65 ca95 charging question

[mfeon90]

my 65 ca95 150, puts out too many volts around 15 volts,i was told its suppose to be 6 volt system, is the rectifier blown if so whats the best fix and were do i get the parts,need a new battery also, where to find one at,i noticed a fuse by the battery what is it used for,found out why it was puting out too many volts,i had the battery out, so when i cleaned the post on the battery and re=installed it,the volts was right on

[RobG]

Where are you measuring the 15 volts? The actual voltage varies significantly depending on where in the system you are measuring this.

[rhodemon]

That tiny little 6v battery is a critical link in the CA95 charging system. It serves as a charging system regulator and must be nearly fully charged at all times to properly regulate the very simple charging system. If the system doesn't see a charged battery, it will attempt to put out a very high voltage and will begin to burn out the light bulbs in the system, and that includes the very expensive and now rare sealed beam headlight. I recently worked on a friend's CA95 that had every bulb in the bike burned out.

I have been replacing the speedometer and neutral light bulbs with red LED's as they are very voltage tolerent and long lasting. I even put 4 of them in my tail light, 2 for the brakes and 2 for the running lights. I get them from Superbrite LEDs on the web. As soon as they produce a mega LED for our headlite bulbs, we'll be in fat city!

Bill Silver has written a couple of very good manuals that mostly apply to the 305cc models of the same vintage as our CA95's, but a lot of the stuff he covers in them apply to our bikes. Even though the 305's used a 12v system, their principals apply to the 150's as well, and Bill does a very good job of cautioning owners against a number of pitfalls that apply to vintage Hondas, both mechanical and electrical. His manuals are now available online.

[RobG]

LEDing the bulbs is a good way to go, but make sure you check your own state's legislature if you plan on keeping it plated. Many states do not allow LED signal bulbs for antiquated reasons.

That said, I was just in at the BMV successfully getting my title, finally, (helps to know a lawyer) and she asked me if I wanted to plate it also. I said no since it was never my intention, but in their infinite cautiousness and harassing me over and over about details of the paperwork, she was ready to give me a plate without a second inspection. The inspection I had done was a numbers inspection. She would have let me walk out of there with a license plate for a vehicle which has a barely working headlight and none of the other state required minimum safety features light a brake light or mirrors....

Go figure.

I was going to post a tutorial for getting a title for an abandoned vehicle but the process ended up being so stupid complicated that the best advice I can give there is just to find someone locally who has done it. I have no idea what of my Indiana experience would hold true in other states.