Honda 450 Nighthawk (1985)

 Long story short.  Bought the bike 5 years ago, rode it for a total of 2-3
hours (5-6 rides) and its been parked for the last 4 years.  With new
battery, fully charged, the starter will not turn the engine.  Maybe its
frozen.

Should I be able to turn the engine by turning the rear wheel.  This bike
does not have a kick starter.  I'll take out the spark plugs to make it a
little easier and put it in 4th gear.

Any other ideas on how to un-freeze this engine would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ivan Vegvary

 

Poor some releasing oil down the spark plug holes and wait a few days,
then try again.



--
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BOF#30 WUSS#5  The bells, the bells.....

 Ivan Vegvary wrote:

When you say "the starter will not turn the engine," do you mean that
nothing at all occurs?  Have you tested to see if voltage is getting to
the starter?  Does the starter sound like it's trying but is being held
back?  When you hit the starter button, does the headlight dim?  More
info, please.

 Remove the flywheel cover (left side) and see if you can turn the engine
over by rotating the crankshaft. If it is solid the rings are probably
rusted. Try with the spark plugs removed.

Ivan Vegvary wrote:

 
It's not clear from your description whether the starter solenoid is
clicking or if the starter is groaning and trying unsuccessfully to
crank the engine.

If you're not even hearing the solenoid clicking, the first thing to
check is whether the kill switch is in the RUN position, and do just
assume that a switch on a motorcycle that old is working correctly
just because it's set to the position where it's supposed to work.

Sometimes you have to operate a switch several times through all of
its positions to knock some of the corrosion off the contacts.

Another thing to be aware of when the solenoid won't click and nothing
electrical on the motorcycle works: Honda makes a practice of
concealing a main fuse under the cover of the starter solenoid. In
your case, it looks like a 20 amp blade type fuse.

If the pistons and rings really have rusted to the cylinder walls,
some penetrating oil is in order. After an engine is unfrozen, an oil
change is in order to get the loose rust out.