1971 Honda 175cc Cafe Build

"UV radiation in a welding arc will burn unprotected skin just like UV radiation in sunlight." And now I know why my face has been burning all day.

Got some good fab work done on a battery tray last night. A couple more little brackets to make on it tonight and I'll have some pictures posted. Arter driving all over town looking for a battery, and only finding $50 rip offs, decided I'm gonna run this $10 5ah battery http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003LNYXSI/ref=pe_175190_21431760_C1_cs_sce_3p_dp_i1

Same one I run on my xs650, so I know it'll hold up to a hell of a lot of vibrations. All the electronics will easily be hidden under the seat hump...which is awesome.
 
What year XL125 forks are those? All the ones I've seen have the wheel mount holes offset and not at the bottom of the fork lower itself.
 
I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I think I do remember swapping ou the lower tree from the stock fork and using that instead of the XL lower...I could be wrong though, whatever I did, it works now. I can get some closer pictures if that's help you. No idea what year XL it was though.
 
What I mean is that you said you swapped the whole front end off the XL125, which would mean triple tree and forks to me. But it doesn't look like those forks are off an XL125 at all. So I was curious as to what year XL125 that was off of or if those are different forks altogether.
 
Oh my bad! It was a XL175 I pulled the front end from. The forks looked just like these - http://www.dirtbikerider.us/Pics17/20060604-1149416042399-1974-Honda-XL175.jpg'
 
these are going to be great. I'm subscribed. ..................got any info on the cb750 in the background?
 
dcbryan said:
Oh my bad! It was a XL175 I pulled the front end from. The forks looked just like these - http://www.dirtbikerider.us/Pics17/20060604-1149416042399-1974-Honda-XL175.jpg'

Ah bummer. I bought an triple tree for a XL125 off eBay since it worked for you. Luckily I only paid $5 for it.
 
Alright boys, gather 'round!

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Hey guys, now that I've got that engine back together and back in the frame, I've finally had time to hook up some wiring and see if it'll start. After some trouble shooting I figured out I was blowing fuses every time I turned the key. Any ideas on where to look for the short?

Thanks for the help.
 
dcbryan said:
Hey guys, now that I've got that engine back together and back in the frame, I've finally had time to hook up some wiring and see if it'll start. After some trouble shooting I figured out I was blowing fuses every time I turned the key. Any ideas on where to look for the short?

Thanks for the help.

The ignition switch maybe
 
Also, I guess I'm lacking a fundamental understanding of what causes a fuse to blow. Obviously if more than 15amps go through it, then it pops. But if say, I have power shorting out to the frame, how does that cause an increase in amperage?
 
start off by unplugging everything you can - but if there's a short somewhere that might not stop it. Do you have the entire bike wired up, or just the ignition? Most likely you have a positive wire/connection grounding out.
 
Big Rich said:
start off by unplugging everything you can - but if there's a short somewhere that might not stop it. Do you have the entire bike wired up, or just the ignition? Most likely you have a positive wire/connection grounding out.

Good idea. Right now I have everything but the lights and handlebar switches hooked up. So - ignition, ign coil, condenser, rectifier, generator. No starter on this bike, so I don't have to worry about that. In the morning, I'll just unplug everything but the ignition on see if still blows.
 
Do you have a multimeter and a wiring diagram? If so, check all the positive wires for continuity to the negative post on the battery. Shouldn't have any.......
 
Big Rich said:
Do you have a multimeter and a wiring diagram? If so, check all the positive wires for continuity to the negative post on the battery. Shouldn't have any.......

Yeah I have both. Checking continuity, you're full of great ideas.
 
Got the electrical problems sorted out. So dumb. I had the black wire that was coming out of the ignition switch grounded. So as soon as the switch was tripped the 12v was grounding to the frame.

Got the carbs set enough to keep it idling. There's quite a bit of smoke when it runs, which I'm hoping will burn off.

Anyway, nice to know I put the engine back together right.
 
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