Hello all,
I recently started having trouble with the electric starter on the 64' CB77. It's worked great for a couple years now, but recently it would only work when the battery was fully charged, and if you ran it too many times without going on a long ride and charging up the battery, it would turn over slower and slower and stop working and you'd have to kick start. Now it won't work at all, even after I hook up the battery to the trickle and charge it up.
The bike starts every time with the kick, and runs very well. My first assumption, when it was intermittent and tied to the battery charge, was that my 2-year old battery might be a bit worn out. But now that the electric starter doesn't work at all, even with the battery "fully charged" I'm not as sure about the cause.
I suppose it could still be the battery, I know some batteries, as they age, never fully charge to the same strength as when they were new. However, the bike still starts and runs with this battery, so.... why wouldn't it engage the electric starter as well?
Can someone tell me how to test this? I could probably test the battery voltage with a multimeter but I'm not sure what voltage it should show (assuming 12v right?). Is there any way to engage the starter from an alternate power source, like.... the wall outlet, so I can be sure I'm sending the right amount of electricity to it? Any other ideas/tricks that I don't know about would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Electric Starter Not Working
send it to Texasyou might consider sending it off to folks referenced here: they did a super job on my starter...
http://www.honda305.com/forums/starter- ... %20rebuild '62 CB77. "It's a rider."
A fully charged battery should show about 12.7VDC. Turn the headlight for about 15 minutes and recheck battery voltage. If it drops below 12VDC the problem is probably the battery.
Hold the voltmeter on the battery and actuate the starter. The voltage should not drop below about 9.5/10VDC. If you suspect the battery try a "jump" from a good battery. If you use another vehicle do it with the motor off. You can run a wire from the positive post of the battery directly to the starter which will bypass the starter solenoid. Use a heavy gage wire and expect a big spark on contact . Be careful because this wire will get hot. This can also be done with a set of jumper cables - negative to the frame positive to the starter. If you determine the battery is good then the problem may be the starter. It is fairly easy to disassemble and check. Note that batteries fail rather quickly if the are unused for long periods and allowed to discharge. Thanks for the recommendations cadman, I'll try them today. I have a 12V battery on another bike that's great, I'll run some jumpers from that and also test my battery with the meter.
About 7 months ago I bought another motorcycle, this issue with the CB77 started after I'd been riding that one more and riding the CB77 less and.... letting it sit. So it could have been neglecting the battery. I noticed the same thing back when I had a little 6V Honda S90. I took a 3 week trip, came back, and the battery was SIGNIFICANTLY less powerful. I actually just found the problem. I found it strange it wasn't attempting to draw power at all, didn't dim the lights or anything, and I found a busted wire that was getting caught against the tank and fork from turning the wheel. Happened on my old S90 too, should have thought to look there sooner.
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