grubsie
08-28-2012, 06:34 PM
I bought a resto project 1966 CA160 recently that I will be restoring as soon as I finish my '63 CA95 project. It is a non running bike that needs a ton of work. I can't stand having any motor that around me that does no run, so I bought some necessary parts just to hear it run before I tear it down. It needed the missing points and plate, condenser, stator and ignition switch. The original coil was in a box and had been disassembled somewhat (frame mounting bracket, spark plug wire clamps and spark plug wires). The previous owner had installed another coil (unknown brand) definitely not for this bike and used the spark plug wires from the original coil. I installed all the missing parts and kind of rebuilt the the original coil (installed the original spark plug wires without the missing brackets to hold them in place so I used tape and I re-installed the mounting bracket for the frame)
Got the points/timing adjusted close enough to be able to start the bike. Tested for spark and now the bike had spark at the plugs probably for the first time in a long time. The previous owner had the bike for 2 years and couldn't get spark. He just kept breaking and losing everything he touched.
Cleaned the carb a little bit and kickstarted. 2 kicks later it started right up. A little rough but running. This lasted approx 2 minutes, then it started backfiring a little, then firing only on one side then nothing. Pulled the plugs and kicked it through...no spark. I reached in to see if the wires were still in the coil. They were, but the coil was extremely hot. Especially the mounting hardware for the frame.
My question. Is this just a coil problem? Could it also have something to do with the rectifier? I want to try the coil from my CA95 (same coil) but afraid It might burn up. Any way to check these things? I read somewhere that if a rectifier is bad, the power can spike, so I don't want spike my CA95 coil. I still want to know if the cA160 rectifier is OK, so If I use my CA95 one instead, I won't know if the CA160 one is OK.
I am going to check the original coil again tomorrow to see if it has spark again now that it will be cooled down again.
Got the points/timing adjusted close enough to be able to start the bike. Tested for spark and now the bike had spark at the plugs probably for the first time in a long time. The previous owner had the bike for 2 years and couldn't get spark. He just kept breaking and losing everything he touched.
Cleaned the carb a little bit and kickstarted. 2 kicks later it started right up. A little rough but running. This lasted approx 2 minutes, then it started backfiring a little, then firing only on one side then nothing. Pulled the plugs and kicked it through...no spark. I reached in to see if the wires were still in the coil. They were, but the coil was extremely hot. Especially the mounting hardware for the frame.
My question. Is this just a coil problem? Could it also have something to do with the rectifier? I want to try the coil from my CA95 (same coil) but afraid It might burn up. Any way to check these things? I read somewhere that if a rectifier is bad, the power can spike, so I don't want spike my CA95 coil. I still want to know if the cA160 rectifier is OK, so If I use my CA95 one instead, I won't know if the CA160 one is OK.
I am going to check the original coil again tomorrow to see if it has spark again now that it will be cooled down again.