Topic: ghost in the machine?!?!

[cb500 maniac]

ok, so thursday i snapped my throttle cable, but luckily i was in front of my dad's house, so i pushed it in back of the house and left it there over the weekend while i was on a fishing trip. during the weekend we had a torrential downpour here in ohio, and the bike got drenched. monday afternoon i get back into town, replace the throttle cable, and the damn thing wont start. put volts meter on the points, and was only getting about 5 volts when open, but the battery was pretty badly drained by then, so not sure. im wondering if maybe the storm just forced some water where it shouldn't have gone, and maybe i just need to wait for it to dry out? my and my dad worked on it for over an hour before it got dark and we gave up.  someone out there had this happen? maybe just give me a check list of things that i should go thru? it's a '72 cb 500-four. it ran like hell when i parked it, so im thinking the storm definitly had something to do with it. any and all advice would be greatly apriciated.


                  thanks guys,
                        The Maniac

[smashme33]

 We don't have the same bike, but maybe I can still be of some assistance to you. I always have a prob if my CB650C gets rained on alot. One thing(from my experience) that is helpful is to have a can of electrical contact cleaner. That stuff is great at drying your electrics and getting ya going. Check fuses, too. It's not all that uncommon for a short to happen with all that H20, especially since strong storm winds can cause rain to be forced into areas of the bike containing electric components. Hope I helped a little.

[TwoTired]

5 volts across the open points is not enough to get the coils to spark the plugs.
You need a decent battery to get these things running, as they don't generate much, if any, power at engine cranking speeds.

Charge the battery and try again.

A fully charged battery wiil electric crank for about 90 seconds.

My rule, is that if it hasn't caught in 60 seconds of cranking, switch to kick start, so the battery will have enough juice to fire the spark plugs.

If you electric crank until it won't anymore, the battery voltage will likely be too low to fire the spark plugs.  Then it's hopeless until the battery is rejuiced.

let us know...

[rab1dwolf]

might also be a good idea to talk to the bike and apologize for letting it get lonely and wet.

My bike always works better after apologizing to it and drying it off.  of course charging the battery would probably help first....they get cranky when they are hungry.

[jdpas29]

compressed air or just a good fan sat next to the bike overnight may work wonders for your problems.  some of the sleeves that hold wires may be full of water.  if there is a short, it will remain until dry.

[Bob Wessner]

during the weekend we had a torrential downpour here in ohio,

You sure did! Drove through several of them between Deleware and I-270 on I-71, could barely see!! I agree with trying to get it out in the sun, seat off or open, tank off and fan would be good also. See what that does for starters.

[cb500 maniac]

ok, well i'm on my way over there right now to try and get it running before work, she's been out in the sun (with a rain cover on this time) for 3 days now, i'll give the compressed air a try, i noticed water pouring out of one of the sleves yesterday. wish me luck!
 

[cb500 maniac]

kick ass, it started right up (i guess it forgave me for leaving it out in the rain) just put new skins on the front wheel, kenda dominators. turns out the yahoo i bought it off of but a 4.1-19 REAR directional tread dunlop tire on the front, when it takes a 3.25-19. anyway, here's a tip for people with new tires, theres this super-slick stuff called mold release imbedded in the rubber from the manufacturing process: put 100 miles or so on them before you try taking curves that scrape your footpegs on the pavement, the front end will fall right out from under you. now i'm off to order my 4:1 exhaust and pawn my old 4:4 off on my sister's boyfriend.