TOPIC:

Thank you for the new diagram. The wires on the 440 kill/start are yellow/black, black, and brown. The brown is for the lights. I only need the yellow/black and black for the kill/start. I am going to tape that one off. So, the way I am reading the new diagram is....I only need to attach the brown to ignition and white to the battery, tape the other connections off? Run the black wire from the starter solenoid to the start/kill switch, the red from the coils to the yellow/black on the start/kill and to the brown? I don't mean to sound like a dumb ass, I just want to get this right. I was also wondering, not to question you, but how come only one fuse for the whole bike? I also wanted your opinion on the my brakes. I made a rear brake forward control out of an old wrench, some angle and plumbers pipe. I moved the rear master cylinder up to the front and made a bracket for that as well. Do you think it would be smarter to just buy new forward controls with a master cylinder. I want to make sure I have the right brake pressure and not die. I am going to post a picture of the forward break I made, mind you this is with no paint, no sanding or grinding. Not the finished product. Thank's for all of your help.

I wanted to show you the pan seat I cut and hammered out from a folding chair my buddy gave me. I found some old bicycle springs for five dollars, made some brackets out of scrap and wallah.

john8 wrote:

The wires on the 440 kill/start are yellow/black, black, and brown. The brown is for the lights. I only need the yellow/black and black for the kill/start. I am going to tape that one off. So, the way I am reading the new diagram is....I only need to attach the brown to ignition and white to the battery, tape the other connections off? Run the black wire from the starter solenoid to the start/kill switch, the red from the coils to the yellow/black on the start/kill and to the brown? I was also wondering, not to question you, but how come only one fuse for the whole bike?

The start/kill control has two switches. One is on-off for the kill-run, and the other is a momentary-on for the start button. In order to do this you need a minimum of three wires total. I looked at every KZ440 diagram I could find and didn't see one using a yellow wire with black stripe. If it's black with a yellow stripe, then it's almost always a ground wire, but that wouldn't be on a start/kill switch.

In every diagram, the brown wire is what feeds power to the start/kill switches, so it is needed. Notice in the diagram I drew, the brown wire on the start/kill is connected to the switched power line, which is the top line of the schematic. That is how the run-stop switch gets power. When it is in RUN, it feeds power to the starter button and the ignition (usually through a red, or yellow/red wire). The start button then feeds power to the starter solenoid through the black wire. It takes 3 wires to do all of this.

Some start/kill switches also have wires for lighting. In that case sometime there are two brown wires, where the second one is dedicated for lighting, but then there should be other wires as well. If there is only one brown, then it is used for both, lighting and start/kill.

Since the wires are colored different than all of the kz440 diagrams I looked at, maybe it's not a 440 switch, or maybe there were changes made that didn't get documented. Do you know what year/model kz440 it came from?

The single fuse is all that's necessary to protect the wiring form shorts outside of the charging system. This is the standard position for the main fuse. Other fuses are added so if the lights burn out a fuse, the bike may still keep running etc. It's also convenient since it isolates the circuits making them easier to find the shorts. On a bare-bones system, the idea is to make it so simple (and reliable) that you basically never blow a fuse from a shorted wire, or if you do, it's easy to find. This means the wires need to be neat, organized, and protected. Since it is a custom harness, you will know where the wires run and will eliminate all of the back and forth excess which makes troubleshooting difficult. The schematic is drawn to creat two main wires that go to everything... that's the ground and the switched 12v wire. They are the bottom and top lines on the schematic.

Now there is the possibility of shorts inside the charging system which the fuse will not protect against. If the battery is loose and bumps the frame, that can melt the ground wires. If the rectifier shorts out, then the charging wire (RED/WHT) can melt. In later KZ's, Kawasaki sometimes puts the main fuse in a different position to protect against this. If you want, you can add a second main to protect against this (I marked it as Fuse 2).

If the starter solenoid shorts, that can melt the battery cables.

But because you are building this stuff, you can control the quality of the layout to prevent these things from happening.

EDIT: I originally added two extra fuse positions, but now I have eliminated on e of the extras).
I'll show you where the other optional main fuse can be added, but I only use the one main on all of my bikes and haven't had any problems for over ten years.

As far as the brakes go, you may want to start a thread in the chassis section. Others will be better at assessing that than I will.

I am going to upload a pic of the start/kill switch so you can see what it looks like.

Ok....my camera is messin up. Any way, I get what you are saying. I will try all of the things you are saying. I will post the brakes in another spot, I would like some feed back. Thank's for all of your help.

No problem,

I had to make a change on the fuse options. The third optional fuse would have been a bad idea.

So....I am a dumb ass. I did not realize that I wrote yellow/black comming from the start/kill switch. The wires are yellow red,black and brown. I don't know what I was thinking. I put the wires exactly how the last diagram is drawn. I am building the battery box tomorrow, so I will let you know if it starts. Again...I apologize for my confusion.

I could not figure out what you were talking about with the yellow/black wires, until I re read my post. He he. Sorry.

No problem.


EDIT 1/9/2019:
Mattylight Barebones Bare Bones Wiring Diagram
1981 Kawasaki Kz1000J1 for john8 version 3
Kz1000J Kz1000 J1 Kz 1000 J 1000J1 1000J

Another 750 twin.
This ones for Dcil.


EDIT 1/9/2019:
Mattylight Barebones Bare Bones Wiring Diagram
1982 Kawasaki Kz750M1 twin for Dcil
Kz750M Kz750 M1 Kz 750 M 750M1 750M

excellent work im new to the scene and didnt see and diagrams that i could adapt to what im trying to do.
..maybe im just not seeing it right i have a 1980 kz750-B2(twin) Im looking to keep the headlight and tail light i want to lose the keystart and use just a starter button and a kill switch if possible and also still be able to use the kick start if possible. any and all help will be greatly appreciated.