[sdaniels]

My son took his CB360 out for a ride, mostly back roads, 45-55mph. Said bike started stumbling, thought he was running out of gas but as soon as it slowed down it picked up again. Stumbling got worse, noticed his headlight was flickering from reflection of car in front. He had no light when he pulled into the driveway. No headlight, tail, only the neutral indicator & no electric start. Battery was new according to the guy we bought it from a few weeks ago. He was a little puzzled when it wouldn't start but he kicked it & we didn't think much of it at the time. I put it on a charger as soon as we got it home & this is the first instance we've had any starting/running problems since that initial charge. I've got it on a charger at the moment. My guess is the charging system has something bad & that is why the battery was drained. Either the stator, regulator or rectifier is the problem but I would like to hear what the most likely culprit is. I don't have a multimeter & my eyes pretty much glaze over when people start talking about using them.

 

[Old Okie]

Get a MM, follow the instructions that come with it and follow advice/instructions
furnished by forum members. The multi meter is really easy to use with a little help
you can diagnose the problem with your bike. I use my multi meter almost every day,
it is a cheap one from Harbor Freight.

 

[doode]

Well, you seem to know what it is, so if you don't want to buy the diagnostic tools and troubleshoot this, then just buy a replacement r/r. It's something you should do regardless if your current one is stock. If it's not fixed then buy a replacement stator. Best to check the wiring and connections while you're at it in case something jiggled loose.

 

[Brent]

A digital multi meter is simple to use and one of the handiest tools you'll own.

 

[JP_Dodge_N_Burn]

Sounds like a charging problem...most likely caused by the old Regulator and the old rectifier. My regulator recently gave out and it fried my battery, burned out all my bulbs, and it left me stranded 15 miles from home. I bought an R/R unit from Sparck Moto and my bike is now charging like a champ.

Replace the battery as well.

 

[Rob Axel]

Besides up grading your R/R.. check all your grounds, connections AND SWITCHES (internal contacts).. these are 40+ year old "contacts" and surface contamination will hinder a good contact.
Sometimes a little simple cleaning will do wonders..

 

[sdaniels]

Found the mile-long post about using lawn equipment regulator/rectifier earlier this morning, ordered it. Saw comments about the white & yellow wire connection so did that too. Also found a yellow/red wire that had maybe an 1/8 inch of wire taped together, no joke...schematic shows that goes to starter solenoid. I don't know how the bike ever started with the button. I'll go through & clean up/grease things too.

 

[Rob Axel]

GET A MULTIMETER...
$6.95 at Harbor Freight.. or anywhere for that matter ..
you will be able to test ur stator/ rotor output BEFORE it hits the R/R..
Yes, the R/R may fix ur problem... if it doesn't ...all your doing it "throwing parts at it"...
It will also allow you to read the charging output..
Watching your headlight go "bright and dim" when Reving the motor isn't the greatest tool..

 

[sdaniels]

GET A MULTIMETER...
$6.95 at Harbor Freight.. or anywhere for that matter ..
you will be able to test ur stator/ rotor output BEFORE it hits the R/R..
Yes, the R/R may fix ur problem... if it doesn't ...all your doing it "throwing parts at it"...
It will also allow you to read the charging output..
Watching your headlight go "bright and dim" when Reving the motor isn't the greatest tool..

Okay, okay. I'll pickup a multimeter. But I don't mind 'throwing parts' when they're relatively inexpensive. Consider it a mod & who doesn't like to mod a bike

 

[Alan F.]

GET A MULTIMETER...
$6.95 at Harbor Freight.. or anywhere for that matter ..
you will be able to test ur stator/ rotor output BEFORE it hits the R/R..
Yes, the R/R may fix ur problem... if it doesn't ...all your doing it "throwing parts at it"...
It will also allow you to read the charging output..
Watching your headlight go "bright and dim" when Reving the motor isn't the greatest tool..

Theory of operation and proper troubleshooting will serve us better than the shotgun technique (throw enough parts at it and one of them will fix it)
Who has that kind of time and money without losing interest?
When people say their eyes glaze over my shop rate rises, I think that's the industry standard.

No offense intended. I'll say no more.

 

[ancientdad]

Tough love. :lol:

 

[Rob Axel]

Upgrading is awesome.. if done in the correct "order"...
Think of installing a electronic ignition BEFORE maKing sure your charging system is actually working properly..
Frying a $200 system to find out ur regulator is overcharging or shorting it out because of bad ground is not a good way to "troubleshoot" your electrical system..
But, hey... if you got the money.. go for it..

 

[sdaniels]

Upgrading is awesome.. if done in the correct "order"...
Think of installing a electronic ignition BEFORE maKing sure your charging system is actually working properly..
Frying a $200 system to find out ur regulator is overcharging or shorting it out because of bad ground is not a good way to "troubleshoot" your electrical system..
But, hey... if you got the money.. go for it..

There may be plans for an e-ignition but at this point I'm only about getting the basics working. I don't want to seem unappreciative about everybody's advice on troubleshooting but if you bought a bike that had all the upgraded parts, would you really be complaining if the previous owner had 'thrown parts' at it to fix a problem? It's an upgrade. Would you object to putting in better parts if the originals were functioning 100%? I don't think so. Okay, enough of ranting. I've read through quite a few posts about this. I don't recall any mention of what gauge wire people are using. Is 18 going to cut it? Also, what about a fused line to the positive battery terminal? I think I saw one post on that. Seems like cheap insurance.

 

[sdaniels]

Okay, that's a problem...regulator had exposed ground wire too. I was going to take mydlifcrisis' advice & reuse that stock connector but that's obviously not happening. So now my question is this...when doing this new reg/rec install I read to connect white & yellow & that connects with either the left or right connector on the new reg/rec, pink to the other & middle goes to positive battery terminal, ground the unit to frame or run wire to the neg battery terminal. I have done the white & yellow connector on the main harness under the tank. Is that all there is left? What gauge wire, 18? I'm also wondering about putting a fused line for the middle connector to battery.

 

[Rob Axel]

I think you may have misunderstood my info... I was speaking in regards from a troubleshooting perspective... as for replacing parts with ones working %100 percent. SURE .. my points worked fine, swapped out with a Pamco.. plugs wires were fine.. swapped them out.. AND the R/R worked fine... swapped out to a solid state, cheap insurance for my not so cheap ignition. Headlight, blinkers etc. swapped for LEDs...
All upgrades, but if I did them "out of order" or did them to try to fix a idle or rough running issue without "troubleshooting" it would have been "throwing parts at a issue"

 

[sdaniels]

I think you may have misunderstood my info... I was speaking in regards from a troubleshooting perspective... as for replacing parts with ones working %100 percent. SURE .. my points worked fine, swapped out with a Pamco.. plugs wires were fine.. swapped them out.. AND the R/R worked fine... swapped out to a solid state, cheap insurance for my not so cheap ignition. Headlight, blinkers etc. swapped for LEDs...
All upgrades, but if I did them "out of order" or did them to try to fix a idle or rough running issue without "troubleshooting" it would have been "throwing parts at a issue"

Okay, I got you. I'll apologize now if I came across short.

 

[Rob Axel]

No dude .. your good.. just didn't want you to head down a bad path..
keep us posted with this repair, as you said you looked and didn't find any info... posting your findings may help someone in the future with a similar issue...

 

[sdaniels]

Is this right? Three new wires going to the fitting the rectifier was plugged into? I plan on putting the new reg/rec on the rear fender & running a ground wire with an eyelet from the reg/rec bolt to the negative battery terminal.

 

[Rob Axel]

I don't want to say yes for sure.. if you follow it one way the wires should go to the R/R (2 components) and the other way should lead to the motor left side in the area of the drive sprocket (not positive on entry location)...
any chance you have a wiring diagram? I located one online (in color) as a PDF.. the wire colors may be faded. On the bike.. but you should have no problem seeing the difference in colors..

 

[sdaniels]

This shot is wires coming from the stator...green w/red stripe, pink, white & yellow. I've got my wires plugged into fitting the rectifier was connected with...yellow, red/white stripe, pink & there is a green wire with nothing hooked up to it.