What Next?

OK, in my last post I mentioned that I was going to try and top up my battery. After an overnight charge on a 1 amp float charger, it only got up to about 11.36V and was falling (with nothing attached to it). The battery definitely seems toast. I took it to the auto parts store and asked them to load test it. They said that they don't load test motorcycle batteries. But they did have some other sort of tester, which they attached to my battery. It said that I have 0 cold cranking amps. The battery is only 6 months old, but I guess I have to replace it anyway.

Another potential problem, my new voltage regulator/rectifier is allowing my DC voltage to climb to over 16V at higher RPMs. I am hopeful that this has something to do with the bad battery. But I'll have to wait and see.

Got the new battery, filled it with acid, and gave it an initial charge. I put it on the bike, and thought that everything would be good to go. But, it wasn't.

The good news is that the issue that I was observing with the regulator/rectifier unit was indeed caused by the bad battery. With a new battery in the circuit it now doesn't go above about 14V. The bad news is that it ran like crap again. It didn't want to idle and it had no acceleration power.

I pulled the spark plugs. The right plug looked fine. The left looked dark and wet. I pulled the cover off of the points housing. The right cylinder points were sparking, the left were not. I pulled the left plug wire off with the engine running. No change. Clearly the left cylinder is not firing at all. I started to suspect the coil. As far as I know, you can't buy a new replacement coil identical to the original. You either get to modify or buy an old coil. And they aren't cheap. But, before assuming the coil was bad, I wanted to check for wiring problems. I undid my charging system wiring mod (the one that bypasses the headlight switch). No change. I pulled the tank and checked the wires to the coil. I noticed that the connector for one of the wires wasn't fitting snugly. And as I unattached and reattached it a couple of times, one of the connectors crumbled. I created a new pigtail to bypass the bad connector. Boom, I get spark on the left.

Well, it was after dark and getting late so I haven't done a thorough test. But my one trip around the block went great, the best power from the bike yet. Of course I need a longer test, but I am encouraged to say the least. I will consider redoing the charging system wiring mod. And the clutch needs adjustment. But I am shooting for a trip to Backfire Moto tomorrow night.