absolutely amazing. She purrs!

bjørn

[Oc Honda]

Start looking at poor grounds


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[Oc Honda]

I didn't know anything about building a bike until I dove head first 73 cb350F my little cafe hotrod I found that the stock wiring is garbage and stripped it and made my own custom harness


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[Oc Honda]

Make sure the stator is getting a good ground I think it a the green wire mine was terrible and had similar issues


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[calj737]

Hey Bjorn - do you have a question or an issue that you can explain? You listed information, but no symptom of your problem(s). What were the battery readings when tested through the RPM range?