bad charging circuit? cb360

[tonuppirate]

bike is running rich even though everything tells me it 'should' be running lean. plugs black and sooty, running with 2 into 1 aftermarket pipes and k&N pods, original keihin carbs recently cleaned, jet sizes 100 and 68 if i remember correctly. I think those are stock. pls correct me if I am wrong. I have checked the voltage at the battery at idle 12.4 volts, at 5k rpm 12.7 volts. now i would assume that the voltage should be higher at higher rpm if the charging circuit was doing its job. maybe i am testing at the wrong location, or on this type of bike its different, but i would expect around 14 or so volts. if i set the idle to what it should be the bike dies at stoplights after it warms up. so i have had to turn the idle up to about 1500 to keep it running. its just a temporary band aid till I can get to the real problem. another piece of the puzzle to ponder, when the bike was not running the horn would not work but when i started it up it worked just fine. even though there was enough juice to crank the starter, there wasn't enough to sound the horn. very strange. at this point i'd like to rip all of the wiring out and start over. but the whole reason i bought this bike was to have something to ride while my street rod was in the shop, which will be most of the summer. this winter I'll do a major tear down and rewire. I just want to get this bitch running halfway decent till then.
TP

 

[crazypj]

Bit messy as I typed things as I thought of them
360's are critical on jetting when you fit pods (I've done some dyno time with them ;D)
It should run great up to 4,000 rpm then is starts getting rich.
Do you have genuine K&N or something else (the ones sold by Sporting For Less are restrictive as carb fitting is SMALLER than stock inlet)
Needle isn't adjustable, it needs to be lower to lean out midrange.
I'm still working on a fix
Needs 112 secondary mainjet
Your exhaust is probably not as free flowing as you think, open megaphone needs at least a change to 115 secondary mainjet. (it is loud enough to make your ears bleed )
You have rubber plugs over pilot jet inlets?
They feed from primary mainjet (#68)

Battery voltage should be higher, usually about 13.5~
There is a secondary circuit going through light switch, turn lights on and see if volts go up.
Check red wire at rectifier, they break off through old age/corrosion.
Could be faulty regulator, it will run at about 15~ 17 volts if you disconnect control voltage wire (I think Yellow wire?)
It's very unlikely to be stator or rotor, possibly wiring harness connector?

EDIT
Just had a look at regulator, BLACK is control voltage, disconnect it and see what happens with lights turned on.
Dont rev too high (check at about 2,000 rpm)

 

[tonuppirate]

finally somebody is telling me something that makes sense. these are genuine K&N but are huge, about 5" long and oval shaped 3" at the end and 4" at the widest point here is a pic:

i dont have an open megaphone type exhaust i think. its really not that loud, it kind of rounds off at the end, not squared off like a typical megaphone "that i think of anyway"

I'm not sure about the rubber plugs, i need more info about that.

i'll check voltage with the lights on, i figured id get more volts with the lights off than with them on.
the other wires are more or less in good shape none are broken and the bike does run.

new problem just cropped up on the way home from work today. bike suddenly lost power, felt like it was running on only one cylinder it still idled fine. when i got home i pulled each plug wire in turn, and the bike kept running the same, no change. so both cylinders were firing just had no power. I'm about to dump this thing in a ditch and pour 4 feet of concrete over it.
TP

 

[interceptor]

Funny, someone else had a similar problem and ended up being bad gas.
Shouldn't the voltage regulator regulate voltage to let's say 12-13 volts? So when you rev it up, your volts shouldn't go past that anyway?
Maybe the horn is hooked up to the voltage regulator, so maybe you wouldn't get power to the horn until alternator is working? Just trying to brainstorm with ya.

 

[tonuppirate]

possibly, I'll check that out. i've also been told I should check out the voltage with the battery disconnected which would be a better indication of how much juice was coming from the charging circuit and not from the battery itself. I know f*** all about bike electric's but i'm slowly learning kicking and screaming all the way.
tp

 

[tonuppirate]

ok turns out the power issue was the black wire from the voltage regulator had come loose. I plugged it back in and flogged her up and down US1 for about 30 min she ran like a scalded dog so I'm pretty sure that was it. I think I'm gonna work her over tomorrow with a set of crimpers and a soldering iron medieval style and replace some of that 40 y/o wiring with some shiny new 10 gauge.
tp

 

[crazypj]

Glad you fixed that bit easily.
Great fun working on old bikes, just like people in the 60's fixing their own stuff
I think someone has it as signature,
"built not bought"
;D
PJ