Rectifier question/ On fire question

So as we were trying to remove the rectifier, a small fire erupted due to wires touching - our bad - and when the smoke cleared we discovered we had a kz400 rectifier for our '77 kz650. The fire actually happened as I was trying to unscrew the recifier from the bottom of the battery cage. The fire happened because of touching wires, but could some of the previous wiring troubles be due to the mismatched rectifier? Do they use the same rectifier or not?

Pretty sure is for a kz400 since the rectifier has "kz400" written on it marker from some reseller. But it could be mismarked, what do I know.

Thanks for your help.

I don't know, but you find out easily by going to babbittsonline.com and selecting OEM Parts and doing a search on the models in question. If you find the Kawi part number for your rectifier, you can do a reverse search and it will list all models using the same one.

They are not the same.

'76 kz400 rectifier: 565639-001
'77 kz650 rectifier: 565640-001

'Course, they may be functionally identical. Anybody know whether they're interchangable?

Skonnie Boy wrote:

They are not the same.

'76 kz400 rectifier: 565639-001
'77 kz650 rectifier: 565640-001

'Course, they may be functionally identical. Anybody know whether they're interchangable?

not sure about the 400 but the 550 4's were a two wire single phase stator and the 650 maybe a three wire two phase like the 900/1000 and 750. remove the left side cover and see how many wires come from the stator.

The early KZ400's and the 77 650 use almost the same charging system functionally (3-phase, excited-field, with seperate reg and rec). The 650 does use a few more amps due to having two ignition systems versus one for the 400. I suspect they are very similar.

Either way, you should check out
www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/rectifiers3p.html
Scroll down. He sells the same rectifier for both bikes. But with slightly different wiring configs.
R2-55a-KZ650 for the 650.
Same rectifier, but different part number for the 400:
R2-55a-KZ400.

At 55 amps, you could power 3 bikes off one rectifier.

Just in case, he has regulators too. Great price, and it's adjustable.
www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/vregulators.html
Scroll down to VR3-KZb