If you've read my other posts I bought a restored cb77 in January and have put about 1,000 miles on it. When I bought the bike the lights were strong and consistent (didn't really flicker with rpms at idle, brightness was consistent).
About two weeks ago I noticed things start to act funny. On a night ride, I noticed when I'd shift, the headlight would go BRIGHT, then back to normal, and at idle, all the lights would flicker with rpms and they seemed a bit dim.
I began noticing this around three weeks or so after I replaced the headlight; the one that came with the bike was original, it blew out. Pretty sure I got the right light, as I took it to Charlie's Place and they sold me the replacement.
I know most bikes have this sort of flickering at idle, but since I've noticed it change, I'm wondering if this is symptomatic of some part that is going weak/about to break, or if this is just something quirky about these bikes that I should ignore. I would not want to be one some ride late at night and have the lights go out!
Thanks.
Lights Acting FunnyFirst of all you should clean all the contact's and give the battery a charge.
Give the wiring a quick check, and check if the ground (negative) is in order, on my CB77 I have put a lot of ground wires, every single electrical unit has got a ground that goes the the frame, and some go directly to the battery. Im not taking any chance's because I know electrical problem's can be a very frustrating and time consuming thing. If that all is in order, and the lights still act funny, then I would replace the rectifier and the volt regulator if you have that on the bike (I don't have a volt regulator, but if im going to have problems I surly will install that) If the problem then still occurs and your'e sure you don't have any bad connection's or old 'doubtable' wires, then the problem has to be in the coils, but that's a small chance if you ask me. The problem probably lie's in the rectifier, bad (dirty) connections (or wire's if your'e unlucky) , or bad negative connections to the frame. 'Of course I've already taken a very modest position on the monetary system, I do take the position that we should just end the Fed.' - Ron Paul
Re: Lights Acting FunnyGet out the emory cloth and clean all of the connections at the battery and the point where the negative cable attaches to the frame. This weekend I was having trouble with the electric start and some lights flickering and found something interesting. Volt meter readings with the probes against the battery terminal bolts was well under 11V(10.55 appx.) but 12.2V when touching the probes to the battery terminals themselves. Seems some corrosion had built up on the surface of the negative cable and was preventing proper grounding even with the bolt nice and tight. I removed both battery terminal bolts and cleaned up all cable contacts with emory cloth and order was quickly restored.
Bottom line, most quirky electrical problems in these bikes are attributable to poor electrical connections and corroded contacts. Like the other poster said, no harm in adding grounds wherever you like. The more the merrier.
Haven't had a chance to try much with the lighting-- I mostly ride during the day anyways. But the flickering has persisted. Davo suggested ground when I showed it to him earlier. Then on the ride home on 101 on the freeway, the low-beam filament blew out, bulb is like a month old. Could that also be caused by a grounding issue? Inconsistent ground on the filament and all the differing voltage could weaken and destroy it, right? I'll start playing with that when I install the new bulb, but Charlie's wasn't open today.
You can never go wrong with adding grounds. Most of the crazy stuff I've encountered in auto and old cycle has been attributable to poor grounding of the circuits.
I tried attaching alligator clips from the ground terminal on the headlight to the main ground wire for the engine, which should give the strongest ground that there is on the engine. No avail. I also noticed that my tail light is blown out too. All of the lights flicker in this weird way. Perhaps there is a voltage regulator somewhere that isn't grounded properly and thus not regulating voltage. Hmm.
More often than not this is due to a bad/low voltage battery. .....lm
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