I have a 1975 Honda CB500T project that is almost complete. I know the 500T wasn’t the greatest bike ever to grace American pavement, but I digress… With a charged battery I have no problem starting the bike and running around town, but after a hour or two of run time the bike when cold, won’t start even though the headlight and turn signals & etc. work. After charging it up again it will start and run. When it does run and I throttle up I notice only the neutral light on the column barely glows any brighter than at idle and the headlights don’t really brighten up at all. Maybe this doesn’t happen on all bikes and I thought maybe this is an indicator it isn’t producing much electricity of it’s own , but relying solely on the battery? I am not sure what to check first for the charging issue. I am running Mike XS 650 coils at 4 ohms if that makes a difference in the juice usage in the bike.
Thanks ahead for any input!
Hey – Sounds like you have a charging issue. Probably a faulty stator or rectifier. Check the voltage on your battery with the bike off and with the bike running. With it running the voltage should be over 13v. If not you have a charging issue and need to isolate the problematic part and replace it.