Topic: 350F Electrical Shenanigans

[wingman]

This is a pretty noob first post - I look forward to helping others and not creating problems with my bike!

I was adding some drag bars to my recently aquired 350f when I noticed tonight that a previous owner had made some "modifications" to the harness - really it just looks like another harness was correctly spliced in (abeit with bad soldering).  I fixed that but in the process came across a yellow and red striped wire that was exposed.  It shorted on the handlebars (I know, I know, I was testing out the rest of my wiring job), and heard a pop and then lost all ecletrical power.  Nothing.  No lights, etc. 

Where should I start looking to get power back?

[mattcb350f]

Welcome aboard!

The engineers at Honda anticipated this type of problem in their design.

...There are fuses in the wiring attached to the airbox behind one of the side covers...left I think 

Check them out, I bet one of them is blown. There should also be spare fuses attached to the cover itself.

 Matt.

[wingman]

Thanks!  I don't have any in the airbox covers but I will grab some tomorrow. 

As an aside, does anyone know what that wire does?  Does anyone have an exploded view of the starter button assembly?

thanks again!

[Spanner 1]

Yellow/red sends 'hot' to the starter solenoid when you push the start button.
The Main fuse needs to be a 15 amp...

[TwoTired]

Yellow/red sends 'hot' to the starter solenoid when you push the start button.

Not on the 350.  According to Clymer (shudder) and the Chilton manuals I have, the start button provides ground to the yel/red.  Black (+12v) goes to the other side of the solenoid small wire connections.  The starter button provides ground the the solenoid for its activation.

Of course, if the bike isn't stock, who knows where yel/red is supposed to have on it or where it goes?

[Spanner 1]

Wow, I'm freaked-out by that 'cos up to K6 the yellow/red passed ground to the solenoid...after K6, yellow/red passed +12v to the solenoid !! I picked the wrong one for the 350 !!

[wingman]

Yellow/red sends 'hot' to the starter solenoid when you push the start button.

Not on the 350.  According to Clymer (shudder) and the Chilton manuals I have, the start button provides ground to the yel/red.  Black (+12v) goes to the other side of the solenoid small wire connections.  The starter button provides ground the the solenoid for its activation.

Of course, if the bike isn't stock, who knows where yel/red is supposed to have on it or where it goes?

I was confused by this as well.  If that was the case, wouldn't grounding that wire cause the starter to turn over?

My starter switch is a little confusing, anyone have pics of the inside of the switch? 

[TwoTired]

Find your starter solenoid.  Tell us the wire colors attached to it.  If one of them is black and has voltage when the key switch is on, then the yel/red must somewhere get grounded to make the solenoid activate.  The wire diagram says that device is the push button starter switch.

Simply grounding the yel/red wire won't do it unless the key switch is activated and applies power to the solenoid.

[wingman]

Got the starter to turn over and got everything sorted out.  It is a negative wire that actives the starter (wierd).  My problem now is that the bike won't run - it did two days ago when I started this little adventure.  I know I need to resync the carbs (the previous owner rebuilt them but never sync'ed them).  I have the kit, however, the bike won't start.  It turns over and I get a couple of pops from cylinder 1 and that is about it.  No amount of throttle or choke will get it started.  I pulled all 4 plugs - 1 and 4 were fouled badly, 2 and 3 were ok.  I just replaced them with new freshly gapped  plugs and still the same, cylinder 1 acts like it is gonna start but nothing.

Any suggestions from here?