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Fng here poulsbo wa .
- Thread starter XS Garth
- Start date
Greetings!! Looks like good bones. What's your plans for it?
Nice project, keep us up to date with piccies. Welcome aboard.
The stock TCI system is something to consider keeping. They work pretty good.....
Nice year Special!
Nice year Special!
Yes, finding a spare (replacement standby) box might me a little spendy, but it's a damn good system.
Same with the stock alternator. It would need the rotor rewound, new brushes and a new (homemade) reg/rec... but everything together would still be much cheaper than a PMA and aftermarket ignition.... and be better to boot.
If it really is a 1980 model then it looks like someone swapped on an older set of BS38 carbs, a '78-'79 set from the looks of them. No big deal really, they are a very good set of carbs, best of the 38s in my opinion. You just need to I.D. them in case you start modding things (intake and exhaust) and have to re-jet. You base your re-jetting on what came stock in that particular year carb set, not the year of the bike.
The '80 Special II has BS34 carbs. Yours are BS38's. It's possible yours is actually a '79. That or the carbs have been swapped. Something to figure out for parts ordering... kinda important.
This bike being so old, you need to go through all the wiring, cleaning and checking all the connections and checking for any rubbed bare wires. This will ward off potential future electrical problems. I start at the tail light and work my way forward up into the headlight bucket. I seem to always find a few bad connections and rubbed bare wires, usually around the battery box and/or in the headlight bucket.
I'ma little slow on the draw today... 
Yeah I've been going thru and cleaned all the grounds already helped alot with the starter and surprisingly the headlight bucket connections are pretty nice condition.
I've got an aftermarket right knee that wasn't installed correctly, so the kicker is out of the question in my case.... I depend on the elec starter.
I restored my '80SG comin' up on 5 yrs now and it's never failed me.
My winter sleep drill consists of putting it up on the centerstand and throwing a blanket over it... if I remember. So without even a trickle charger, it still fires up every spring without fail. I'd call that acceptable.
As designed, the entire electrical system is more than adequate.... provided you keep doing what you're doing, clean every connector and ground, get a good quality battery and do what's mentioned above about refreshing the alternator.
Guess I'll put in a plug for myself and 5twins here.... there's a how-to in Tech on making your own reg/rec. It's twice as cheap and much more reliable than anything you can buy. And look in the classies when you're ready and I have an advert for rewinding the rotor. You'll need to sus out which year you have 'cause the '79 and '80 use different rotors and reg/rec's. You need to know which model you have.
Well, the charging system really doesn't have any effect on that, it's the size of the battery. The stock battery isn't real big so it doesn't have much reserve power. It will run down rather quickly with sustained cranking and the thing is, the ignition also needs battery power to operate until the motor starts and begins charging. So, if the battery charge gets too low, the bike may still crank over with the electric start but won't fire up because the starter is using all the available battery power, leaving none to power the ignition. That's why many of us kick start the bike for the first cold start of the day, especially in colder weather. The kicker needs no power (but you, lol).
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