Feeling much better thank you!

Well after some frustrations, some progress.
The spark plug caps came and got installed and didn't resolve the problem.  Well they resolved the problem of the resistance being 19 ohms on one plug and infinity on the other but the bike still wouldn't start.
We've only been working on her sporadically, some days not at all, but until today we weren't able to get the infernal machine to crank. A cough here, a sputter there but mostly a lot of nothing.

There is nothing exciting about tracing out the wires and hoping to find a loose one somewhere, so it was tinker some, walk away a to brood, tinker, brood... A couple semi-eureka moments (was that wire loose or did I just tug it a little too hard?) but nothing much encouraging. 

Finally decided to go back to the beginning and check timing and points. Some how ignition timing plate had slipped. Set that back and viola...she fired up.

She's still missing a little on the left cylinder (I don't think that set of points is properly set-up yet) but she was definitely firing some on both cylinders, and it ran long enough that I was able to get some readings on the charging system.  These numbers may be low but I guess they are better than nothing.  At idle speed (@ 1300 rpm) the voltage reading across the battery was 12.2 Vac.  At  @ 2000 rpm reading was 12.7 and at @ 4000 rpm it was reading 13.7.  I'm thinking this may be a little lower than desirable but it is positive so that's sorta OK right?

I didn't think about running the check on the alternator while I was working on her but tomorrow, after I go back through the points and timing I will check that as well.

I was encouraged enough today to forestall the the idea of parting her out on e-bay for another couple of weeks.

what is it?

What is this?  I can't find this mystery piece on any of the drawings for the 1976 CB500T.
What is it, and where is it supposed to mount?

Logic and electricity

I'm not an electrician, not even close, but I can kinda sorta read a schematic some and know that wires, and switches and relays are very much like a computer program flow chart or a logic problem (both of which I studied in college about a 100 years ago and wasn't real good at but I do kind of understand the concept of "if A=>then B" and all that to some degree, and I did work in factory where sometimes I could logically convince the electrician where he should be looking to resolve the problem) so it really wasn't connecting with me as to why doing some static tests on a few component and removing a wire that wasn't going to be used would suddenly make the Honda not start at all.
But now I have a theory at least.
After we scrapped the idea of getting the electrical starter working (mechanical problem, not electrical) I decided to pull the wire, which was an add on and not part of the harness because of some previous owner's tinkering.
I took it loose at both ends, cut the visible ties and tried unsuccessfully to pull it out. Eventually the tank had to be pulled and more ties cut before it came free.
By now the battery is recharged and we want to start it to check some voltages while it's running to see if we can isolate the charging problem but it won't start. Not getting any fire, and not making any sense. Nothing we did should have made a difference, and it was starting so readily two days before.
When I initially reported that the battery wasn't charging some suggested looking for loose wires. A while later, since I seemingly wasn't getting any juice from the coil, I'm looking for some test for the coil. Find one, and the first step is to take the black/white wires loose from the coils to do a test...one of them is already kind of loose in the connector.  Ah-hah, maybe that is the charging problem, but it never came to the point of finding that out because the testing indicated that there was a problem with the spark plug caps and now I wait for those...
But this morning I get a revelation...the loose wire wasn't the charging problem but maybe it was the starting problem.  Looking at the diagram I find that the black/white wire at the coil comes from the run/kill switch, and with that circuit open I'm guessing I found the problem with the no fire issue.
And I'm assuming that the way this wire got loose is that when I tried to pull out that starter wire it tangled in the wire to the coil and pulled it loose...and that is why removing the starter wire made the bike not start (with the kick-starter.)
So I'm hoping that this will resolve the starting problem and that the new spark plug caps (which should be here today or tomorrow) will resolve the firing on one cylinder issue, which still leaves the charging problem...

more baby steps

still not wanting to start, and remember that when it did it seemed to not always fire on the right cylinder.
more routine tests, this time the ignition coil.
according to the book you short the wires from the coil and check resistance from shorted wires to the spark plug wires.  you should get the same or very similar readings on both sides. I'm not getting any readings. [what, oh, wrong setting on the multimeter]
when I remove the spark plug caps and check continuity on them I get 10 ohms and 8.5 ohms.
when I do the above check of spark plug wires without the caps in place I get 10.3 and 10.4 ohms. (someone on one of the forums I go to for advice says this is a good number for the coil.)
when I install the caps again I get 19.0 and infinity. when I switch the caps side-to-side I get infinity and 19.0.
sounds like a bad cap to me. (and the bad cap was on the right side which has been observed as not firing consistently)
2 suggestions from different forums suggests that my evaluation is likely correct.
ordered some caps (paid a little extra for expedited shipping since they were so cheep) and now I wait again.
if I get lucky the new caps will make it easier to start and resolve the firing on one cylinder problem.

frustrated

Saturday we had this thing where it would start almost effortlessly nearly every time with the kick-starter.
Yesterday we were just test testing continuity of a few components to see if we could determine why the charging system wasn't working.
Tested the rectifier and the voltage regulator and they both seem OK based on the testing procedure found in the Clymer's manual. The leads for the alternator all checked as per the book as well.  The only static test we didn't do was the checking of  the alternator core just because I wasn't exactly sure how to do it and ran out of time due to other commitments. So far we haven't found anything we could put our finger on but that's as far as it has gone for now because the infernal machine won't start. Occasionally it will fire and sputter but mostly nothing.
Battery was fully charged when I started this morning (because I charged it) but the engine just doesn't want to cooperate.
I think I'll let it slide for the day and enjoy the company of my lady.

As veiwed from the side-car of the Ural

Sometimes a step backward is really a step in the right direction.
Tony and I had been piddling around with the Honda some for a couple of days without a lot of success. To be honest it was kind of a half hearted piddle, until yesterday.
For a few days it was: try to start it, it catches briefly and dies, and we are looking at on-line trouble shooting guides to find the symptoms...fires up and then just quits. Gradually it gets to sounding a progressively worse, until it gets to the point where sometimes it starts to sound like the starter clutch isn't actually engaging all the time. Then Thursday we began trying to get it started via the kick starter, forsaking the convenience of the electric starter to avoid hearing the sound. The results were the same until...it just locked up. Totally locked up.
In my mind I was thinking that it was the same old problem with the alternator/starter clutch.
So yesterday I pulled the left cover and sure enough... The new starter sprocket retaining plate was bent, the sprocket had just about totally disengaged from the starter clutch, and the starter chain was bound up against the side of the crank-case housing and tight as a banjo string (I used to have a banjo so I know how tight the strings are and that's not just a trite expression I'm throwing around loosely.) For some reason one of the screws attaching the starter clutch to the alternator rotor had backed out (I lock-tited them) and forced the sprocket out of position. This was a problem with this bike before I got it, and after seeing what happened this time I'm figuring this is how the kick-starter shaft got broken in the first place.
I don't know why these screws won't stay tight, I just know they won't and I may be at the point that I don't care.
We take all that mess out, (by the way, all the parts I've been ordering and waiting on for the last month were in that little sub-assembly), readjust the idle screws on the carbs back to the point that someone recommended either here or on facebook, and kick her over and...whoa! Fires right up and is idling smoothly at 1400 rpm! We repeat this several times just to be sure it wasn't a fluke, and it fires up everytime with one or two kicks.
So we spend an hour or so checking and adjusting the brakes and adjusting the clutch (is the sweet-spot on the clutch adjustment really that hard to hit?) before deciding that we've reached the point that there's nothing left to do but to do it.
Tony follows in the Ural and Desiree records the event on her i-phone from the side car.

And now some questions...
At the end it died. The ride was just over a mile. I was just going around the block so luckily when it died we were only about 200 yards from the house.
It seemed to be running pretty well initially. Plenty of power, plenty of pick-up, but after about 3/4 mile it strated coughing and missing pretty bad.
When it stopped the battery was dead. No horn, no nothing.
We pushed it up the street a ways and when we got almost back Tony tried it and the horn was working and it fired up (less than 5 minutes elapsed.)
So, what to look for now? Not charging? Dead short? Where should I start looking and what testing can be done?

What now?

You know the old joke about the dog that's always chasing cars and then one day he catches one?  Now what's he gonna do with it?  That's me with this motorcycle. Now what?  I don't know if I ever really expected I'd get her torn down, put back together, and running or not but here I am...and there it is. 
By the way the juke box (zune) was playing random songs when she started and the song that just happened to be playing was, Joe Ely "The Road Goes On Forever."

I edited this video...cut the first 5 minutes or so out..  Didn't think it would be too interesting watching me try to start it, scratch my head, try to start it, scratch my ass, try to start it fiddle with something on the left side that you couldn't see from the camera angle over and over for five minutes so I edited it.
The spark plug wire on the left cylinder is not in very good shape and not making good connection.  That is the primary reason it wouldn't start at first.

Once it started every time the engine kind of paused it made a funny noise.  It didn't really sound quite the same on the video, at least I didn't think so...does that noise sound bad?
I let it die at the end because I noticed that it was starting to smoke.  It's not real visible but if you watch carefully you can notice about 2 minutes into the video there is some smoke coming up by my right leg.  It appeared to be coming from or around the pre-chamber between the pipes.  Maybe just normal from solvents burning off or a symptom of something bad?
If anyone has any ideas about the noise or the smoke, speak up please, I'm looking for advice.

The coming

The parts I orded came today.
All of them.
I am dying to get back to work on the bike but I may wait until this "hammie" is feeling just a bit better.

Charge!!!

Well, it's been a week since I ordered the alternator parts.
I haven't exactly been waiting by the mailbox, but I have been checking my inbox...for the dreaded, "Sorry, we no longer stock that part" e-mail.
And so far that hasn't come either.
But, I have also been checking the charges on my credit card to see if the charge for  the parts shows up which I would take as a good sign.  Last time I ordered from this place I got the parts about a week after the charge showed up.
Just checked my credit card charges again, and guess what...the charge for the parts showed up.  The full charge so I'm hoping that means all parts available and shipped and I'll have them in about a week.

Trusting your gut

One of the initial problems I had with this bike was the alternator rotor.  The key was missing, and the holes were so wallowed out that the screws attaching it to the starter clutch wouldn't stay tight.  As a result, the hole for the pin which was supposed to lock everything up nice and snug was also worn out, and way out of round.  I never found anyone who could fix it and I couldn't find a replacement.  (My son found one and gave it to me.)
Anyway, when I put this all back in, I tried using the original pin (rhymes with original sin) even though I could tell it was worn.  Not nearly as bad as the hole it was supposed to fit but it was worn and I knew it.

When we originally tried last year to start her (I'm starting to lean towards "Sadie" as a name) the sound of the engine turning over sounded differently as the alternator screws worked their way loose.  I thought I had a hint of that the other day when I tried to restart her.
I knew I was going to have to pull that alternator to be sure it wasn't coming apart again...I didn't want to go backwards but I didn't want to screw up that new rotor either.
Sure enough, things were starting to get loose.  Not bad, not yet, but it wouldn't have taken a whole lot more.
I called around to some local places to see if maybe they'd have at least the pin but no one had it.  I decided to try the place where I ordered the retaining plate for the starter sprocket.
They seemed to have it, so I ordered some new screws and the plate that goes between the starter clutch and the rotor that holds all the little goodies inside and the little spring caps for the clutch because one of them seemed to want to hang up and let the roller kind of flop at times, and I'm hopeful that the order confirmation e-mail I got means that they really did have the parts.  Now I just have to sit and wait by the mail box every day till they come.
It's a real downer to have gotten so close only to have to wait on parts again but... it is what it is. 
I feel good that I had enough sense to check it out rather than to just push blindly forward and screw something up again.
By the way...here is a link to the dealer that I've had some luck with as far as finding parts:
http://www.westernhillshondayamaha.com/