Looking For Guidance On Helping Me Off The Ledge

I have a good wiring harness hung on my 1981 GPz550. Battery is good. Ground is good.

BUT there's no power anywhere. No power at the plugs, no power seemingly on any red wire I probe with the power detection finger sticker tool.

Can anybody talk me off the ledge of the building?

From the battery there should be power at the starter solinoid, correct, and at the coils?

Is there a better tool for searching for power than the finger sticker?

TIA

I'll give this a try.

Just need your voltmeter.
Meter set to DC V
Key switch set to on
Kill switch set to "run"
All electrical connectors should be connected throughout the following tests.

Black probe on negative battery post(post is the metal part of the battery)
Red probe on positive battery post
Note voltage

Move red probe to large post of starter solenoid coming from battery
Note voltage


Move red probe to other large post of starter solenoid going to the starter
Note voltage
Should be as close as possible to 0.0V
Any higher than 0.5V is a bad ground for the starter

Move red probe to the fuse box
measure each fuse--both sides
note voltages
List fuse voltages with wire colors below.

Move red probe to engine cylinder head.
Note voltage
Should be as close to 0.0v as possible. With 0.6V being too much.
This measures your ground wire connection quality at the engine.

I haven't pulled a schematic yet but this will get us started.

Turn off bike

You say there's no power. Are any lights working?

I would make sure the battery is good & charge it with a good motorcycle smart charger. never assume a battery is good. test it.  You'd need a multimeter to check the voltage. I use a VC97 (~$30) but there are probably plenty of others available for the same price or even cheaper. Harbor freight or northern tools should have something.  A cycle shop or auto parts store might be able to check the battery for you.  After charging, it should be at least 12.6 VDC but a good battery will be higher.  I have a Ctek US 0.8 charger.    
 

Hi

Luckily I have an all original 1981 that runs six feet away so I know the battery is good.

My wiring harness does not yet have the headlight loom hung on it. I am finding it today.

My brain does not do maps and does not do wiring. It's hard to explain.

Thanks for your help.

 

You say there is a good ground. How do you know it is good? Are you talking only about the wire from the battery to the engine? The wiring harness has several ground wires that must be connected to the frame in order for the circuits to be complete.

F64 has given you a good method for starting the diagnosis. It is important to be systematic and patient.

Here are the readings, kind sir.

One side of the red wire in the fuse box the setting varies wildly.

Also when I touch the valve cover it's 0. If I touch the cylinder head it's 89 or so. I get a different reading every time.

 

Where else are there grounds?

I read the printout first. I then realized you wrote text explaining further. The black text below was from just reading your readings on the printout.
Change the red wire-white wire fuse. It looks to be a 30 20 amp fuse.

Was the reading on the head 0.89V
You may need to try different areas on the cylinder head. I usually scratch the cylinder head with the meter probe so i can get to the metal below. You can also use the hex nut on the spark plug as the plug is in contact with the cylinder head.


If that voltage in the red circle is the other side of that white fuse, then you have a problem there.
Either the fuse is bad or the clips that hold the fuse are bad.
It looks like a 30 20amp fuse. Swap out the fuse and take another reading there.
You need to see about 12.6v on both sides of that fuse.


Is your last reading 0.89v for the cylinder head reading?

Anytime the voltage reading is not steady and the reading fluctuates-- that is ghost voltage. Ghost voltage means there is no connection at that point. So let's say your last measurement that was between the negative battery post and the cylinder head. If that voltage reading was bouncing all over the place, that would mean your negative terminal is not electrically connected to the cylinder head(which it needs to be).You have ghost voltage on that red wire in the fuse box. Which means there is most likely a problem with that fuse.

There are usually a couple of grounds. A small black with yellow stripe wire conncts to the negative battery terminal. There is a short thick negative cable that goes to the frame from the negative terminal most of the time. Other people that know your bike better can chime in on specifics.

One other thing that is throwing me off.
If your key switch is set to the"on" position and you are getting ghost voltage on the red wire/fuse/white wire, you may have break in the white wire somewhere further towards the ignition switch.
If your fuse was blown and your key switch was in the "on" position, your reading would be 0.0v or close. This is because you would be seeing the ground reading at that point in the fuse box.

If your key switch was in the "off" , then you would see ghost voltage like you currently are seeing. Unless you have a power connector disconnected somewhere or a break in the white wire.

Hi

I am back. Thanks for your help.
New fuses installed. Updated settings on the pic below. Now the reading off of the cylinder head and valve cover read zero.
There are some mystery wires unconnected off of the starter solenoid and off the accessory fuse block. Would any of these be the ground I am looking for?

There is no wire off the ground side of the battery at all that would be another ground.

Suggestions welcome.


 

it looks like your starter sloenoid coil wire isn't hooked up. That may be the black wire. It is... so your solid black wire coming off of the starter solenoid goes to another solid black wire coming from the starter safety switch. It will be a solid black wire with a female bullet terminal. ok, i looked closer at your photo of the starter solenoid. one small wire will go to ground and the other will go to the starter switch. The black and yellow go to ground and the yellow with red stripe should go to the starter safety switch.  Kawasaki has a way with wire colors. I'll look to see what wire color the yellow/red connects to......I wonder if you have replacement solenoid. Anyway the black/yellow from the solenoid should go to a black/yellow wire. The yellow/red will most likely go to a solid black wire.

Key On
Kill switch run

black probe on negative battery post.
red probe both sides of each fuse.
The other two fuses in the 3 fuse enclosure should read
12.6v on both sides.

When the white fuse was bad both of those fuses read 0.0v on both sides.

I wouldn't worry about the accessory fuse block.

Your ground to your engine seems fine right now.

We'll check your small ground which is black with a yellow stripe in a bit. It attaches directly to the negative battery terminal.


 

Thanks as always.

When I restored this bike I took it down to bare metal and cylinders. As I took it apart I noticed that the wiring harness was very compromised in several areas.

I promptly put it in a bag and completely forgot about the issues until I hung it back on the bike. Ack!
I looked at it in depth last night and decided to pull it and buy an unmolested harness. It will be here this week.
I bought the bike used in Chicago in 2000. It had been street "raced" and hammered pretty hard. There was a wood screw in the frame for a ground in one spot.
It's taken me a year longer than I scheduled to do the bike (my powder coat guy sat on the frame for 6 months) but it is turning out really well aside from these electrical issues.
I'll be back with an update in a few days. Thank you.

ok, let us know when you are ready.