Condenser problems

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Prospect

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Hey

I'm brand new to the fourm! Lot's of great info here.

I've had my xs650 for about a day now and took it for it's first rip around the neighborhood. I've been involved with old hondas for a while but this is a new bike to me. The bike has been sitting for 2 years but fired right up and ran very well for about 20 minutes. I took it up to 50 mph and the she started sputtering. I thought it might be fuel delivery but it seemed OK. The left exhaust was very cool meaning she is only running on the right. Now she is running at all rmp ranges on just one cylinder. I'm suspecting it's a condenser that's slowly going as I've had the exact same problem on my cb350 twin. My question is can I use a cb350 condenser on the xs as I don't have an xs condenser here and I wanna ride a bit more tomorrow?
 
Try switching the condenser leads and see if the problem changes sides. The 650 has 2 condensers in a 2-pack mounted on the inner side of the top left motor mount. There are 2 black wires coming out of the pack, one from each condenser. They go to the orange and gray double connectors which run to the coils.
 
Check your battery voltage see if it's charging, often the first you know of a charging problem is one cylinder starting to cut out. Should show near 14 volts at 3000 RPM Electrical gremlins are waiting for you on any old bike.
 
gggGary

I charged the battery overnight with my trusty battery tender. Showing a volatage of 12.9 at the battery. When I start the bike it drops a bit to 12.4 and when I rev it at 3000 rpm it shows 13.1 so the charging system is weak as you mentioned. I took the bike for a 20 minute ride and it was running perfectly as usual. I was probably draining the battery but it held up. I checked it when I got home and it was 12.4 with the engine off. So it drained a bit confirming a weak charging system.

Considering that 90% of the riding I do is in the city and below much of it below 3000 rpm this is a problem. I'll start with checking the regulator to see if if it's faulty. Any other ideas.
 
Prospect said:
Any other ideas.
Click to expand...

Mostly what anybody can suggest is just run down the charging problem list until you find the culprit(s).

One thing that isn't covered enough in those is the likelihood of the problem being a bad connection; you might deduce you have a bad part, when the connection to the part is really the problem. That goes not just for the mating connectors, but for the connection of the wire to the connector too. If I was doing it over, I'd try to find a new stock harness of good quality and reasonable price, just to speed things up.
 
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i used two condensers out of a '65 ford pickup for about $5 ea. they worked fine

with bad condensers you will see lots of sparks between the contact points while the engine is running. (some small sparks are ok)

if one cylinder isn't running try filing the points if they're pitted and cleaning them with solvent, soak an index card with lacquer thinner and snap them closed on it a few times.
 
Well it looks like the problem had solved itself. The next day I took a 50 mile ride on the highway/street and the bike has been running great. Even the battery is holding a charge so I have nothing to complain about. Thanks for all the responses.
 
lol, lol, You guys are starting to feel my pain when it comes to carb posts, lol. That's OK, I love sharing, lol.
 

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