I need help. 1978 Honda 350 XL. If you know anything about them, keep reading.?

Question

I have a new battery, new fuse, new keyswicth, I get signals but no headlight and no spark. Can anyone help? All the wires are connected, is there a second fuse? Im at a complete loss.

Answer 1

you have a ground somewhere, or the coil is worn out. Take it to a honda dealership to have it diagnosed. it will cost you around 50 bucks, but they will be able to pin point the problem for you, so you can get it fixed......

Answer 2

For the money you have spent on that old beast you would have been better getting a newer bike.

Good luck. No Idea, sorry, this is not a racing question so i cant help you.

Answer 3

Your headlight gets its power from a set of windings in the alternator. The motor must be running for it to work.

The battery system powers only the turn signals, the horn, the taillight, and the brake light. It is charged by a different winding in the alternator. It is protected from overcurrent by a 10 amp fuse. The battery system is not necessary for the motorcycle to run.

Your ignition is powered by another winding in the alternator. It gets enough current flow while you are kick starting to provide a spark.

Your ignition circuit is very simple. Out of the alternator is a blue & white wire that connects to the ignition coil. It also connects to the stop/kill switch, and to the key switch. The kill switch grounds the circuit when in anything other than the middle position. The key switch grounds the circuit when in the off position.

Check the ground wire on the igniton coil, make sure it is not broken, and make sure it has a good connection to the frame.

Key ON.

Kill switch in OFF (middle position).

Remove the spark plug.

Get a new one.

Plug the spark plug into the spark plug wire and put the spark plug base against the cylinder head to ground it.

Kick the motor over with the kick start. Look for spark when kicking it over.

No spark?

Disconnect the blue & white wire from the key switch and from the kill switch.

Kick it over again looking for spark. If it sparks, you have a problem with one of the switches.

No Spark?

Remove the cover from the points.

Slowly rotate the motor while looking at the points. They should open and close during the rotation of the camshaft.

If they don't open, they could be stuck or not adjusted properly.

Get a very thin and fine file, put it between the point contacts

and clean the contacts very gently.

Check for spark again.

No spark?

You may have a bad coil. If so, get one (exactly the same) from a motorcycle salvage.

Don't listen to all the garbage. You will have a good motorcycle when you get it running. They last a long time.

Answer 4

No spark - could be the right handle bar switch (kill switch)..

It may be corroded inside or the connector it plugs into could be making a bad connection.

Headlight - left handlebar switch - same stuff - the headlight gets it's power from the switch.

Open up the L handlebar switch to see the wire color codes.

White is low beam and dark blue is high beam.

Check to see if power is going to those wires (I think they are powered by blue/white).

Answer 5

You are going to have a problem unless you have a meter. There are so many things it could be, you need a factory manual, that might be a problem,try the library. The last resort is a Honda dealership, good luck.

Answer 6

You can go to the dealer and pick up a "clymer" book on your specific bike.