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Hey there guys,
New to the board here in southeastern MA. Picked up a winter project for ultra cheap money about four weeks ago. A 1973 Honda CB450. Not sure how to tell the K#, I think it's a K6, you guys would know better than me. Planning on it being an ultra low bucks project.
I believe the bike sat outside for more than 10 years. Condition is pretty bad as you can see from the pictures below. I'm not planning on resurrecting the chrome, I'm thinking painting the steel and giving the aluminum bit of polish to a dull sheen. Fenders will go, seat will be minimized, probably get a small set of gauges and headlight, and make some trick pegs and levers. The tank will take some craftiness, you can see the dent in the left side. Previous owner gave me the idea of making that into a knee hole and then do the same on the other side, I like that idea.
First thing I did when I got it home was to see if I had movement in the engine. Up on the center stand and go to put it in gear, no shifter! Crap! Ok, lets get on the kick starter then... No luck, not moving a bit and I'm not forcing it! So I assume the engine was locked up, better to be safe than sorry. I pulled the plugs and soaked the pistons in Mystery Oil for four days.
During that time I got a Honda gear shifter off a buddy just to get the thing in gear. Put in gear, try to move the rear wheel by hand, nothing. Try that in all gears, still nothing. Back to the kick starter, give a push nothing... Then I stand up on the thing (about 200lbs) give a little bounce, BOOM!, she breaks free!!!! That was huge.
I know the first thing I have to do is try and get her runnin' but these fenders and crash bars gotta go! Then I got the seat and tank off. I also got on eBay and ordered a sealed battery and key right away, should've got two keys by the way. Battery from "1st_web_sales" and the key from "yourtrash-mytreasure". Highly recommend both these sellers.
So I haven't seen any spark when I kick it over so far. There's no solenoid and when I put the starter cable straight to the positive of the battery I get no reaction from the starter. So forgetting the electric starting system for now and just trying to see some spark from the kick system.
I have the new battery mounted and I cleaned the connections to the battery and the ground to frame connection. I then worked my way down the circuit to the coils, cleaning up the connections as I go. I have power going through the ignition switch and getting to the coils. I found I had a broken plug wire on the right side. I pulled the coils out and got everything removed from the coil mount. After pulling out the coils I found that I had no continuity through either plug boot!!! I should've checked that before tearing everything apart!!!
I found elsewhere guys cutting into the coils and soldering a new wire on the OEM coil. Since I had a bad wire and I had already cut the wire close to the coil I figure I'll give this a shot too. Worst case I go get a pair of XS650 coils.
Next two steps:
1. learn how to test my primary and secondary coils
2. find some plug wire that has a copper center lead, heard you can get them a lawnmower shops
My co-worker hooked me up with some new boots for the end of the cables that will connect to the plugs.
We don't need those resistors in those boots right?
Well using youtube I learned all about primary and secondary coils and how the system works, why you need a capacitor etc. Check out this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqrWQRJQY4A
From searching DTT I found that I in fact do need to have a resistor somewhere in the circuit. I'm just going to use resistor plugs.
So in hunting for metal core plug wires I found that a local tractor supply should have some, I'll be there tomorrow afternoon to pick some up. I'm also going to grab some new condensers while I'm there. I'm hoping to locate a pair of resistor plugs (NGK BR8EIX) while I'm out and about too. Once I get some material I can solder the new wire into the coil and and see if I get any spark.
So I found some old metal core wires at a local tractor supplier. The lady behind the counter was cool; I tell her what I'm looking for and what they going on and she pulls out an old fish bucket full of plug wire cut-offs. She finds two the length I need and says, "you can have them". Hopefully get these integrated tonight. No luck so far finding the NGK Iridium plugs locally so far, may need to order them online.
Nothing really new to report. I got the soldering completed on the coils today. I'm going to tape them up and test them; if all is ok then I'll close them up with some epoxy. I'm going to try J-B Plastic Weld Plastic Repair Epoxy Putty. If anyone has any experience with this and if it's crap please let me know.
So at that point I should get spark. I know I have 12V at the coil and I'm replacing the wires, the caps, and the plugs. If this doesn't work then I'm going to assume I have an issue within the coils and order some of the XS650 coils off MIKESXS. I did test the condenser with a meter and it appears to be fine. Actually I'll replace that for $9 before spending $50 on new coils.
I skipped the Iridium plugs for now and just picked up some cheap NGK BR8ES'. So I still have resistance in the circuit, just at the plug now instead of inside the cap.
Worked on the spark again tonight but made very little progress. Spent well over an hour troubleshooting why I didn't have 12V at the coils when I put them back in the frame. Turns out it was the run switch being "off"! :-[
Still not seeing spark on either side. I made sure the condensers cases have a good ground. Primary and secondary coils have 12V. Shouldn't I still see spark even if the points aren't right?
Hmmm, thinking about it more... The collapse of the primary field causes the secondary field to increase in voltage. It's the points that cause the primary field to collapse... I have voltage at the points but not the same at each side, one is 11.30V and the other is 12.37V. That certainly doesn't sound right. Coils, condensers, and points are all that's left that's be about $85 I'm guessing. Might have no choice.
Taking a closer look at the points and see they're corroded to shit, definitely need replacement. Since I don't have any new ones in my hand though I'm going to clean these ones up the best I can. Well that took some time...
OK, Cleaned up, reinstalled, and started metering out. Found the blue side coil appears to be shorted to ground probably on the mount, not much for those wires. Leaving that disconnected for now.
YELLOW SIDE HAS SPARK! HA! 8)
Next time - fix ground issue on blue side and set points. Time for bed.
I haven't completed it yet really. I put the tester in and gave it a few kicks and it wasn't looking good. I'm hoping to get the starter running for that. I'm not sure that kicking it over produces the same results as the starter would, although it should...
Last night I got spark out of the other side too! Now I know I have two operational coils, along with the condenser, points, and new plug wires. I took the stock carbs off a while ago but last night finished cleaning them up a bit and mounted them back on the bike. I sprayed some starting fluid in the carbs and kicked it over a few times but didn't really expect anything out of it. I know I have to adjust the points and make sure they're opening at the right time. Once that is done I'll rig up a temp gas container and see if I can get some life from the engine...
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Crap! Ok, lets get on the kick starter then... No luck, not moving a bit and I'm not forcing it! So I assume the engine was locked up, better to be safe than sorry. I pulled the plugs and soaked the pistons in Mystery Oil for four days. 
