1980 CB400, wont start, no spark with starter.

[chicano]

Hi guys,

I've got a 1980 CB400 that I have been building up as a Cafe Racer. Started as a total shitter paddock find and after a few months I've had it running etc

The other day I started it up without any drama (needs a bit of a tune on the carby side) just before I switched it off noticed that it seemed like it started to run only on one cylinder. Turned it off.

Had a look a leads, plugs etc and then tried to start it again. Nothing. Pulled the plugs and hit the starter (which turns) and they weren't sparking at all. Battery has charge, new starter solenoid, new reg/rec So shouldn't be those.

I tried kick starting and while that doesn't work the plugs do spark.

Any ideas? Could it be a faulty kill switch? CDI?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you need more info just let me know.

Cheers,
Martin

 

[chicano]

Any ideas? Even a stab in the dark or something I could test out?

Might just bite the bullet and buy a new kill switch and CDI

 

[Ianmallee]

Bypass the kill switch before you do and test that out before you buy a new one

 

[chicano]

I've fiddled with the kill switch and managed to get the bike to fire. So I'm going to buy a second hand replacement as I can't find anywhere that does new or repo ones.

 

[crazypj]

It's a self generating system, all electronic including advance.
Battery is only needed to spin motor over, bike will run fine without a battery (except starting is pretty difficult if you have one without kickstart, and it 'blows' all the lights)
You either left something disconnected, or, connected something wrong and burned out an ignition component.
It has a dual ended coil so has to spark both cylinders, if only running on one it's a carb/valve/piston issue