so far so good

Hello again,

my name is brandon, im 21 and i recently bought a 1978 KZ1000 for 1200 bucks. i live in central illinois and this is my second bike. my first bike was a 250 ninja to learn to ride on and i quickly became bored with it. So far i LOVE my kz. it runs great and has more than enough power, plus it sounds like a muscle car! the only thing is that the bike is having issues keeping the battery charged. every once ina while i have to put jumper cables on it. i assume that it is the chargiong system but am very ignorant in the feild of motorcycles. also their isnt a speedo cable but that should be a easy fix. anyone else have similiar problems?

i will get pictures of my bike up as soon as possible

do a search, there has been lots of talk recently and not so recently about charging systems

Hi Brandon,
do you know for sure that the battery is any good? If the bike sat for a while, the battery may have lost its ability to hold a charge.
Grant.

Post edited by: Grantl, at: 2007/06/23 00:54

i bought a brand new battery for it so the battery is good, when the bike is hooked up it will start with the electric start, but once the cables are taken off it will only start with the push button everyonce in a while, but for some time afterwards it will kickstart first try, then after while it just gets harder and harder to start like its loosing juice,

Clutch .. not sure if i am reading this correctly but did you drain the battery down trying to start it and are jumping it with something? If your jumping it with a car battery or a car battery charger that alone isn't a good idea. Too much juice for tha bike battery and you could fry it .. along with some fuses and bulbs!

That being said .. do you have a voltage test meter by any chance? Get the bike started and hold it's revs to about 4000rpms. Voltmeter should read 14.5 - 15.5 volts.
If it is more then 15.5 volts your voltage regulator is probably bad.
If less then 14.5 your regulator or rectifier or alternator is bad. Rectifier usually goes first in my experience.
Unplug the voltage Regulator plug from its mate under your right side cover. On my z1 it is green, not sure on yours. Start bike and check voltmweter again. if it is between 14 - 20 volts your regulator is shot. If it is less then regulator is probably fine. It is probably the rectifier or alternator.
There is a whole other test for the rectifier. If you get that far let me know and I will explain.

- brian

thanks for the info, i used my nieghbors bike to charge mine and he also has a voltage meter i will borrow it to try what you explained, as of now if i charge my bike for about 5 minutes it will be fine for a day or two (it will kick start everytime first try and everyonce in a while the electric start works) but then it will become harder and harder to start as the juice runs down

check your electrical connections,30 years of vibrating and corrosion can take a toll;)

clutch85 wrote:

thanks for the info, i used my nieghbors bike to charge mine and he also has a voltage meter i will borrow it to try what you explained, as of now if i charge my bike for about 5 minutes it will be fine for a day or two (it will kick start everytime first try and everyonce in a while the electric start works) but then it will become harder and harder to start as the juice runs down

ok .. i understand a bit better now. Sounds like your definitely suffering from your battery not charging.

Yeah and like PLUMMEN said .. check those connections. If loose or heavily corroded the problem can lie there as well. Check with the meter first. Then follow those connections and make sure they are clean and tight. Oh .. DISCONNECT BATTERY FIRST before playing with any of those wires.

If your going to get into tinkering .. get a Clymer manual for your bike. Trust me .. big help! It will walk you through all the steps I mentioned too for testing the charging system.