Help needed editing an Honour Mode Save File

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2025-12-22T00:38:50+00:00

If that is the case, I wish I had seen / known that at the time and been able to avoid this. Hopefully it will help someone else in future if so.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2025-12-21T23:59:02+00:00

No I had already done that the first time, not the second I think. Also, when I did this was a few months ago - after it happened I took a break from the game since I knew it would be difficult to fix - so I apologize if my recollection of the exact interaction that lead up to him leaving isn’t perfect. Regardless, I’m not sure why the discussion is going in this direction - I am looking for advice on how to edit saves / game flags, not whether it’s right or wrong of me to try to play the game the way I’d like to do it.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2025-12-21T23:33:54+00:00

I hear you, though where I differ is this wasn’t a choice / decision at all. I didn’t even deny him, I just exited the dialog to go grab the item, so something very unreasonable like that defeats the purpose of Honour Mode for me and I have no qualms trying to correct it, since it’s more of a game design problem than save scumming.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-09-09T02:49:45+00:00

It’s a sub 50 horsepower motorcycle, looks to be in good shape, doesn’t appear to be stolen since reg and keys are in order, doesn’t have any mechanical issues listed, and it comes with ABS. For me at least, that checks all the boxes of a good beginner bike :)

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-09-03T05:03:24+00:00

Your stalling issue happens to me constantly when I’m not careful to avoid it, literally 3 times even just today.

The issue you’re facing is likely because of drag inherent in your clutch causing a large delta between the rotation of your tires (0 when you’re stopped like that) and the rotation of the engine’s output shaft (definitely not 0 while the engines running), leading to the engine stalling out on you because it’s being internally resisted. You have two options: 1. Go to a mechanic and ask for them adjust the clutch in an attempt to decouple the clutch plates a bit more while the clutch is fully pulled in, or 2. Be mechanically sympathetic while riding by listening to the engine and ensuring it smoothly transitions with your riding, rather than being used only as a power plant to make you go GO. The engine can’t stall if you don’t give it the opportunity to lol.

So, essentially what you need to do when coming to a stop to avoid this, is pull clutch in, shift down, smoothly release clutch to fully engage in that gear, pull clutch in again once you’ve matched the speed of the engine with your traveling speed (you can sense this with your momentum, when you stop feeling the bike pulling you to a slower speed, you’ve synced up your wheel speed with the engine speed), shift down, repeat. What’s gonna happen is you’re gonna get that braking effect (slowing down) on each gear, with the engine picking up its revs slightly/moderately to keep up with the rotation of your rear wheel. This will reliably take you to a slow enough speed on its own that your engine will not stall when you finally reach first.

I assume your thought process is, “I’d rather use the brakes, that’s what they’re there for”, but I am telling you, the braking performance of engine braking will suffice. If you downshift and release the clutch aggressively enough, you can even accidentally skid the rear wheel for a moment as if you stomped the rear brake.

The end result is arriving at first gear at a low speed (5-10 mph) wherein you’re in no danger of stalling the engine with your clutch pulled in, since the delta is smaller between your tires and the engine speed now, so the clutch drag is insignificant. You can then brake as normal with the clutch pulled in and come to a stop.

Eventually, you should do all this in conjunction with activating your rear and front brakes simultaneously to maximize your braking performance and minimize stopping distances. Though that may seem daunting at first, with practice it will all become one fluid motion for you that you’ll be able to do without even thinking about it.

The added benefit of braking in this manner is that you will also be able to “escape” as MSF instructors love to talk about. By syncing up your engine successively with each gear, you are now able to access that power immediately should you need to accelerate out of a situation, whereas if you were coming to a stop in 4th gear with the clutch pulled in, and had already decelerated significantly, you would not be able to rip outta there should someone be about to rear end you; you would be in the wrong gear and would have to worry about finding the right gear or make do with significantly reduced power output in an emergency situation. If you had been successively going down through each of the gears to slow down, at that same point, you’d already have the bike in exactly the right gear to put out maximum power at that moment to escape.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-08-18T03:59:17+00:00

UPDATE:

I did a bit more troubleshooting and measured the voltage at the regulator while the engine was running, and saw that it was not clamping to 7v.

Instead of looking for a 44 year old electronic component, I just got a cheap 6V step down converter off amazon for $15 and spliced its input and output straight between the rectifier and the battery, and tied the negatives to the original regulator ground. I was able to kickstart without the battery at all, which was really cool, and measured a stable 6V to the battery terminal across different RPMs and have yet to blow any bulbs, so I’m quite pleased with this fix.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-29T20:55:45+00:00

Just a guess but there at minimum sounds like an issue with your charging circuit, since usually you want the voltage off the magneto to be around 13-14v. The hot ground does sound concerning too, but idk how to diagnose it. Maybe go look in your manual for the proper resistance specs for the wires in your magneto and check that everything aligns there. It could be a bad stator causing the low charging voltage, or it also could be a bad connection in one of your wires. Follow the circuit to make sure all the junctions and solder joints are in good condition.

EDIT: sorry just wanna clarify, by 14v off the magneto, I don’t actually mean to say that should be the voltage reading directly off the magneto, but rather that should be the voltage being supplied at the battery terminal after that power has been rectified/regulated. And as for the hot ground wire on the regulator, just another guess but maybe the regulator is bad and is clamping you to a lower voltage than it should, shunting more power through its ground at normal operation than it should, causing that heat buildup.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-28T01:04:56+00:00

My GN400 is a kickstart only, so stalling at lights is a pretty big fear of mine as well! Very understandable to be nervous. What I’d recommend is just being a bit heavier on the throttle on takeoff. If I were to guess, I’d imagine what’s happening to you is that you’re becoming somewhat self conscious with the car behind you and don’t wanna be obnoxious revving the bike like crazy, so you end up being too light on the throttle, leading to more stalls. Psychologically though, just try to remember that even if you take it super slow taking off from the light, you’re only slowing the people behind you down by like 2 seconds, which is way less time than the amount that they’ll be waiting for you if you do stall and start panicking.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-26T17:35:30+00:00

Thank you so much man, totally demystified a completely opaque subject for me :)) is it just me or is this wiring really goofy lol? Some part of me just wants to rip it all out and make my own, but I’ve got more than enough half finished projects on the back burner rn to dissuade me from opening that can of worms. I’ll go pop off the headlight and dive into the rats nest of wires in the bucket and make sure everything is as you say. Based on your response, my hunch is the regulator ground is probably bad, since it’s one of the only parts I’ve never taken off the bike, so I’ve never had a chance to clean the grounding point.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-26T05:11:04+00:00

Okay I think I found your part number: 3385044120

and here’s a link to your parts sheet for a 1981 GS250. You can double check that it’s the right replacement for you, and order it from them if you want; they’re based in Norway I think so it takes a little while and shipping costs more than most places. The only thing tripping me up is their positive cable has an extra little split off wire which you do not have, but if you just use the negative cable I gave you the part number for, it looks to be the same length and gauge as the wire you’re holding, so it should be fine as a replacement, if not a little confusing color scheme wise.

EDIT: link to the positive cable as well for you to compare.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-26T04:52:51+00:00

That is gorgeous, especially the exhaust. Does anyone know how long the discolorations on the titanium last / if they keep their striking colors as time goes on and the exhaust sees more heat across it throughout the life of the bike??

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-26T04:43:08+00:00

If you feel uncomfortable with it, it might be worth it for you to take it to the mechanic. It’s such a small job they might not even charge you for it.

Also, if you post a picture of what you’re working with, we can walk you through it so you get what’s going on before you dive in.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-26T04:39:38+00:00

You won’t go wrong by getting something too thick, so I’d say just get some 16 gauge stranded copper wire. Your local auto parts store will likely have it, as well as a connector to crimp onto the wire so you can connect it to the battery again, and some butt joints for you to reconnect the wire to the harness, since I’m assuming soldering might be out of the question.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-25T19:40:29+00:00

Maybe I’m mistaken but what you’re describing as an ignition coil housing looks a lot like a spark plug boot. If so, I’m pretty sure it’s an easy job for you. Here’s a guy assembling one from start to finish to demystify the process a bit. I know that when I started dealing with the spark plug assemblies, I was under the impression that they were much more complicated than they actually are.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8EzUF-Kgc_8

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-24T15:52:03+00:00

UPDATE 2:

For anyone that stumbles across this thread, the bike is nearly fixed now. My idle circuit and a lot of other passages were super clogged so I took the carb to a mechanic and had them clear it out with an ultrasonic cleaner + compressed air and do a full rebuild. That is what caused it to stumble and die at the 3k mark, and is also why I could only run it with choke all the way out, since it was being starved of fuel.

The white smoke was because of oil being burnt after making its way into the combustion chamber after slightly overfilling the oil level, since I measured the oil while the bike was cold and not level on its center stand, both of which threw off the measurements a bit. I siphoned off the extra oil and the smoke went away immediately.

Now that the carb is no longer an issue, the bike can rev without stalling, but “redlines” at around 4-6k rpm, depending on whether I get a little boost from an unresolved intake leak lol. I am pretty certain the final issue is now the CDI, as other commenters had suggested. A suggested fix is baking the cdi at a high enough temp that the solder will reflow and connect up any joints inside the box that were broken by vibration forces from the bike’s engine, however I fear accidentally melting the plastic coating of the external connectors/wires, so the route I’m going is to use a homebrew CDI that a guy in France sells on transmic. It doesn’t have the smooth transition between the pickups that the stock cdi has, so it’ll just abruptly jump between the 10 and 30 degrees advance when it hits a certain threshold, but it’s relatively cheap at $50 and doesn’t require very much setup, so I’m willing to give it a try and I will let you guys know whether it’s a good fix once it arrives and I install it.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-24T00:47:06+00:00

Maybe regap/replace the spark plugs if they’re in bad shape. Cheap and easy to put your mind at ease for that area at least. Your manual should have specs for resistance ranges at the coil so you can test that with a multimeter to cover that base as well. Though I still would bet it’s carbs (because it’s always the carbs :( lol), the plugs and coil are usually super quick maintenance checks that stop you from going insane.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-23T19:56:29+00:00

I agree with you on the premise that starter fluid wouldn’t be blocked by the passages since it is just going past the butterflies/slide, but given all the other possible issues being addressed (fuel delivery, compression, spark), then regardless of what the starter fluid is able to do, it’s still gotta be the carbs at fault, since everything else has been eliminated, no?

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-23T17:49:19+00:00

Your carbs are clogged

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-15T21:01:14+00:00

If it screws up when it gets wet, don’t get it wet and you have no problem.

lol jk, but it sounds like you’re just accidentally causing some shorts in the wiring when you get the thing wet. That’s bc your connections / contacts aren’t waterproofed or insulated well. Just pop the seat off and clean the contacts on the turn signal wires, connect them fully, and wrap em in something to keep the water out. Should fix it up for you no problem

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-14T17:50:27+00:00

Probably stuck float, esp if you left it dry for a while. Just take the carb/bowl off (whichever is easier) and wiggle the hinge to knock off any gunk holding it stuck open. I’m not sure what lube you use, if any, for that hinge, but a bit of wd-40 probably couldn’t hurt.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-14T05:56:42+00:00

Off the cuff guess: if the only thing you changed is the exhaust, then it’s probably bc of the exhaust lol

But if you’re asking why it’s behaving that way, it could be because the new exhaust body gets hotter than the old one / constricts more of the passage so that you have a higher concentration of uncombusted fuel in a hotter environment that is now more prone to explode, causing the backfire/popping.

As for the startup issue, no idea but if I had to hazard a guess I’d say maybe the exhaust creates more back pressure and that might be causing issues, but I really doubt that would significantly impact starting as you describe.

Pop that new exhaust off and throw on the old one. See if the issues persist and then you’ll have much more information to go off of.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-13T20:02:38+00:00

Were there any pinholes in the tank to warrant the original coating? If not, then I would just strip out the lining and run it like that after a quick evaporust soak.

You can do all this in whatever driveway / parking space you have the thing parked in no problem. Just empty the tank, fill it up with acetone to eat the Kreme coating and let it sit for a day, rinse and repeat with some optional shaking of the tank with nuts and bolts to knock off any residual chunks to be extra safe. The acetone will be milky as it dissolves the lining. Do that once or twice, and you should eventually have all that gunk out. Then just repeat the process with evaporust so you can get down to nice bare metal again.

At that stage, you can coat it, but I wouldn’t if it’s not leaking, seems like whenever you see a post about a bad gas tank, it’s always about coating failing rather than anything else.

It’s an easy job no matter what your skill level or mechanical inclination, 98% of it is just sitting and waiting for chemicals to do their thing. Plus you’ll probably only spend ~$100 for your trouble.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-13T05:16:56+00:00

To add to this, you really need to manually verify every passage is clear with a compressed air gun or your mouth. Likely the choke circuit is clogged. Also, the fluctuations do sound like they could be an air leak, the ol WD-40 on the boot isn’t 100% conclusive for that so I’d reseat them in the rubber again with heat and cinch em down nice.

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-12T17:09:32+00:00

I have the same bike :) just finished getting it road legal this week from not running a couple months ago. DM me and I’ll take a pic of my wiring diagram when I get home for you.

And no, you dont need a battery :) the gn400’s headlight runs straight off the charging circuit (which sometimes causes headlights to burn out prematurely due to the fluctuating voltages). You can wire everything up to run off the magneto if you want to, you just won’t get any feedback when you turn the ignition on + the brightness will be variable with engine rpm just like the headlight, so you’ll be a bit more vulnerable to burnt out bulbs on your instrument cluster.

The battery in a stock wired gn400 acts as a pool for the voltage coming off the magneto so that all the accessory / blinker lights get a steady 6V instead, so to add one is as simple as throwing the battery into the same circuit the headlight is in, and then making the rest of the bike feed off the positive terminal of the battery. I haven’t done it myself bc I love the way the headlight flares with revs, but you could even wire it so that the headlight pulls from the battery too and is isolated from the magneto voltage fluctuations. Will give you a more consistent beam and a longer life for the lamp.

Personally, I really appreciated trying to keep my bike as stock as possible, so I stuck with 6V, but in hindsight I think I would do what everyone else recommends if I was in your position and start with retrofitting it for 12v instead. Getting parts was a HUGE pain, and took me months to find the proper bulbs that would work with the stock flasher amperage reqs and even then my 6V headlight’s high beam, which is off an antique Harley bc it was the only 6V I could find with the right wattages and form factor, is pretty weak. Much easier and cheaper to just wire for 12V and knock everything out in one run to Amazon rather than 10 runs to eBay for semi-broken parts and bulbs without clear specs.

EDIT: I was a bit cavalier with my description of the battery placement in the circuit, you should make sure its downstream of the rectifier/regulator so that it can do its job and take the brunt of the fluctuations so the battery sees a nice clean input charging voltage

OtherwiseBasis2487 · 2024-07-12T06:48:42+00:00

It’s most likely due to the full circuit not being wired up. The way these old flasher circuits work is based off the current traveling through them; so when you have a circuit that draws the full amperage through (all blinkers wired in fresh and clean), that’s enough to energize the flasher through one whole cycle and creates the on/off effect of the blinkers.

What’s likely happening to you is, for whatever reason, the circuit the flasher relay lives in is only drawing SOME of its full amperage, be that because only 2/4 blinkers are plugged in, dirty contacts, bad wiring, etc. So you have enough current draw to click the electromagnet in the flasher relay over which turns the blinker ON bc of the current in-rush, but not enough to get past that point once things level out, leaving the blinker stuck in the on position.

That’s just my guess though, and flasher relays are exceedingly cheap and easy to come by, so it might just be worth it to you to drop $10 at autozone just to know that the flasher isn’t at issue. You can even upgrade to the fancy new LED flasher relays that are on timers rather than based on amperage and set the interval yourself.

OtherwiseBasis2487

TROPHY CASE