1976 550F

[petebog]

Continued from first posts in Hi from Northern Ireland.

So I put the battery on charge just to have something to try until I get a new one delivered. Whole bike was still completely dead. No lights / indicators / horn, not even any idiot lights, and definitely not a peep out of the starter. I checked the main fuse which looked a bit blackened but not actually blown, but I replaced it anyhow. Still nothing. Then I noticed when I put the headlight on, the headlight itself  didn’t come on but the oil pressure light did. Tried the starter with the headlight (not) on and it cranked over reasonably well for a while, but definitely not sounding like it had any intention of firing up. Didn’t have a plug spanner so tried to check for a spark with an old nail stuck in the plug lead and nothing at all. By this time the battery had pretty much expired again. So I took the headlight out to have a look and there’s 4 wires hanging out going nowhere. Then I took the tank off and there’s 4 more wires there going nowhere too. Part of the problem with this is I’m colourblind, so trying to identify wires just from the colour involves quite a lot of guess work! One of the tricks I’ve always used is to wrap a bit of masking tape round a wire and then just write on it what it is. I noticed that a few of the wires under the tank already had masking tape on them with the colour written on (but not what the wire actually is.) So looks like there’s already been another colourblind would be electrician working on the bike and who knows what wires are connected up right or wrong! Going to have to sit down with a wiring diagram and a test meter and a lot of patience to get my head around this! On the plus side, wiring doesn’t look like it’s been bodged around as such, maybe just wires connected up wrong, or not connected up at all, so hopefully once I can identify what wires go where that might solve the problem..



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[cooleronthecoast]

I feel your pain mate.  Trying to rig a wiring loom when you are colour blind must be a nightmare.  Could you get a mate or relative to help even if its just marking the colour on masking tape as you've mentioned?    Do you have the relevant wiring diagram?   I have one for an F2, I'm not sure if there are differences between the wiring on the two varients though.

[petebog]

Yeah it’s a bit of a nightmare alright, people have got used to me asking ‘what colour’s this?’ I’ll find a way. I do have a wiring diagram for a 500 from a Haynes manual, and also downloaded one for a 550 from the library section on this site, but haven’t got around yet to looking what the differences or similarities are to this bike - it is going to cause me brain confusion 

[petebog]

This is great information!

So 3 of the 4 loose wires in the headlight aren’t needed. And the 4th which you say is brown I’m pretty sure was just solid colour without a trace. I’ll have to double check that but it’s raining pretty heavily here now and the bike’s just out the back under a cover - don’t want to get it or myself soaked tonight!

Under the tank, again 2 of the 4 loose wires aren’t needed, and the third is just an earth. I didn’t see any sign of another wire that could connect to the brown / white but I could have missed it.

Don’t think the bike is American as the tax book gives date of first reg. as March ’76 and the reg. plate is a local Belfast number that would tie in with that date.

I’ll have another look and take a few more pics tomorrow (or later this evening if it dries up a bit) of wires and switchgear. Feeling a step closer now to getting it running though, cheers 

[petebog]

Ah, more good info! Cheers for the help with this So got another look at the bike at lunchtime. The black/white feed to the coils is connected ok but when I was checking it I noticed the front mounting bolt on the coils which also holds an earth connection was missing the nut. Managed to find a nut to put on it and put it back together with recharged battery. So now it's cranking over reasonably well (with the headlight switch on but not otherwise) and I've also got a spark from the old nail. Still no hint of it wanting to fire though. There is fuel getting through because it started coming out the overflows. Then the battery went flat again and it started to rain so I called it a day.


This is what the switchgear looks like. L/h looks original to me? R/h looks like pattern part?


I've ordered a new battery and I'll try some fresh fuel in it tomorrow just in case that makes any difference. The guy I got it off did say it had been running a few months ago but I'm not sure how many can still count as a few..


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[deltarider]

Brown wire in US models is blind, as they didn't have the position light the other markets had.
The green wire goes on that bolt now sticking out of the frame, but you probably knew,
Orange/white and lightblue/white were for the extra running lights in the indicators. Not on Europe models.

[Bryanj]

You should not need to have the lights on for it to start so the wiring is suspect and to be honest i would start by disconnecting every thing in the shell(or the box if wires go there)  and start again connecting colour to colour

[petebog]

Yeah I’ve reconnected the earth to that bolt and put duct tape over the ends of the wires that aren’t needed just to make it obvious that they aren’t. I had been starting to think myself it might be a good idea to just disconnect everything and try and identify all the wires with my masking tape method and then put it back together again properly. Seems to me that might be the easiest way to figure it out. The other thing I’m starting to notice is that things seem to be done up just barely tight. The nut had fallen off the bolt at the front of the coil, but the one at the back was really only just finger tight, same with the screws holding in the headlamp shell. The master cylinder has been leaking just where the pipe is bolted on so that obviously wasn’t tight enough, and today I also noticed it looks as if the pipe has been leaking at the other end too where it bolts into the calliper. So really I just need to go over the whole bike and check everything before I’d be confident to ride it, but then I suppose that should go without saying for a bike that hasn’t had an mot since 1997! The thing is it all looks nice so you tend to assume things are ok.

[deltarider]

... and where does the black wire go to? black is power and that seems to be headed towards the carbs, no idea what that's doing...

There's one blind black wire on mine in the same position. It has to do with differences in wiring concerning the horn. Step one should be to have the appropiate wiring scheme for your model. Wiring scheme differs with 'area code'. So before step one, determine what model you have. This can bedone by comparing your engine- and framenumbers with those listed in the first few pages of the CB550 parts lists. They are all here: http://www.honda4fun.com/materiale-documentazione-tecnica/parts-list/parts-list-cb550 When you have determined your model and its area code (!), we can then select the appropiate wiring scheme.

[petebog]

Quick update on this one, so yesterday I cleaned up the earth connections beside the coil and from the battery to the engine hanger plate. It occurred to me that with all the new paint all over everything the engine hanger plate itself might not have been that well earthed to the frame so removed some paint under bolt heads there too. Put in recharged battery and fresh fuel and still nothing. Spark isn’t really looking very healthy so decided to wait until new battery arrives which should make a difference and in the meantime I’ve started to disconnect wires and get them identified and labeled with masking tape and try and reconnect things how they’re supposed to be - hours of colourblind fun to be had