wire woes

hello I'm new, i bought a 1982 kz440 ltd a3, from a very good friend, he had a prodject going with this bike that i guess he didnt need so for 150 bucks i got the bike and a clymer book.I should say at this point its in 4 large pieces 1)frame 2)front end forks wheel dash ect. 3)rear wheel 4)motohe assurse me the bike is complet just appart. my question is this i get the motor assymbly and instilation (got the book) but the wires look a mess and im not understanding the clymer diagram, would it be in my best intrest to take it to my local dealer and have it re-wired or can i have a go with guidence from KZR? well thanks for the help

go with kzr dealers dont like our "old " bikes

I'm in a similar position. I bought a none running 1977 KZ650-B1 about 3 weeks ago from my neighbour who had bought it from a buddy but had no time to work on it this summer. $250 later my two boys helped me roll it across the street and into my tool shed/work shop. I got the original owner's Clymer manual with all his oil changes, compression tests, etc.

It seems to be a question of time and money. If you have the time you can save a lot of money. If you have a lot of money your probably can't find the time. Right now I have the time. The bike seems to have been taken care of mechanically but I had to clear out four electrical problems:
1) Broken and ground-shorted kill switch. Glued, drilled and filed my way out.
2) Ground-shorted start switch. Filed, modified and heat-shrinked my way out.
3) And the toughest to troubleshoot for me... an internally ground-shorted high and low beam in the H4 bulb. Changed the bulb.
4) Right side coil with no spark out of one wire. Easy to find and $20 to replace at a rural bike scrap yard.
5) Invisible ground-short in the right handle bar cable. Never located the offending short but lots of heat-shrink tubing did the job.

By the way, I found the original wires and connections to be in remarkably good condition so I keep them all. If they are pliable, and not cracked then you may want to do the same. You have already found the coloured wire diagram at the back of your Clymer manual. Give it a try. Hint… try drawing the part you don’t understand on a blank piece of paper. It will get your focused and moving. Even it you don’t finish it your will understand it much better and will probably answer some of your own questions. Also, be prepared for errors in the diagram. If it doesn’t make sense you could be right. I was.

Also had one carburetor problem (so far):
1) The fuel rail between carburetors 1 and 2 had two bad O rings. Replaced with two generic ring from Canadian Tire. They were a tight fit but no more leak/gush of gas.

Tried to kick start the bike and it roared into life. I mean roar. Seems the KZ650's have the un-nerving characteristic of idling at 4K rpm plus on choke. This happened at about 2 AM so I had to use the kill switch fast to keep up good relations with my neighbours. Only a lot of internet surfing informed me that I probably don't have a problem here. If anyone out here has a solution for this me and my neighbours would really appreciate it.

Right now I'm looking for some parts. See classified section of Point Cover and Rear Grab Handles. I could use new exhausts because of all the welding on the existing set and the big crack in the middle. A KZ'er from Dallas has a set and if a local boy doesn’t swing by to pick them up I'll give it a try. It should be interesting finding a value for these things at Customs Canada.

So from me you'll hear 'Fix it yourself'. But I am really enjoying the challenge, I have the space, I have an electronics background, I could make the time and frankly I am reliving my teenage years when I bought and rebuilt a then 27 year old Harley Davidson WLA-45 army bike in my dad's unused horse stable up in the Laurentian mountains.

Right now I'm doing the mechanical inspection, frame paint touch-up and soon/finally the final assembly.

Best of success with yours! "Success is for people who work, luck is for those who don't". Well that's what I preach to my boys... and they pretend to listen.

Lets hear what you decided and where you’re at.

New folks on site, take heed! You would be well served to edit your signture (in your profile) to include your bike year/model and YOUR LOCATION. With as many KZRider member's running around out there, there just may be one living around the corner from you will and able to help with your problems in the FLESH!. (now taking off moderator hat)

One of the steps I take when redoing an older bike is to remove the harness, strip the cover and clean and check and repair all the wiring. Same for the connectors and associated bits like the ignition and kill switches and clean the insides of the switchgear. I have already done this for my KZ1000E1 ST project and the stuff sits ready to use in a box. It takes me about a day's work to do all the electrical stuff... time consuming but well worth it if you want to avoid future electrical issues! Welcome to the site.

thanks for all the respons, i went to a deal to ask some questions and well, the guy must work off comissions. we spent 2 min talking about my bike and 10 were spent by him trying to sell a new 1. so, anyways i put the rear wheel and swing arm on, there were 2 spacers thet didnt show up in my clymer but i figured the larger went to the chain side?! I also put the front forks and triples on, was a pain with no center stand and no help,does it make a diffrence how far down the tree slides down or just go with the handle bar clearance? So today im taking the wireing harnes out of the head light (so many plugs and clips and conectors and blah blah) a great tip to draw the line seprat i will use that alot im sure,i also noticed that the start botton on the hand control is melted and kinda burnt looking...any thoughts on bypassing that like adding a switch straight to the starter maybe?? wow alot to write more to do, thanks for your help guys and gals:cheer:

fightfire4life,
Welcome to kzrider! Head right away to www.buykawasaki.com and go to the owners info area, where you will be able to download and print parts diagrams for your bike. Please make sure those spacers are in the right place, as some of the shop manuals can leave you wondering.
Post a few pics when you can.

thanks for the tip OKC_Kent i have been on the bk.c but they dont seem to have the diagrams for most of my bike so i get part numbers and routed to see a dealer. thems the breaks i guess, i flipped the spacers to see how that went but it left zero room for the chain and guard i'll keep looking for info but i'm fairly confident i got it right, any and all refrence pages you guys know will be very welcome i've also been using kz400.com they seem to have alot of specs and owner info there

Definitely on commission.

Doing it yourself! You got to love this guy. To many parts, Clymer a little light on details, then try Bike Bandit ( www.bikebandit.com ). Punch in the year, make and model and you have all the exploded views (they look as if they came from the original pre-computer microfiches) the part descriptions and the US prices. You can even print them and make your own manual for your shop/garage/yard/driveway. Plus, I learn all the right terms… cool. Well, that’s what I did.

I hear you… I have a centre stand and it was still near impossible for me alone… so I made the poor man’s motorcycle jack stand by cutting up a spare 6” x 6” wooden post from the back yard, some left over refrigerator rollers I bought who knows when, some spare angle iron and some big bolts. I used my regular hydraulic floor jack to get it up onto the wooden jack stand and then removed it. Now, it can even be rolled about. Its higher and so much easier on my back.

My Clymer 1977 KZ650 manual was very specific about the space between top of the front fork inner tube to the top of the steering stem head. I'm surprised you were not able to find any.

Lots of harnesses going in all directions? Don’t be intimidated. Try coloured tie-wraps for each major cable. Blue for left handle bar cable, yellow for right, black for clutch interlock cable, orange for tail cable, etc. If you run out of colors double up… one blue cable, 2 blues cable, 3 blues cable. You get the idea. Then when they are all mapped-out you look at a cable and you say ‘Oh that one, sure, I know where it goes to/come from’! It made all the difference for me. I left them on for next time… there’s always a next time.

Starter switch problems? I had some too. Technically, you can mount a momentary SPST (Single Pole, Single Throw) switch anywhere you want. Even foot operated like in my dad’s old 1946 green GMC ½ ton pick-up. The current is low because it only has to activate the coil side of the starter relay… same as in your car. Practically, I chose to fix my existing switch problem because on my KZ650-B1 you must hold in the clutch, operate the throttle and press the start switch at the same time. So by my count that’s three hands work for a two handed man. But maybe being a FF4L you’re a lot quicker than I am. Check Bike Bandit to build a budgetary parts cost and availability and it may guide your decision. Its amazing what is still available through my Kawasaki dealers either from OEM or from jobbers. And it will work right. No, I’m not on commission.

My 30% chance of rain has just caught up with me. It has started so I have to get my parts out of the yard and back into my shop. Best of success.

great tip bill_wilcox100 about the colored ties see its the little things that go along way, good way to look at 1 section(or problem) at a time, will do. I'm quick but not that fast, and didnt realy think about cluth,throttle and start switch so il try to get lucky at a bone yard this weekend. speaking of rain we got a real bat patch last night power was out for 6hrs or so

Parts away safely.

25 years in technical training, my customers had to have taught me something.

Winds from the WSW at 15 kph, +21 C, Isolated thunder showers. Righ from Cincinati.

Sorry, this stuff should be in the chat area.

Another tip: If you use heat shrink tubing (and you probably should) check out the automotive type called environmental. After it has shrunk keep heating and a sealent is released from the inside walls of the tube filling the spaces between the wires and blocking any futur water penetration. Can you see where this might be practical in an outdoor environment like a bike?

Best of success!

seeing truly is believing with the harness apart and laid out great tips from bill wilcox it starts to acctully look like a full harness and things look like they really go some where. wire conditions look good plyable and clean, fuse junctions had little spider cotton but cleaned up well only thing now is to clean up the little brass? fittings and thread the harness back in. should i take the front end back off to do this or will it go in with some motivation(kinda thinking the bigers fuse box will give me trouble)

Curious, Bike Bandit has no listing for KZ440 in 1982 in the USA. Check the model number on the front of the frame. So, I have no idea what your mechanical and electrical looks like.

If it is like my KZ650-B1, I was able to remove and return all the harness with the front end on and the Head Light housing tilted.

Caution (again if like my KZ650-B1):
The H4 head light bulb is subject to compression damage when re-installing the sealed beam assembly causing the high and low terminals to be intermittently or permanently shorted to negative frame return. This, in turn, will blow the HEAD fuse every time the ignition switch is moved to the ON position but not if the fuse is inserted while the switch is in the PARK position. Don't ask me how I learned this.

Best of success!