Quick question!!!!!

I've been troubleshooting my electrical system for a while now, just a quick question regarding the headlight failure indicator. Is the indicator suppose to be on or off if there is a headlight failure?

I believe it will go on if the headlight bulb has failed.
On some later year Kawasaki's they had a reserve lighting device that would automaticly switch to either hi or low depending on what beam failed.

I have the reserve unit, the indicator stays on. Both low and high beams are working. Is it possible the reserve unit is not working correctly?

It sure sounds like it has failed internally(have you checked for corrosion on the electrical contacts?).

Yes, but one issue is that the resistor is missing that is associated with the reserve unit. The bad thing is only the '78 and '80 Z1-R uses this resistor.

I have an 82 GPZ1100 B2 and I believe the same unit is used on all the 80's bikes. Try www.oldkawman.com , www.oldbikebarn.com and the many and varius motorcycle salvage places for a complete system.

Am thinking resistor's purpose is to reduce high beam brightness when automatically activated in event of low beam failure. This presumably being a safety measure to avoid blinding oncoming traffic where low beam fails and high beam is automatically activated without input from the rider while switch remains in low beam position.

Am uncertain of the effect, if any, on activation of the white headlight failure indicator light where the resistor has been by-passed (wires connected) or removed (wires left unconnected) or suffers failure during operation. Could experiment both ways (wires connected and wires left unconnected) to determine whether either way has any effect on activation of the white headlight failure indicator light.

The FSM says the resistor is about 1.5 ohms. (??Radio Shack??)

Good Luck!

Will try both ways. I spoke to Jim @ Redline Cycle, he has one for a '78 Z1-R. Thanks for all you guys help. Will keep you posted.

Resolved headlight failure indicator. I notice that the left control was not from a Z1-R, but from a earlier model KZ. I also notice that hi-beam indicator was not working, but rewired to correct the issue.