removing ignition switch installing toggle

im removing the ignition switch and installing a hidden toggle and i need to know if anybody has done this on a kz and what amp switch to use and such any btdt would be good or just plain speculation is good too

thanks in advance andrew

I had a friend do this on his 85 Night Hawk. It was a three way switch (e.g. down, middle, up) and he wired it so down was on, middle was off, and up was park.

It didn't look too terribly hard. He mounted the switch on the underside of his headlight bucket. The only bad thing was as long as you knew where the switch was, you knew where to steal a bike.

i dont get the park position what did it do any diffrently than off

parking lights.

how many amp switch should i use

You need at least a 20 amp switch, but a 30 would be much better. A really good one is needed. I've done this mod to friend's bike. The problem was he bought a cheap switch and it melted while he was riding. It melted "on" and he couldn't turn the ignition off.

We replaced it with a much better one and it didn't have any problems.


The ones to avoid are the cheaper plastic type. You want one made of bakelight or harder material than plastic with a metal surround holding the toggle if possible. They can take more heat than the (pvc?) plastic ones. Radio Shack does not have a good variety of heavy duty switches anymore. They have a lot of the plastic cheapies. Here's a couple that might work.

You can try this one. It's rated at 10 amps, but you have two sets of contacts on a DPDT. You just wire both in parallel. Avoid screw connectors. Solder them. (you may have to lightly scratch the connections to get them to solder well because the screw type sometimes have a coating)
www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?pro...ch&parentPage=search


I'm not real fond of the all-plastic ones like this, but it's rated at 20 amps and you can double it up in parallel to give 40 amps.
www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?pro...ch&parentPage=search


Here's a good one at MCM. It's expensive though. Once again you double up on the contacts to 40 amps.
www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fn...product%5Fid=SW00026

Here's the same one with just two positions. It cost more but I don't see why.
www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fn...product%5Fid=SW00025

The trick, for security, is to make it so the kill switch on the handle bar will turn the ignition off along with the other circuits in the bike (except lights). This way it appears you only have the kill switch to control the electrical. You only use the hidden kill switch when no one is looking. Most of the time you just leave the hidden one on and use the kill switch. You will have to use the light switch for the lights, though. I don't think you want to run the lights through the kill switch because I don't think it will handle the extra current.

The hidden kill switch should be the "master" switch to control everything. Then the kill switch will control the ignition and charging system and the light switch will control the lights. If you don't have a seperate light switch, you could control everything through a relay using the kill switch.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2006/03/30 11:47

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2006/03/30 11:44