The continuing saga of the CB...

OK, burnt is excused, the rest can read this if they want to.

The last part of the Saga finished with the cliff hanger - will it
idle once the battery has been recharged, or won't it?

Well, closer inspection of the battery showed that it was trying to
turn it into an example of the dry cell variety. Oops. Topped up and
hooked up to the Accumate, it appears to hold a charge. Good. So the
battery goes back into the bike this morning and I hook it all up
again.

Working on TOG's assumption that the non-existing idle might have been
caused by the absence of a nice fat spark, I kick the bike over. And
over. And over. AND OVER. Hrmpf. Finally, it starts, but it still
doesn't want to idle, no siree. But it provides entertainment for the
neighbours by producing nice backfires. Double Oops.

So I pull the float bowls off. The lhs one doesn't look too clever,
lots of varnish on the surface which is soon cleared up thanks to
Nasty Carbcleaner[tm]. For good measure I pull the jets, find the idle
jets rather clogged (but they clear up after a bit of a soak in carb
cleaner) and blast some more carb cleaner through these orifices as
well. Ahh, that's better. Tweaking the idle mixture a bit and soon the
expect chug-chug-chug idle is back in town. Nice.

Unfortunately all I can see at the battery terminals at this point is
still 12.6V, in other words, the battery voltage. When checking the
connections at the rectifier I notice they're rather dirty and a bit
corroded, but that's soon cleaned up. Just for good measure I check
the connections to the regulator - same here, same chemicals and
they're clean.

Starting the bike finally produces a result on the voltage level - the
voltmeter now indicates rapidly changing voltage at the battery. Eh?
Switching the Multimeter to AC shows a stable 26Vs... Arse. Following
the procedure in the Clymer manual suggests that the rectifier is
duff, which would explain both the well done battery and the absense
of a charge.

That'll be a new rectumfrier then. Anyone got a clever suggestion as
to where to get one? CB500T one should fit as well, BTW.

 

I think most Hondas of that vintage used the same mechanical regulator.

 

A search on ebay including 'available to UK' comes up with quite a few,
they've got pictures, take a look and see which one looks like yours innit

 

Ian was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Heh. That would be the way to go, had one of the previous owners not
replaced it with a solild state unit of unknown pedigree....

That said, 'merican fleabay appears to be full of CB450 bits. Yeeha!

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Ahem. I need a *rectifier* as it appears to be bust. Once I got that I
can check if I also need a *regulator*.

 

Nip down to Maplin and pick up a solid-state bridge rectifier?