fried hondamatic

[newrider13]

My husband just bought a 1978 cb750 hondamatic. He had to change the battery and did once he figured out. However when he put the positive terminal on it arced and the bike started pouring white smoke.  There are no lights aside from the turn lights on the dash and it doesnt even try to start. What did he do and how do we fix it?

[Lucky 1]

You should have consulted the owners manual or the workshop manual if you were not sure which way it went in.


Remove the gas tank and anything else you need to ,so you can see the wiring.
Look for melted wires.
You will have to repair all melted wiring and test all the components in the charging system.

Do you know how to solder and use heat shrink tubing?
If not you will have to learn or hire a mechanic to do that.

It will take most of a day to do this. 8 hours at least.

[TOOLS1]

Sorry to hear this. Did he hook up the battery backwards? If not there is a short in the wiring somewhere (bare wire touching ground.) Either way he will need to track down the fried wires, and repair them.
TOOLS

[newrider13]

Well y'all are right a connector was split wide open and we had bare wire touching the frame. The entire wire harness is pretty much melted. Would anyone know where we could buy a new wire harness or if not what gauge wire would we need to use to replace the melted wires? Any advice in dealing with this issue would be welcome

[Lucky 1]

You can buy an aftermarket 1975 complete wiring harness for a 1975. Parts and More.
It will work on your 1978. I have already replaced MY old ratty wiring harness.
It is almost all plug and play.
Except the handlebar switches.
SAVE THE OLD HARNESS TO HAVE MATCHING COLOR CODED WIRES WHERE NEEDED


Do NOT alter the wiring harness though, only the switches.