HHB wiring issues

[Jibber Japper]

Hi all, first time poster here. I’m at a loss with wiring currently.

I have a ‘79 with the hughs hand built pma/cdi kit installed. The bike is currently running a small battery for a head/tail light.

I recently noticed the battery isn’t recharging while riding, and a multimeter shows no change in voltage across + and - with throttle input. I did some other checks I found on Hugh’s blog, including checking the regulator, checking resistance between the two yellow wires coming from the stator to the regulator, and I’ve checked all my grounds. Everything looks good as far as I can tell.

I pulled the left side cover off to see if maybe the wires were getting chewed up by the flywheel, they looked good.

The bike runs great without any battery attached, so I’m pretty sure the ignition side of the cdi is working fine, I just don’t seem to be getting any power to my regulator.

It’s also worth noting that my lights do in fact work off of battery power before it dies. I’ve also put in a capacitor in place of the battery with no luck, my lights stay off.

I know it’s something to do with wiring, but it’s driving me crazy and I feel like I’ve exhausted my knowledge. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

 

[snoosky]

I'm having a similar issue with mine as well. I've recently swapped to the HHB CDI/ PMA. I went to an Antigravity battery with the reserve charge feature. Its completely dead until I hit the reserve charge then viola... Theres normal voltage back.
What kind of battery do you have?
You can always check to see if its charging by put a meter on your battery then checking again when its running. Charging voltage should be somewhere around 14.5vdc.

 

[Jibber Japper]

I'm having a similar issue with mine as well. I've recently swapped to the HHB CDI/ PMA. I went to an Antigravity battery with the reserve charge feature. Its completely dead until I hit the reserve charge then viola... Theres normal voltage back.
What kind of battery do you have?
You can always check to see if its charging by put a meter on your battery then checking again when its running. Charging voltage should be somewhere around 14.5vdc.

I’m using an antigravity 401. I checked my voltage while the bikes running and got around 13.3 V which is close to the resting voltage. At this point I don’t know if I should keep looking for a culprit or just replace the battery and see what happens. Are you having issues charging your battery while running?

 

[gggGary]

bike running yellow wires disconnected what voltage to do you get across any two wires? (measure in AC volts should be; oh say 20-30 volts.

 

[Jibber Japper]

bike running yellow wires disconnected what voltage to do you get across any two wires? (measure in AC volts should be; oh say 20-30 volts.

Hmm I didn’t check that. I will definitely do this tomorrow

 

[Jibber Japper]

bike running yellow wires disconnected what voltage to do you get across any two wires? (measure in AC volts should be; oh say 20-30 volts.

gggGary, I've been lurking on this forum for a while and appreciate all the help I've gotten from your responses all over the site.

Just scoured the HHB website looking for more info or possible checks to try, and he is very clear on NOT testing the stator while the bike is running. I think what I'll try later today is hooking up a known good battery from another bike and measuring the voltage at idle and with throttle input - fingers crossed it's just a bad battery. The battery I'm running has died so many times it wouldn't be a surprise. The capacitor I have also is an unknown - it came with the bike and I have no way of knowing if it's still good. It's still within the realm of possibility that the batt and cap are both bad.... should have that figured out later. Gotta love vintage bikes!

I'm not feeling super optimistic though, so what I think I might have to do is pull the flywheel and stator to inspect the stator wire connection - would be weird to find an issue there though because the yellow to yellow resistance check for the stator was within spec. I also plan to check if the yellow stator wires have continuity to ground (they shouldn't). Putting all this info here in case someone down the road runs into the same issue and finds this thread.

Sigh. I'm hoping to have this sorted before the gift of winter brings a swift end to the fall riding season here in MI.

 

[gggGary]

Yeah I didn't find a Hughes troubleshooting doc (I looked) He as much said he doesn't have, won't share one....
I get his stated reasoning, but still.
Have to see if I can find a vape PMI Troubleshooting doc.
Yes resistance checks should show up problems, might use a light bulb tester to confirm they have amperage capacity.
Straight up: I've little to NO PMI troubleshooting.
me being me might check voltage while kicking it through?
At least do an eyeball inspection of the stator? IIRC there have been a few pics of burned wires/coils on SOME HHB PMI stators.

 

[Bigfeet]

I have a PMI setup on my bike and at one point one of the wires broke close to the stator. As a result the bike only seemed to put out about 9 volts as I recall which was enough to run the Pamco and have dim lights but would only kick start. Once I re-soldered the wire it went back to charging and everything worked. The why and how come I really don't know but it does work now. Hope it helps somehow.

 

[Jibber Japper]

Quick update here for anyone interested. I’ve done some more digging into my charging issue with the HHB cdi kit, including trying a known good battery, a known good voltage regulator, and checking my wiring with a fine tooth comb all to no avail. Finally pulled my stator to check connections there and found that one winding had broken from its respective yellow wire and lost connection at some point… I think. I’m talking with Hugh to figure out my next steps