Topic: Please Help! Perfect riding weather and my Cb750 will not start.

[ultragoat]

Hi there, just a little background on my current problem. I bought a 78 CB750 a while ago. It was running okay and just had a few oil leaks and some engine grunge that needed cleaning. So I thought I'd take the engine out, take everything off of the frame, paint everything, clean it all up, and put it all back together again. Sounded easy enough at the time . Anyway, I finally got it all back together again, but now the bike won't start. I'm an extreme noob when it comes to the electrics and I'll be heading out to get a multimeter tomorrow but in the meantime I thought I'd ask (once again) the knowledgable folks here for some advice.

I just bought a brand new battery so I know (or I should say, I think) that's okay. The left side controls (horn, turn signals) are working. Idiot lights work. The headlight is not working and the electric start does nothing. Also, the kick start seems to be frozen but was just working a week ago when I didn't have a battery in it . Any thoughts?

[OldSchool_IsCool]

No headlight and no cranky cranky makes me thing the starter button or maybe the cable from the right hand control into the headlight bucket.  The operation of the start button is to turn the headlight off and spin the starter motor when pressed.  Since the headlight is never on, I suspect the cable was not connected correctly.

[campbmic]

Try to bump start? Might be an issue in the killswitch area?

[76CB5WI]

Take your meter and check for Battery to frame
and engine ground say neg frame lug to spark hole continuity.
Beep test everything.
Just to make sure your grounded you could have painted
over something but it does sound switch related.

[Nikkisixx]

Also, the kick start seems to be frozen but was just working a week ago when I didn't have a battery in it . Any thoughts?

Is it in gear?

[ultragoat]

Also, the kick start seems to be frozen but was just working a week ago when I didn't have a battery in it . Any thoughts?

Is it in gear?

I'm pretty sure it was in neutral (it wouldn't be the first time I overlooked the obvious), but I'll triple check that today.

Thanks for all the replies and advice. Is there anyway to test the RH control or bypass it to see if that is, indeed, the problem or am I just going to have to suck it up and buy another one?

[Duke McDukiedook]

Check you right hand control and connections to the bucket and check ground connections and then double check them.

[ultragoat]

When I first read your suggestions, I went out and cleaned the connections in the headlight bucket and still nothing. I did the same thing again this morning, and voila! it works. So that's the good news. Bad news is that the kicker is still stuck. I'm gonna have to do some research on this. Oh well, at least one less thing wrong with the bike now.

[ultragoat]

After a little research on this forum, I found that some people with similar kick starting problems pulled their plugs and then tried to kick start. So I pulled two of my plugs and it seemed to "unfreeze" the kick starter (now I just have to figure out why this did the trick ). Again, thanks to everyone for helping me out with these issues.