Mystery wire time!

So this is our '77 kz650C project. I believe we have christened her "Ghostbitch" since she's dead and she's been a bitch to work on thus far.

She's 99% complete, but this wire in the pic is the missing 1%. The wires are Green/White, Black/Yellow and Blue. They attach to a three prong connector. We cannot for the life of us figure out where it goes to or what it is. We're still learning to speak wiring-diagramese, maybe one of you guys could help us identify it. We'd sure appreciate any help or advice.

Sorry, here's the pic. Had to downsize it.

From the wiring diagram it looks like the mentioned connector might service the brake light failure indicator light. (Not essential to starting and running the engine).

One important connection to check is having battery voltage reaching a primary terminal on each coil when the ignition switch is turned ON. With a good fully charged battery, battery power to the coils should allow the engine to start up and run regardless of any connections to or problems with alternator or reg/rec.

Good Luck!

On most of the Kawasaki's the Black wire with a Yellow stripe is ground,Blue is the brake light hot wire and the Green wire with white stripe might be the circuit mentioned.

Good to know, though the wiring it connects to is apparently lost.

Can't seem to get any juice flowing through the bike, lights, etc. The engine ground strap (p. 55, figure 14, Clymer manual) seems to be missing as well. Is it just a strap for the wire that goes to the ignition cover, or is it a grounded wire connection? Would this be a possible reason we can't get power? Sorry, a picture would help, I can provide one if necessary.

Thanks again for all the help.

I doubt a grounding strap would do that, but it's possible.
Have you checked your fuses? Those old glass fuses are notorious for looking ok, but are actually open. Sometimes they heat up just enough to melt the solder in the ends, but still look ok.

The battery must be grounded to the engine (usually at a mounting bolt) with probably a 8 or 6 gauge cable off the negative terminal.

A welding supply place can provide the cable(maybe 3-4 ft.)
and a battery shop should be able to crimp the correct terminals on the ends.


The positive terminal(+) on the battery goes to the starter solenoid on one terminal and the other solenoid terminal goes to the starter motor. Depending on the model of bike, a 12 gauge wire comes off the solenoid where the positive terminal went and plugs into the main harness providing power to run the bike.

On some bikes this wire is white with a red stripe going to the fuse block with maybe a 20-30 amp main fuse.

The battery is grounded properly, I believe. I will check the fuses, though the PO bypassed one of the fuses (last one on the right) with a 20 blade fuse (see pic). Its rated the same as a glass fuse, hope that's not the problem. But its all conjecture until I replace the fuses and actually get in front of the bike. Stupid CB750 is taking up all my time, but at least one of my bikes needs to run. Will update.

And Patton SCORES!!!!

Not required to run....

Woot, there it is. Thanks.

Bump!

This might be cause for a new thread but:

I can safely say that the fuses are not the problem, as I replaced them with new ones, and still no juice or lights. Again, I used a fully charged battery, so that's not the problem either. How often do things like condensers, rectifiers or starting solenoids fail on KZs? And if they do, would that be a possible cause for the bike not getting any juice? Might be time to invest in an ohmmeter.

In review of your fuse box image, the fuse holders look a little tarnished... So, with that in mind, in using a volt meter, in reference to ground, trace the +12Vdc from source to target component....

You may be surprised you only have a weak connection...