Non-Functioning Headlight and Ignition Gremlins

Hi all, 

Joined this forum in the latter half of last year, seeking help to get my '85 ZN1100 back on the road. To catch anyone up: After re-sealing the fuel tank, rebuilding the carburetors, a new set of spark plugs, and a new coil pack she was back on the road. Fresh engine and gear oil as well. I got a good month or two of riding in before she went into storage for the winter. I pulled her out of storage earlier this month and was met with a no-crank condition. Thanks to Wookie's bible of fault diagnosis, I narrowed it to the starter and rebuilt it. After the rebuild, the starter turns the bike over and she starts most of the time. The starter motor is still a bit slow to crank - the armature was pretty worn when I had it apart, so I think an entirely new starter motor is in my future, but the rebuild is doing fine for now. 

Anyway, since I picked up the bike there have been a few persistent electronic gremlins that I haven't been able to pin down. The most significant is that in order to start the bike the ignition has to be turned to the exact right position. To start the bike, I have to turn the key all the way to the right to the rightmost limit of the 'on position' and then wiggle it back and forth until I see the tachometer needle jump - then the bike will crank. At any other position, the bike won't even engage the starter solenoid. 

A relatively new development has been an intermittent clicking emanating from the left controls. Sometimes when I am hunting for the right key position, a series of rapid clicks will sound off from the left-hand controls (turn signals, caution, horn, high beam). The bike also will not start with the clutch lever pulled in. It starts fine in neutral with the clutch out. The high beam was functioning when I first picked up the bike, but it no longer functions. Flicking to the highbeam setting turns off the headlight, and the light in the cockpit does not switch on. In the last two weeks, the bike has cut out seemingly randomly twice while I was riding it. Both times I was able to mess with the key position and get it started again. 

Today I tried to tackle these gremlins and pulled off the front headlight and all of the wiring behind it. It rapidly became clear to me that at some point in this bike's past, someone like myself with limited electrical experience had been here. There are several places where wires are spliced together with black electrical tape and several irregular wire colors where they do not belong. There is a Red/Yellow wire exposed and not connected to anything, as well as a blue wire with a connector that isn't connected to anything. The accessory positive lead and ground are both present and are not hooked up to anything. The bike was also spray painted black at some point - meaning that some of the wires that are supposed to be colored are just black. I tried to tackle the rat's nests of wires earlier today to make some sense of it but walked away defeated. I will update later tonight/tomorrow morning with pictures of exactly what I am looking at but I am in desperate need of some guidance on how to tackle these problems. 

I have some limited experience working with car electrical systems, but this is definitely new territory. If anyone has any images of how this wiring is supposed to look, or any specific targets for what might be causing my issues, I would greatly appreciate the help. I have a wiring diagram on hand - the bike is a 1985 ZN1100 B2. Thank you all for your help. 

Can you share the diagram and I will take a look for you
 

Here's a grainy version I found online, I will take a higher-resolution one when I make it back home. I believe the red and yellow wire runs from the dimmer switch to the headlamp - but on the headlamp end it's spliced with two other wires that disappear into the wiring harness. 

A worn ignition switch will cause some and perhaps most of those problems. If the original switch then its almost 40 years old. The internal contacts get worn and corroded. Some model switches can be disassembled and refurbished. Others like my 750 switch  could not be opened withput destroying it and so a replacement was the only answer. Cutting out randomly is/ was not good

 

I'll look into replacing the ignition switch. Will I have to change the key? Should I try to source one from a parts bike/eBay or will a universal work? I agree cutting out randomly is not good - luckily for me both have been on test rides very close to my house and I was able to get the bike started back up again. I want to have this all figured out before taking the bike on longer rides. 

Here's a better set of pictures of the wiring diagram that I am looking at: 
drive.google.com/file/d/1mOazt2Dno5aYWUp.../view?usp=drive_link
drive.google.com/file/d/1lJnLn17_wTpjdyE.../view?usp=drive_link
drive.google.com/file/d/1NKymXxxDdQHLHhK.../view?usp=drive_link

Here's a short video showing what I am looking at: 
drive.google.com/file/d/1O5vICtfJh3uiYoe.../view?usp=drive_link  

And here's a longer one that outlines everything weird electrically that's going on with the bike right now: 
drive.google.com/file/d/1rMa3Km7zLkViqNn.../view?usp=drive_link  

Let me know if those links work. 

One other thing I forgot to mention: the speedometer went out the other week after riding over a very light bump in the road. I think I just need to replace the sensor on the wheel, and I don't think it's related to these electrical problems, but I felt like it was still worth mentioning. 
 

If you can't find a replacement ignition switch, here's a KZ1000-Ltd topic with an alternate switch. The ZN ignition switch is physically similar. 

www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/61386...n-1981-82-kz1000-ltd

I think I found an ignition switch on eBay - I messaged the seller to confirm since the picture provided differed from the part number. If that doesn't work out, I'll pursue the KZ1000 method. I plan to replace the ignition switch - as when I took it apart, some of the plastic was loose and it seemed to want to come apart. It was quite dusty inside - I think a spider might have made its home there. 
IMG_2345.HEIC
IMG_2346.HEIC

I did some tinkering with the wiring today - I think one of the previous owners ran some wires from the headlight wiring deeper into the wiring harness to piggyback off of the blue and yellow wire that runs to the reserve lighting device. I'm not sure what the reserve lighting device is, but there are two sets of wires (blue/black in the videos + images) that run from the high and low-beam wires back into wires that run to the reserve lighting device. 

With some tinkering - I was able to restore Hi/Low beam functioning - although for some reason it's flipped - meaning that when the light switch is in the low beam position the high beam is on and vice versa. The lights on the 'dashboard' work to an extent - signaling correctly when the switch is in the low beam position, but no light comes on when the switch is in the high beam position. (Keep in mind that the low beam position results in the high beam turning on and vice versa). My tinkering also resulted in the turn signals not working anymore. 

It's a bit of a mess of wires right now, and I know there is a lot that is probably wired wrong and things that aren't wired in that are supposed to be. I just need some help making sense of what goes where. 

Picture: 
IMG_2347.HEIC

Video: 
IMG_2350.MOV
 

tobeerortobike wrote:

I think I found an ignition switch on eBay - I messaged the seller to confirm since the picture provided differed from the part number. If that doesn't work out, I'll pursue the KZ1000 method. I plan to replace the ignition switch - as when I took it apart, some of the plastic was loose and it seemed to want to come apart. It was quite dusty inside - I think a spider might have made its home there. 
IMG_2345.HEIC
IMG_2346.HEIC

I did some tinkering with the wiring today - I think one of the previous owners ran some wires from the headlight wiring deeper into the wiring harness to piggyback off of the blue and yellow wire that runs to the reserve lighting device. I'm not sure what the reserve lighting device is,the reserve lighting unit illuminates the high beam with reduced brightness if the low beam fails  but there are two sets of wires (blue/black in the videos + images) that run from the high and low-beam wires back into wires that run to the reserve lighting device. 

With some tinkering - I was able to restore Hi/Low beam functioning - although for some reason it's flipped - meaning that when the light switch is in the low beam position the high beam is on and vice versa. The lights on the 'dashboard' work to an extent - signaling correctly when the switch is in the low beam position, but no light comes on when the switch is in the high beam position. (Keep in mind that the low beam position results in the high beam turning on and vice versa). It sounds like You have crossed the red/black and red/yellow wires at the headlight
My tinkering also resulted in the turn signals not working anymore. 

It's a bit of a mess of wires right now, and I know there is a lot that is probably wired wrong and things that aren't wired in that are supposed to be. I just need some help making sense of what goes where. 

Picture: 

IMG_2347.HEIC

Video: 
IMG_2350.MOV


 

The best advice I can give you is approach it logically as opposed to "try this" then "try this" and go through each circuit comparing the bike to the diagram (I would remove anything that isn't in the diagram as it's probably a bodge to by-pass a fault) once the wiring is back to standard I can then talk you through testing it one circuit at a time to rectify any faults present.
With regards the speedo page 2 of the below thread will show you how to test the output from the speed sensor

www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/61879...umpy?start=12#883473

If your bike has the self cancelling turn signals (which the diagram would suggest) this is quite a complex circuit to test as the control unit shares the speedo sender signal. The clicking you heard from the left switchgear could be the self cancelling solenoid in the turn signal switch. I have written a test sequence for the turn signals which is in another post I will try and find (was for a 750 but the circuit looks similar)
Here is. The link for testing the self cancelling turn signals

www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/61841...l-diagnosis?start=12

Thank you. I'm starting to see a story come together here - somewhere there is a fault in the self-cancelling turn signal circuit - if my bike is equipped with the system - it has not been functioning. A fault here would explain the rapid blinking of the turn signals and would explain why someone tried to bypass it with some hardware store wiring. According to the wiring diagram - there should be three wires running into the turn signals, I only see two. I'll find the time to dive back in and remove all of the added wiring.

My turn signal switch "sticks" to one side or the other when I click it over. I have to push it back to the middle when I want the turn signal to disengage. Does that indicate whether or not I have the self-canceling signals? Or is there something wrong with the switch that might be causing the fault? 

Either way, I'll find the time this week to pull out the weird bypass wiring and work through the test sequence you linked. I'll reply again when I have some results. I was hoping this would be a relatively simple "wire came loose" type fix - which is why I was fumbling around and sticking wires together, but it looks like it will be a more in depth process.  

Thanks for your help. 

Does the left control have a switch marked "M" and "A" (this is the switch to activate the self cancelling function) how many wires are coming from the switch unit (a picture might be useful