Is my battery dead? Is my charging system fried?

[jonnythan]

Your advice helped -went trough every thing and OMF I will have to lash out for a new generator but lone behold when I traced the earth I found that some how one of the wires had been rubbed clean of insulation and made a dead short on the frame i taped it up and whao I got 13.8 v when the bike was running Thanks again

Awesome. So often it's a simple wiring problem. Congrats.

[BananaKatana]

I was pi$$ed off one day and not thinkin and jumped my bike with my running car, running meaning my mustang's 150 amp powermaster alt was pumping. Weeks later I had a problem with my electrical power completely cutting out, which I later narrowed down to the back of the fuse box + the harness going in to it being melted and having a poor connection due to the crazy voltage I threw at it. Also it seemed to have fried up my battery somethin' weird, considering it gave inconsistant voltage after that. Just thought I'd throw in my stupid mistake.

[ocean]

great thank you probably saved me taking it to a bike shop

Keep in mind that the dead charging system can just be a bad ground connection on the regulator or something like that. First thing you should do is check all of your fuses and carefully check all of the connections between the generator and battery.

Okay, silly question here.
For a different bike it may be different, but where are the friggin fuses?

What i thought were fuses on my 84 CB700SC Nighthawk S ( which I have yet to enjoy trouble free starting let alone reliable riding since the day after buying it from a south bay shop ) apparently are not fuses at all. The only place i see a fuse listed in my honda shop manual is right next to the battery at its left, and its a weird little black box seated in a metal and rubber mounted cupholder like thing. But also screwed shut and when i tesed its ends it reads as they are fine.
But are not there more fuses than this on these bikes?

From all the common staring issues ive been reading about since buying this bike, Im starting to get the impression that motorcycles being as defective, stalling and generally behaving / performing poorly and being unreliable may be more the rule than the exception!? Uggghh!

Do people actually enjoy the truly trouble free, reliable riding & performance that i read about initially about these "bombproof", "fill with oil & gas and forget about theyre so reliable" motorcycles, with their motorcycles for extended periods of time?

[crazypj]

great thank you probably saved me taking it to a bike shop

Keep in mind that the dead charging system can just be a bad ground connection on the regulator or something like that. First thing you should do is check all of your fuses and carefully check all of the connections between the generator and battery.

Okay, silly question here.
For a different bike it may be different, but where are the friggin fuses?

What i thought were fuses on my 84 CB700SC Nighthawk S ( which I have yet to enjoy trouble free starting let alone reliable riding since the day after buying it from a south bay shop ) apparently are not fuses at all. The only place i see a fuse listed in my honda shop manual is right next to the battery at its left, and its a weird little black box seated in a metal and rubber mounted cupholder like thing. But also screwed shut and when i tesed its ends it reads as they are fine.
But are not there more fuses than this on these bikes?

From all the common staring issues ive been reading about since buying this bike, Im starting to get the impression that motorcycles being as defective, stalling and generally behaving / performing poorly and being unreliable may be more the rule than the exception!? Uggghh!

Do people actually enjoy the truly trouble free, reliable riding & performance that i read about initially about these "bombproof", "fill with oil & gas and forget about theyre so reliable" motorcycles, with their motorcycles for extended periods of time?

Honda didn't get a reputation for reliability by being unreliable.
Have you checked/cleaned every connector? ( thought not)
Main fuse is built into starter solenoid, there is a sub fuse box somewhere on bike ( I 'do' Suzuki's)

[coffee_brake]

Ocean, if you want to learn to do anything with your 700S, beyond put air in the tires and check the oil that is, go buy the Clymers manual for it. Therein are the pictures of your fuses, directions on how to load-test a battery, how to do a complete tune-up, chase bad acceleration, do a carb sync, and all the things that a street-riding motorycle requires.

Old Hondas are amazing. If yours is giving you fits, it's only due to either harsh abuse or ignorance. Nothing wrong with that, but without a good buddy mechanic to stand over your shoulder and watch you do the job (very few of us had that), you're going to have to read the book and follow the step-by-step directions.

My poor 700S had been sorely misused. Oh, the horror of wiring patches I found behind the headlight! Oh, the rusty, fluid-encrusted useless brake calipers! But a little time in the books helped me put her to rights and what a sweet, fast, nimble ride she was! Buy the book, buy what tools you need, as you need them. This is what true motorcycling is all about. This is what makes it better, cheaper, and infinetly more rewarding than driving a car. "If you ain't busted a knuckle or two, you ain't no rider!"

Good luck, dude.....if you want a trouble-free ride, best to let your sweet classic 700s go, and find yourself a very late-model V-Star or shaft-drive something, maybe a Shadow, and be done with it.