Motorcycle Repair: 1975 Honda CB200t....not running, engine switch, signs of trouble

Question
Hi Rich,

I bought a 1975 Honda CB200t in September of 08.  It ran great for a month or two, then just stopped.  No warning, no signs of trouble, just stopped kicking over (the electric start never worked, but it always kicked on the first shot).  
I tried a few simple things, but ultimately had to wait until the spring (now) to really dig in and try to fix it.  So far, I've started simple: new ignition coil and wires, new caps, new plugs, new battery, fresh oil and gas.  None of it helped.  

Other symptoms (aside from just not starting): the headlight does not work at all. The blinkers come on, but flash very slowly.  (The lights in the odometer/speedometer do come on along with the neutral light and they dim when I turn the engine switch on.)

It's also hard shifting (when it was running and even now when I just try to shift gears when it's sitting).  It gets hung up in neutral a lot and is hard to kick down or up into gear.  I thought the fresh oil would helps that, but no luck!  

The engine turns fine and there seems to be compression (I can "hear" some compression when I turn the engine--though I haven't done any official compression check).

I tried to replace the points.  Took the old ones off before I realized that the new ones I bought are the wrong ones.  So, I put the old ones back on for now.  Before I even took them off, though, I noticed that when I manually turn the engine (either by using a wrench on the alternator bolt or kicking it) the points DO NOT open at all.  Are they supposed to??  Or do I have to do more than turn the engine to get them to open?

As you can tell, I'm not sure what is related and what's not, so I'm just throwing everything out there.

Feel free to talk to me like I'm an idiot--this is the first bike I've owned and tried to work on, so everything (aside from some simple tasks/terminology) is relatively new.

Thanks a bunch.
Tony

Answer
Tony, sounds like you have a couple of things going on.  The electrical problem is probably a loose or dirty connection in the wiring harness somewhere.  One the right hand switch there's a black wire that should have 12 volts on it.  Coming out of the switch there's a black and white wire that goes to the coils.  That's the power wire to the coils.  It should also have 12 volts to it when the kill switch is on.  The points ground the coils when they close so you should also have 12 volts there when they are open. You shoul dbe able to manually open and close the points with a screwdriver to get the plugs to spark.  Make sure the points are clean.  You can use a points file to clean any carbon build up they might have.

There's a cam on the end of the cam that should be opening and closing the points.  If you take the bolt and washer out of the advance unit and look closely at the end of it you will see there's an eccentric shape to it.  Just be careful not to change the indexing on the timing advance unit on the cam.  There's a small pin the fits in the advance unit that times the advance to the cam.

If you adjust the points so the rubbing block just touches the advance unit at the inner base circle of the  cam, it will have about the right point gap to at least get it running.  The points should have a .014 gap when they are fully open.  

The hard shifting is another problem.  There are a couple of rollers under the right hand crank case cover that index the shift drum.  Sometimes those rollers wear in the pin and can make it hard to shift or cause the shift drum to be improperly indexed so it can jump out of gear.  If you take the larger of the two indexers off and can feel or see any looseness in the roller to the pin, it needs to be replaced.

Regards
Rich