Hooking up a quick electrical system to test an engine?

E

eightsevenzero

Been Around the Block
i need to know what the simplest setup would be that gets power to an engine in a frame for a test fire. i have my CB400TII all stripped except engine and basically i need to be able to fire it up and run it to compression test it and tune it etc. the electrical is not currently hooked up so a diagram that would get me power from a battery thru the main electrical components to engine would be nice. its setup kickstart so no electric start system is needed.

thanks
 
Wait a minute......you can do a compression test with kick only. No electronics needed. And you can't tune a motor until you are done modding everything else.

But all you really need are coils, points, reg/rect, and a battery.
 
Compression testing is done with both plugs out, throttles wide open and kick until the gauge stops rising. You can kick it over. No need for the electric foot.

Tune up is points and valve clearances and timing and they are all set with the engine cold and not moving. Only things you do with it running arechecking timing advances correctly and fine tuning the carbs.
 
Rocan said:
sorry must have missed it....

http://oldmanhonda.com/MC/wiring350K4.html

not for your bike but it will help.... pretty much the same wiring anyway for the ignition stuff.
Click to expand...

Not even close to the same.
CB400T is electronic ignition with low and high speed trigger coils.('pulse generators' in Hondaspeak)
Its CDI but haven't worked on one since early 80's so can't give any other info.
 
ahhh... good point pj... i didn't recognize that. though wouldnt the majority of it be the same, the only differences being that instead of having points in the ignition circuit there is the triggers attached to the CDI?
 
Nope.
CDI stands for Capacitor Discharge Ignition, you charge up a capacitor to couple of hundred volts then discharge it through ignition coil when 'pulse generator' sends signal
They come in AC and DC flavour ;D
 
Ok so what does that mean for me? Why do I need
To make sure is hooked up to battery to have a complete power loop to all the required components
 
i am in the process of doing the same thing to my 74 cb450 to make sure the motor runs... not the same bike or wire colors most likely, but they should be close enough. this is the diagram i made up for mine.
barebonez.jpg

hope that is helpful.

oh and im sure you could leave out the neutral indicator if you wanted to
 
You just want to hot-wire the bike, right? Its got points, right? Well, you just run a wire from the positive side of the battery to the coil's primary lead - the little one that doesn't got to the points if you want ignition to run the thing. To just get it to crank over just use a big cable to either power the starter side of the solenoid directly or if its hooked up to the battery just jump over the two big terminals. It'll crank if the starter is any good.
 
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