CB360 Cafe Project

I like the open look of the frame rails in the rear section, but after just a couple of rides around the neighborhood, I was getting splatter on my batt. and air filters. Not a big deal, but I can't imagine if it actually was wet out. I got a couple of ideas I'm gonna work on for a splash gaurd.
 
So I went to take my bike for a short test ride yesterday, after adjusting the floats sometime last week. I started out with an issue of my bike starting up on one cylinder, then after pulling the plugs and really just 'messing' with the bike for a few minutes, it would run great. So, after testing spark, and running through my wiring really quick (it all seemed good), I attributed the problem to fuel. I never did set the float height when I put the carbs back together. So, I went back and did that. When I got done, it fired right up and I was happy.

So, last night I went out to take a quick lap around the neighborhood, to reassure myself that I had solved a problem. When, I went to turn my ignition switch on (spst toggle), I realized that I hadn't turned it off last week. So, I kicked it over anyway. It started right up....on one cylinder. Bummer right? I started troubleshooting and pulled the plugs, put the dry plug that was firing into the other spark plug wire and tested the spark. It seemed that the spark was intermittent. To make things more confusing, I wasn't getting any spark on the side that was actually running. So, continuing my troubleshooting I checked the batt voltage and had no power.

So, now I know that the wiring harness that I made from scratch is imperfect. Still don't know where I'm shorting at, but has to be somewhere or else my batt wouldn't have drained. I don't have a batt charger and my batt tender took a shit. So, now that I live in KY I can do stuff like pull my lawn tractor up to my motorcycle in my front yard, because I don't have a garage and hook up the jumper cables.

Bike fired right up and ran great. Pulled the jumpers, back to one cylinder.

My charging/ignition system consists of: Late model CB400/4500 reg/rect combo, Dyna 3ohm coils, and a 12v 7ah SLA batt.

I let my tractor run with the jumpers hooked up for an hour or two, and the highest the batt got up to was ~7v. At that point I took it for another spin. Started up fine, but shortly after went back to running on one cyl.

So, I hooked it up to my jeep and got the charge up to ~11.5v, and it ran a lot better for the few minute ride I took. I wanted to ride more to charge it up, but it was getting dark and my headlight is on my workbench.

So, it's kinda odd that when my batt is not 100% that it will only fire on one cyl. When fully juiced it fires just fine. Do yo think that the 3 ohm coils are drawing sooo much current, that when there's not enough to go around, one just takes what's there?

I obviously have to find the reason why my batt is draining with the ign sw on, even though there is nothing to draw power. Unless the reg/rect combo draws some power when it has it's 12v switched to it through the blk wire? ???

I will continue to troubleshoot this weekend. Any offered advice would be appreciated.
 
What bothers me is that if I ever drain my batt out on the road, which is nearly inevitable (everyone gets a dead battery from time to time), I can't just get a jump, or bump, and go. I have to charge my batt to full before my bike will run???

That can't happen.
 
It sounds to me that you have a bad battery. If it's still only registering 7v after you have charged it off of the mower for a couple of hours and isn't getting any improvement in overall voltage, then there's a good chance that you have a bad cell. There are a few things you can check to make sure that everything else is working as it should. Of course get a maintainer first, it's $20 at Wal-Mart for the Schumacher brand one from back in the battery department. I use them on all of my bikes and haven't had one fail yet.

schumacher-mc-1-manual-trickle-charger.jpg


Hook it up and charge it overnight at a trickle charge until the light turns green. In the morning, pull it off, and see if your battery is holding full voltage (you'll need a small cheap multi-meter). If not, it's a bad battery. If so, then start your bike. You should be registering around 14v off of the battery. If that is the case your charging system is in tact and working. The bike will only fire on one with low voltage, that's what they do. It's a good opportunity to spend $40 and get a maintainer and a multi-meter. To me those are both very necessary pieces of equipment, and it should let you know what's up. I have a 360 myself with Dyna 3ohm coils, and it runs just fine off of nothing but a capacitor. Good luck man, hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the insight. It helps. I used to be a draftsman for a low voltage company, when they were short on techs, I would help out. So, I do have some electrical experience and tools. I will pick up a battery maintainer.

Batt could be a problem. I'll do some tests.

I did run some test when I switched to the CB400/450 reg/rect combo unit. I found:
1) 40-50vac max from the alt.
2) Couldn't get above 13vdc at any RPM on the batt. and that wasn't until ~4500rpm
 
Gotcha man. I put all of the info down since you never know who will stumble on the info later with a search and get some help. 13vdc should be good. That means that you are getting a good charge from your stator through the reg/rec, so that is good news. A dead battery is easy to fix in comparison. I would almost bet that this is what's causing it, but you won't know until you're able to trickle charge it and find out if the cells will allow the full 12v. Got anything you can steal a battery off of temporarily to test it :):wink wink::)?

On a side note, if you're ever looking for a good setup for a reg/rec in the future, I swear by this guy's products. I've used them on several builds and have consistently gotten 14vdc or better charge out of stock stators. Dunno what he does, but the site is cool anyway for the drool factor.

http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/

Here's the one I used. Pretty cool.

http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/VRRPM.html

Best of luck.
 
Thanks a lot.

The one thing that I don't like, is that even with a partial charge in the batt, 7v, the bike doesn't like to run right. That's just the way it is?

Btw, your 360 w/ the cap, is it a street bike? Running lights? How are your cold starts?
 
If you're still having 1 cylinder problems try running the bike with the points cover off. Those things short to the cover like crazy.
 
No doubt dirtbag. Nice call. I went through that when I was first getting it running. In fact that's one of the first things I did last night.
 
Not off hand. Scope out Dimecitycycles.com, the banner at the top of the page. They have the same ones. If you need a different size go to unifilter.com and see what's available.
 
Yes sir, if the voltage is low, it will misfire like crazy....intermittent spark, etc. It sucks. Yes my 360 is a street bike, 2 kicks with choke, fire, one kick open and she's running....after all the mods it took me forever to get to that point, but if everything else is set right, it works like a charm. All I am running is head and tail. Well that and the proprietary oiling system, but that's a different story.

Meet Gretta:

HPIM1201.jpg
 
Oh, yes, I didn't put two and two together. I have seen that beauty before. Amazing work!!
 
Well, I got a battery tender wired into my bike now. So I do plan on plugging this thing in on a regular basis. Which I don't like at all. I don't know yet if I'll have to replace my batt. yet or not.

You guys have any tricks for getting up and running, if you die out on the road? Maybe an over night scenario and you leave your ign switch on by accident.
 
Yeah I don't leave my switch on by accident. Then I have the stock keyed switch and the keys come inside when I'm done ridding. Maybe what you outa get is some sorta of safety key like some ATVs have that you can put on a key chain and when you shut off the bike the key comes with and everything is disabled.

OR put a sticker on the tach or on the top of the triple trees that says POWER or something to that effect for a visual reminder.
 
Yeah, I thought about putting a "POWER ASSHOLE" sticker on my headlight bucket or something. Haha. I just like to plan for the worse. Always gotta be prepared.

My Battery Tender give me a green light on my batt. after a few hours. After it turned green, I took it off the charger and let it sit. I will check the voltage after work today to see if there was a drop.

I feel like I'm getting close to being done. It's a good feeling. It's been almost a year now.

This week I'll order some tires, new headlight, some misc hardware, and the rest of my electrical supplies (brake switches, kill switch). Then I can do some further testing with full load of electrical components.
 
You'll never be done with a cb360. They're just annoying beasts. Yes I do have one so I can say these things.
 
dirtbag said:
You'll never be done with a cb360. They're just annoying beasts. Yes I do have one so I can say these things.
Click to expand...

Amen to that, the never ending project.
 
Re: CB360 Cafe Project *Shop Pics*

kMoto said:
I made up a seat out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around. I'm really happy with how it came out, I'm definitely going to use it. I ordered some 3/4" neoprene to pad it.


HPIM2274.jpg





Fabbed up a battery box too. It's ugly, I know, but it was really my first time working with sheet metal. I obviously got a little hammer happy. Anyway, I'm just now learning the sheet metal tool in SolidWorks. So, I think I'm going to make a template up and give it another shot. This time in aluminum.




HPIM2278.jpg





The plus side is that it fits perfectly and I like my design. Just have to make it look presentable.




HPIM2272.jpg





I have a paper template behind the seat for the cowl. A recent interest of mine has been metal shaping, so I though it would be a good goal to try and pound it out of sheet metal. I don't expect it to turn a piece out that I will actually use, but I'm definitely gonna pound the sh!t out of some metal trying.




HPIM2256.jpg
Click to expand...


Love the rear cowl, subtle but tasteful! Did you shorten the frame? Building a 68 CB250 (Australian spec) and don't have the tools to cut and weld the frame.
 
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