I have a 1983 Honda CB550C, that runs great, but I am having issues with the battery not charging. I have replaced the battery and rectifier. On a fully charged battery 12.6 volts, I start the bike and the voltage immediately drops to 11.99volts. taking the engine to 3000plus for a period of time changes the voltage very little to as high as 12.08volts. On this forum someone had a note that the black wire from the switch only had 11 volts and that is what I have. I have disassembled the ignition switch, cleaned everything and it only raised the voltage to 11.5. First question is, will this low input voltage from the switch let the charging system develop the 13.5 plus voltage to charge a battery. Secondly, since I can’t find the reason for this low voltage in the black wire from the switch, would it be possible to run a new wire with an on/off switch directly from the fully charges battery to the black wire that came from the switch. I would then remove the wire from the switch. Hope that would let the battery be charged.
