76 SOHC Kickstarts only

[Pilotbob]

I just picked up a 76 to keep my 75 cafe project company. After doing light mods, smaller signals and tail light, I now cannot use the starter. The starter turns over fine, maybe it gets loud and spins if I hold it too long, but no light off. I flood the engine if it goes too long. The kickstart works fine and all electrics are fine. When I pulled the headlight, I accidentally pulled some connections loose and found that the PO did some splicing of his own. Right now there is a brown and white wire which looks like it comes from the handlebar (R). It is hot and if I plug it into the connector with two other brown and white wires I constantly blow the tai light fuse as soon as I turn on the ignition. Right now I have the wire pulled and taped. Any thoughts...? I suspected starter clutch rollers but the bike started fine before I futsed with it and then just suddenly stopped lighting off with the starter. I'd figure a clutch would be more gradual. Thanks for any help and I can post pics if it'll help. Cheers...!

[shinyribs]

I'm almost positive when saying this from past experience. I think you just have a weak battery. These ignition systems rely heavily on a healthy battery. With a weak battery the extra drain of the electric starter is not leaving enough ''juice'' behind to power the ignition. Since you are not seeing that drain when kickstarting the bike is able to fire off and start.

[Pilotbob]

Looks like I'll start there.

[Re-run]

Charge the battery fully, 1 -2 amps max. Take it in and have it load tested. A simple volt test doesn't tell the story. I had a battery read 12.6, as it should have, but a load test made it go completely down to 0.
Just fyi, a typical lead based battery will read 12.6 volts at full charge, there may be slight variations, but a battery consists of 6 cells, each cell does 2.1 volts = 12.6v.

Still, kickstarting looks cool and is completely foreign to riders today.

[Pilotbob]

Put the battery on a charger for an hour or so. Got it to eventually start the bike. Looks like the battery is the issue. Will replace soon. Thanks for the help.

[Re-run]

If you can spot the cash, I'd go with an agm battery.
Lithium is starting to be the wave, but these old bikes don't charge them well if they have the mechanical regulator. Those do not keep the voltage smooth enough for lithium and voltage hits can cause lithiums to flame up.

If you have a good solid state regulator, then you could, but you will need a charger that works with lithiums AND can balance the cells IF the battery can't balance the cells on its own.

Plus, lithiums are about double the price of a good agm.

[Truck]

I have a glass-gel battery I got from AutoZone. Works great, even when I was having charging issues it never burnt out. I let it sit in a barn all winter and still had enough charge to crank it over the other day. Also, it didn't cost any more that a regular battery.