Charging System Issues

Back w more pics.
First pic is the blue connector. The manual would indicate that it would have a blue, pink, and yellow connector. I only see a blue and whitish/red wire.


Second pic is highlighting a second wire bundle coming from the same hole as the blue connector. There is a pink? green and yellow wire. The back side of the pink? wire looks yellow. They are going into connectors with yellow/yellow/yellow which go into the regulator/rectifier.


Third pic is the green connector. You can see all wires but brown are terminated.


Fourth pic is a better version of the three wires explained earlier.


All told there are six wires pictured:
1. Brown goes from green connector into regulator/rectifier
2. Blue comes from alternator/stator into blue connector. Not sure where it goes from there.
3. White/Red comes from alternator/stator into blue connector. There looks to be the same White/Red coming from regulator/rectifier that joins a white wire going to the positive battery terminal.
4. Pink? comes from alternator/stator and goes directly into regulator/rectifier
5. Green comes from alternator/stator and goes directly into regulator/rectifier
6. Yellow comes from alternator/stator and goes directly into regulator/rectifier

I tried to take resistance measurements from blue to pink? and yellow as indicated in the manual but I got 1 across the board.
When I took resistance from Pink? to Green to Yellow I got 4.8 across the board. I reversed the probes as mentioned in the book and got the same measurements.

Lastly - The book mentions to unplug the white connector and measure resistance, I have NOTHING plugged into the white connector. Thinking the white connector was the regulator that was eventually combo'd into the rectifier?

Hopefully some/any of this makes sense and someone can provide some direction.
Thanks

You said you have a Z1B engine so I'm going to assume you have the Z1B charging system.

The first photo is the Z1 electrical wiring. The second one is the panel under the right side cover. The blue connector comes from the stator and plugs into the blue connector on the panel. The green comes from the voltage regulator. The white comes from the rectifier. The brown comes from the wiring harness. The third one is the stator wiring and the fourth is the voltage regulator.

The blue connector from the stator should have two wires coming out of the harness near your shifter lever. One wire (red/white) should go to your neutral switch. The other (blue) should go to your oil pressure switch. The remaining three wires should all be yellow. These provide 3 phase AC power to the rectifier, which converts this to DC. You can check to see if the stator is working correctly by measuring voltage from phase to phase. You will have three readings, 1 to 2, 1 to 3 and 2 to 3. They should be around 45 to 50 volts with the engine at around 4,000 rpm.

The voltage regulator takes the DC power from the rectifier and limits the voltage available for the battery. Its output to the battery should be about 14.5 to 15 volts. There is an excellent video on Youtube of the Z1 electrical system. Well worth watching.

What components do you have on your machine?

hardrockminer wrote: You said you have a Z1B engine so I'm going to assume you have the Z1B charging system.

The first photo is the Z1 electrical wiring. The second one is the panel under the right side cover. The blue connector comes from the stator and plugs into the blue connector on the panel. The green comes from the voltage regulator. The white comes from the rectifier. The brown comes from the wiring harness. The third one is the stator wiring and the fourth is the voltage regulator.

The blue connector from the stator should have two wires coming out of the harness near your shifter lever. One wire (red/white) should go to your neutral switch. The other (blue) should go to your oil pressure switch. The remaining three wires should all be yellow. These provide 3 phase AC power to the rectifier, which converts this to DC. You can check to see if the stator is working correctly by measuring voltage from phase to phase. You will have three readings, 1 to 2, 1 to 3 and 2 to 3. They should be around 45 to 50 volts with the engine at around 4,000 rpm.

The voltage regulator takes the DC power from the rectifier and limits the voltage available for the battery. Its output to the battery should be about 14.5 to 15 volts. There is an excellent video on Youtube of the Z1 electrical system. Well worth watching.

What components do you have on your machine?

Thank you for the detailed info. I should be able to pour over it through the day.
A few things...
I have a Z1B motor on a KZ900 Frame. My connectors are not under the side covers, instead they are all just above the center stand. My battery doesn't sit sideways. It sits facing the engine.

I have two wires coming from the stator - Blue and White/Red. They go from stator to connector then come out from connection plate blue goes to oil switch and I can't really trace white/red but I'm guessing that goes where its supposed to.

The three insulated wires in your blue connector are cut off on mine. I ONLY have two wires in the blue connector.

I DO NOT have a white connector at all.

My green connector has ONLY a brown wire that connects to the regulator rectifier.

I have another set of wires coming from the spot just behind the shifter. It has a green/yellow/and ??? color wire all going to the regulator rectifier combo.

I have one wire, looks like the white/red one, that joins a white wire through a Y connection that ends at the positive battery terminal. I DO have a 20v fuse on that wire.
I have pictures of my components just above.

My biggest questions right now:
Its been mentioned that early z1s had phase wiring coming from the stator. My wires are yellow/green/??? so how do I know if those wires need to be specifically connected to the three yellow on the regulator? I heard mixing them is bad.

I took the bike out again last night because...I'm a glutton for punishment and like pushing the bike home I guess. I checked the battery voltage before starting (12.4) I checked after starting but sitting at idle (12.1) and then I rode around on it for 30 minutes in the neighborhood. No symptoms at all. I checked the voltage when I got home (12.1) If my charging system was not working I'd expect the symptoms to be regular and for the battery to have depleted in the ride. The only thing I did was plug/unplug some wires/jiggle some stuff/ kick it a few times/ tested resistance on the 20v fuse/ and put it back together. I guess the only good news here is that I am getting more comfortable with unplugging and plugging stuff back in.

Side note...when green connector is plugged in (brown wire going to regulator/rectifier) I don't have to press the start button on the ignition. Just turning the killswitch to run starts the bike. I know that's wrong but I don't know why.

This is just a guess on my part but it appears that someone in the past decided to wire the stator direct instead of through the electrical panel. You say you have no green connector on your panel but you have the other side of the green connector (the voltage regulator end) so what does that plug into?

I found a copy of what seems to be a KZ900 wiring diagram. The components in question are shown in the lower right side.

The alternator plug you showed in a photo with only two wires...the red/white one is your neutral switch...found behind your left side cover. The blue one is your oil pressure warning light and it connects to the bypass just to the right of your cam chain tensioner. I can see the other three wires were cut...these were the stator phase wires shown in my photo. If that plug on your bike is not plugged in you should not have a green neutral lamp on your dash. You should also not get a warning if your oil pressure switch begins to bypass.

The regulator should plug into the panel but you say you have no green plug on your panel so I don't know where it goes. Does it look like the regulator in my photo?

At this point I can't say much about the rest of your wiring because I don't know if you have a combination rectifier/regulator or if yours are separate units. If it's a combo then whoever sells it would likely have included instructions how to wire it. If your units are separate you should be able to figure it out from the wiring diagram below.

hardrockminer wrote: This is just a guess on my part but it appears that someone in the past decided to wire the stator direct instead of through the electrical panel. You say you have no green connector on your panel but you have the other side of the green connector (the voltage regulator end) so what does that plug into?

I found a copy of what seems to be a KZ900 wiring diagram. The components in question are shown in the lower right side.

The alternator plug you showed in a photo with only two wires...the red/white one is your neutral switch...found behind your left side cover. The blue one is your oil pressure warning light and it connects to the bypass just to the right of your cam chain tensioner. I can see the other three wires were cut...these were the stator phase wires shown in my photo. If that plug on your bike is not plugged in you should not have a green neutral lamp on your dash. You should also not get a warning if your oil pressure switch begins to bypass.

The regulator should plug into the panel but you say you have no green plug on your panel so I don't know where it goes. Does it look like the regulator in my photo?

At this point I can't say much about the rest of your wiring because I don't know if you have a combination rectifier/regulator or if yours are separate units. If it's a combo then whoever sells it would likely have included instructions how to wire it. If your units are separate you should be able to figure it out from the wiring diagram below.

Yup we're on the same page, mostly.
I have a green connector on the electrical panel. It accepts the green connector but ONLY a brown wire that connects into the rectifier/regulator.
You're right that it looks like he wired directly from the stator into the rectifier/regulator with the yellow/green/??? wires.

Its hard for me to tell if I should be using the z1 diagram or the kz diagram but since I have a z1 motor I've been reading from that one. It shows a fuse on the battery and I have a fuse on the battery wire coming from the rectifier/regulator.

The engine in a KZ900 is the same as the engine in a Z1. I think you should use the KZ900 wiring diagram.

Took the regulator off. This is what I’m working with.


On the left side we have the wire that connects to the battery. A white wire from the electrical board goes into the Y with the orange wire and the fuse. The other side of the Y gets the white/red coming from the regulator.

The brown wire gets the brown wire from the green connector.

Black goes to frame ground.

The three yellow get the yellow, green, and ??? wires from the stator.

I should be able to test resistance on these per the book but i get 1 across the board.

If you have an AC voltmeter you can also test your stator to see if that's the problem. Just follow the instructions in the video I posted. Set your voltmeter to a scale that's more than 50 volts.

Decided to just buy a stator, replace it, and see if that fixes the issue. I had the bike running at idle in the garage for 5ish minutes and it died. Hooked up the voltmeter to see the battery at 10.1V. Started it back up, engine running at 4k RPM and the voltmeter is jumping all over the place 3V, 8V, 10V, etc...but never over 12 as it should be.

My guess is the regulator.

Wow! One more reason I'm glad I kept mine stock! Ed

I believe this has been solved. I replaced both the stator and the regulator/rectifier. I've replaced all the wiring between the charging system. I finallly got 13.5 on the voltmeter while 4k RPM.

Now trying to tackle the situation with the kill switch starting the bike. I will create a separate thread on that. THanks to anyone who offered advice.