dead KZ550

And I mean dead. Went from being a hot fun and spicy little number to a no-headlight-no-idiots-light dead dead bike. All the fuses look OK. I'm guessing the ignition switch? As I turn the key absolutely nothing happens.

A little background: I was awoken to my bike's horn blasting one night (some Flamm loud aftermarket thing, came with the bike), unplugged the horn. Rode the bike the next day to and from work with the wire hanging there (I know, stupid, just wasn't thinking), no problems. Next time I tried to start the bike, the key had no effect. Went to charge the battery, the Battery Tender showed essentially fully charged. Checked all the fuses, including under the left side cover and the couple fuses under the tank. Help?

take the battery charger off and check the batterys voltage i bet its fried just a hunchB)

do you have a volt meter? you may have to start at the battery and work youself back to the source of the problem

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Perhaps shorted horn switch? Time to fire up the test light.

Start Simple, Start with the battery could be as simple as a fried Battery But if your horn was blasting then I'm going to say you have a Short somewhere in the wiring Harness that drained and killed your battery over time. Buy a new battery or Jump start the bike. if it starts then you have jumping off point and you just need to find the short. also go to the file base and get the wiring diagram for your bike, YEAH they do have it. Will help no matter what problem your having.
Hope you get your bike back up.

Check the negative lead from the battery. The nut on my negative lead where it connects with the negative terminal used to come loose. The connection would look good but it just was'nt making it and everything would be dead with perfect battery voltage. Check the lead all to way from battery to where it grounds on the engine. Hope it's as simple as that and the horn incident was just coincidence.
Good luck

Post edited by: JR, at: 2008/01/26 21:01

Thanks to everyone! Turns out the battery just isn't holding a charge, notwithstanding the Battery Tender saying it was "charged." The battery is relatively new (6 months), but the guy who had it before me drained it once, then I unwittingly drained it once by running the bike with my heated gear and the bright headlight on.

Does anyone know a good replacement battery other than the one Kawasaki recommends? It's a little spendy. Thanks again for all the help -- it motivated me to get my test light out, take a look at the general condition of the wiring and note a few problems, and take a look at all the fuses (realizing almost all the spares were missing).

Turns out the battery in the bike was actually a 12V / 7AH battery. The manual calls for a 12AH battery, so this may have contributed to some of the problems.

Post edited by: Siggy Javotnik, at: 2008/01/27 12:44

what color is that Rattle can bike bro?