Welded Frame, Bike wont start.

[jpdevol]

Try under tank; should be ground wires with connectors to harness that are ring-nutted to coil mount bolts. See if you can improve those and then check Ohms to battery negative @ that ground and regulator ground

Ya already cleaned battery ground to frame?

 

[Jan_P]

thats good to hear! guess i should tear her down again. Would running a jump to the battery ground be an okay temporary fix?

I have had a separate ground to battery for at least 3 years on my Boyer Bransden Ignition . All the time all over the years.

Besides the stock one ground wire. In your case I would consider to join the grounds from Coils and TCI
Under the tank
And then pull a separate one wire to Minus on the battery. If uncomfortable with that just remove it after testing.
I believe it is the 4 - th time I am suggesting this.

 

[nikiforova]

I have had a separate ground to battery for at least 3 years on my Boyer Bransden Ignition . All the time all over the years.

Besides the stock one ground wire. In your case I would consider to join the grounds from Coils and TCI
Under the tank
And then pull a separate one wire to Minus on the battery. If uncomfortable with that just remove it after testing.
I believe it is the 4 - th time I am suggesting this.

Sorry if ive been ignoring you, its a bit overwhelming trying to keep sort through information from 4 people as someone whose new to this. I'll definitely try that.

 

[nikiforova]

Try under tank; should be ground wires with connectors to harness that are ring-nutted to coil mount bolts. See if you can improve those and then check Ohms to battery negative @ that ground and regulator ground

Ya already cleaned battery ground to frame?

The ground at the coil wasnt making a good connection! Seems that helped a lot. Now when revving to 3k it gets up to 14.5

Should we try moving back to timing?

 

[jpdevol]

If it idles good for you and battery @ rest is 12.8ish, you can re-check timing

BTW that was a genuine "sparky" move there jumpering regulator ground

 

[Jim]

On '80 and up bikes, the alternator uses an "A" type regulator.
In this type 12v is fed directly to the rotor from the ignition switch.
Voltage regulation is done by the regulator controlling the ground side of the rotor.

Brown to brush is 12v
Green goes from brush to regulator... that's the regulated ground.

I would not run the bike with the green wire constantly grounded. That will make the rotor run hot. If it's the original rotor, it's life is close to the end. Running hot might just push it over the edge.
And a constant charge isn't good for the battery either.

The good news is a cheap replacement for the regulator is readily available.... possibly even at your local auto parts store.
Have a read here.

 

[Jim]

As long as your battery has a healthy charge, I'd move on the timing. Just keep an eye on voltage....

 

[Jim]

From here...

 

[jpdevol]

I may have misinterpreted; I thought he jumpered black @ regulator to ground - post 318-319

 

[Jim]

I may have misinterpreted; I thought he jumpered black @ regulator to ground - post 318-319

I'm not really sure which ground Niki's referring to. Just thought I'd throw that out there before we cooked sumpin'

 

[nikiforova]

Okay so I cant get it to idle. It will not hold 1100 rpms and nothing is changing by adjusting the idle screw on the left carb. It is backfiring massively and puts out quite a bit of black smoke. Im uploading videos to youtube that I'll link here in a moment

 

[Jim]

Okay so I cant get it to idle. It will not hold 1100 rpms and nothing is changing by adjusting the idle screw on the left carb. It is backfiring massively and puts out quite a bit of black smoke. Im uploading videos to youtube that I'll link here in a moment

Have you tried swapping wires (polarity) on the trigger?

 

[nikiforova]

Have you tried swapping wires (polarity) on the trigger?

Ill give it a go in a minute, i started the bike a bunch of times and the battery is now sitting at 12.3 and not starting

 

[Jim]

12.3V should be enough to run normally...

Which wire did you ground to make your alternator work?
Inquiring minds want to know....

 

[nikiforova]

12.3V should be enough to run normally...

Which wire did you ground to make your alternator work?
Inquiring minds want to know....

the ring terminal at the coil wasnt making a good connection. Yeah it wont start with 12.3

 

[jpdevol]

Morning y’all! So I’m following this to troubleshoot my charging system and found some stuff really quick.
-Slap test is all good
-Ran a jumper ground from reg to ground and this is what I found.
-W/out jump, my battery doesn’t get a charge, even when revving.
-W/ jump, at idle, my battery goes up to 13.5 and then @2500-3k it’s sitting at around 14
-brown wire at the rear of the bike measures a .2v drop from the battery voltage.
-three white wires at the stator all measure 15vAC at idle
Seems like it’s regulator rectifier problem going on

Asking about jumper ground above from reg - which color wire @ reg

 

[nikiforova]

Asking about jumper ground above from reg - which color wire @ reg

green to ground

 

[Jim]

Ran a jumper ground from reg to ground and this is what I found.
-W/out jump, my battery doesn’t get a charge, even when revving.
-W/ jump, at idle, my battery goes up to 13.5 and then @2500-3k it’s sitting at around 14

OK... that tells me we might have some grounding issues goin' on. The Reg/rec has it's own black ground wire. If adding a ground jumper fixed the charging, the ground that's supposed to be there.... isn't.

You could leave that jumper there, but I'd suggest cleaning up every black ground wire you can find.
Keep this in mind to.... there's no such thing as too many grounds. If you feel like adding extra grounds, go right ahead.

One ground I like to add is at the battery ground. The battery box is isolated in rubber mounts to to cut down vibrations. So the big ground that goes from the battery to the frame..... I'll add another (16-18ga or so) that screws into the battery box.

 

[Jim]

green to ground

If you jumpered green to ground, you bypassed the regulator.... makes the rotor work overtime. Don't run for extended periods like that, you'll likely fry something.... like the rotor.

 

[jpdevol]

Regulator got damaged with TCI (welding)? Open circuit inside between green and black?