I’ve got a ‘72 CB350 that won’t start. Specifically, when I press the ignition button the solenoid clicks, but the motor doesn’t try to turn over at all. I’ve installed a new Motobatt battery.
I took the starter motor off and took it to the bench for a bench test. It sparked and spun twice. The third time, no sparks at all, nothing. I assumed it needed rebuilt.
Ordered a rebuild kit. When disassembling I found that the end of the field coil that is welded to the positive stud was broken off. I applied some JB Weld cold weld and let it sit for 24 hrs. I got a good continuity reading from the end of the stud to the positive brush connection. I followed the Common Motor rebuild video and the stickied post here in the forum to rebuild the starter motor.
Once fully reassembled, I did a bench test. Lots of sparks, but the gears didn’t seem to turn. I thought maybe that was OK, so I proceeded to reinstall.
Once I hooked everything back up, I pressed the ignition button… smoke came from the starter solenoid. The starter motor and battery were cool but the battery cables were warm. Immediately I disconnected everything and found only 12.2-12.3 volts on the battery (before it was reading 13.4). I hooked the battery up to a charger and it’s now reading “bad battery”.
So… I will take the battery to the parts store to be tested… but my gut tells me that I need (another) new battery, solenoid and starter motor. However, my fear is that I get new parts and the same thing happens. Any ideas on why this happened? Is it a bad ground somewhere?
I took the starter motor off and took it to the bench for a bench test. It sparked and spun twice. The third time, no sparks at all, nothing. I assumed it needed rebuilt.
Ordered a rebuild kit. When disassembling I found that the end of the field coil that is welded to the positive stud was broken off. I applied some JB Weld cold weld and let it sit for 24 hrs. I got a good continuity reading from the end of the stud to the positive brush connection. I followed the Common Motor rebuild video and the stickied post here in the forum to rebuild the starter motor.
Once fully reassembled, I did a bench test. Lots of sparks, but the gears didn’t seem to turn. I thought maybe that was OK, so I proceeded to reinstall.
Once I hooked everything back up, I pressed the ignition button… smoke came from the starter solenoid. The starter motor and battery were cool but the battery cables were warm. Immediately I disconnected everything and found only 12.2-12.3 volts on the battery (before it was reading 13.4). I hooked the battery up to a charger and it’s now reading “bad battery”.
So… I will take the battery to the parts store to be tested… but my gut tells me that I need (another) new battery, solenoid and starter motor. However, my fear is that I get new parts and the same thing happens. Any ideas on why this happened? Is it a bad ground somewhere?
