About Rich Johnston Expertise I have honda repair experience on all vintage Hondas from 1972 through 1980. I worked in a Honda dealership while going to college and have experience in all types of honda motorcyle repair. I don't have any experience on other brands.
Experience
Education/Credentials BS degree in mechanical engineering, Honda technical school graduate of 1975
Question Hello and thank you for taking my question. I'm a new owner of a 1976 Honda CB 550F. The Bike was working perfectly for the past 6 months. I put a new battery in and the starter and all electrical was working great. Then the battery lost some charge and the starter had trouble turing over. So I put a charger on the battery while it was still on the Motercycle, I think at 2amp. This work, and the starter and electrical worked good. Then a few months later the same thing happened with the battery losing power. So I charge it again but I think I may have done it at 6amp's. This time the starter would not work, along with the turn signials and the horn. The lights all turn on and I can still kickstart the bike. But it seems that I may have fried a fuse or maybe the coil or something. I checked the three fuses and they look fine. I have hooked the charger directly to the bike and still get no response form the Starter, but do hear a buszing coming from what looks like a relay that says 5.7 + -. I looked in the manual I have a found that you are not suppose to charge the battery while conected to the bike. (Now I know!)So please let me know what I can do to fix the starter and the blinkers, and Horn. Thanks Rich Jonston for you expertise.
Answer Aaron, I'm not exactly sure how you symptoms are related so you may have more than one thing going on. First, charge the battery and put it back in the bike. Then check the voltage in the battery. If it's less than 12.5 volts the battery is bad.
If it's 13.5 volts, take a screwdriver or something and jump across the two main terminals on the starter solenoid. If the engine cranks over, the starter is working. Then check the power coming to the starter solenoid. THe handle bar switch grounds that circuit so the green and red wire (I think) is the ground. Check them with an ohm meter before you start grounding anything.
THere's a diode in the starter circuit, that prevents the starter from engaging unless the bike is in neutral or unless the clutch lever is pulled in. That diode could prevent the starter from working.
It's possible that you just ruined the battery. Batteries can't take too much charging current. They overheat and you can damage them internally. Take the battery to autozone or somewhere and see if you can get it checked.
