Honda CB350 Repair Manual page 158

There are certain steps which, if fol—
lowed, can transform the art of trouble—
shooting into an exact science. Random
efforts often prove confusing, so a logical
method should .be adopted. Trouble—
shooting is nothing more than a system—
atic process of elimination, tracing back
and checking various components until
the fault is found. In most cases, this
takes verylittle time and very few special
tools are required.
Before youstart, try to determine if this
is a new problem, or one that's been com—
ing on gradually. If you are an aware
rider, you'll know whether or not perfor—
mance has been diminishing, and con—
sulting the troubleshooting guide in this
section may provde an immediate an—
swer. Also, whenever a problem shows
up just after work has been done on the
bike, check those areas that were in—
volved first, regardless of the nature of
the work.
When troubleshooting the engine, you
will be concerned with three major areas:
the ignition system, the fuel system, and
compression pressure. The engine needs
spark, fuel, and compression to run, and
it will be your job to determine which of
these it lacks and why. Let's say that your
engine won't start one morning, but it
was running fine the night before. The
most obvious thing to check first, but
which is often overlooked, is the fuel
supply. Keep in mind that evenif there is
gas in the tank, a low supply can some—
times make starting hard. Check to see if
you have fuel at the carburetors by re—
moving the float bowls or bowl drain
plugs. If so, you can be pretty sure that it
is not a lack of fuel which is preventing
the engine from starting. f
As far as compression is concerned,
there are only very few conditions that
will cause a sudden loss of compression,
and such an occurrence will happen only
while the engine is running. You should
be able to tell if you have normal com—
pression simply by the way the engine
sounds and feels it is cranked over. Or,
if you have the spark plugs out, cover the
plugsholes with your finger and kick the
engine over. If the pressure forces your
finger off the holes, there should be
enough compression for the engine to
start. Of course, the most accurate way to
check compression is by using a com—
on gauge.
, you have found that the engine has
relatively normal compression and is get—
ting fuel. The final area of investigation is
the electrical system. Check to see if you
are getting spark to the cylinders by re—
moving the plug leads and inserting a
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