'82 GPZ 550 woes - problem testing alternator and

Well, I'm not sure if they're truly not firing. My friend said they sound okay (and he's been messing around with bike for some years). Plus, it's just that the 1 and 4 pipes are cold in the middle, but warm at the top, where the pipes emerge. Does that mean it's not firing, or just weak, or?

I'll get on checking the fuse box and swapping the wires if I can. The weather's quite temperamental this week. I was messing around with the 3 and 4 wire the other day, and one is short and one is long. I'd reckon it'd be the same for the 1 and 2 wires, so I should be able to just swap them if need be.

Have you gotten a chance to look at the pics at home?

Much appreciated for all the help so far from you guys.

I got around to checking the fuse box today. Checked the fuses and their clips, nothing seemed to be amiss. Checked the connectors around the area as well (all the ones underneath my seat). They were mostly gold, and by mostly, I mean they weren't as gold as they must have been when they just got out the factory, and they have a couple scratch marks from pulling out and plugging back in.

I check the other ignition coil though (the one that powers the #2 and #3 plug wires), the part where the connector is supposed to connect has green corrosion; but as you can remember, my 2 and 3 are the ones that seem to run just fine.

I told me friend about the #1 and #4 pipes that are warm on top and cold in the middle. He thinks it could be because the carbs aren't sync-ed. Agreement, disagreement?

I took some pics of the fuse box, but decided against uploading them because I figured there aren't much to see on them.

I still haven't gotten around to checking the alternator or rectifier. Should I check them? Loudhvx (a member) on KZrider.com said that if the ignition coils aren't getting enough juice, then it must be upstream, are the alternator and rectifier upstream?

Problem now is that the bike starts fine with choke, and also without choke, but, if I start it without choke, it just stalls after some seconds. If I start with choke, and then push the choke back in, it'll run fine until I turn it off (the longest I test that was around a minute, to warm up the pipes). Does that have to do with electrical problems?

If you can start the bike, the battery should be good enough to run the bike. If it was carb sync, the pipes would still warm up with the choke on as the RPMs will be higher from the throttles being open. Carb sync doesn't usually cause pipes to run cold unless it's way off.

See if it runs any different when you pull the black wire off the 1-4 coil.

I pulled the spark plug wires off of #1 and #4 (I didn't remember that you said the black wire of coil).

The top of #1 and #4 pipes seem to be less warm. I might or might not have revved it less than the time I did before, but given that I was fiddling with the multimeter for a while (when it was slipping off), I most likely did use a minute. Really sorry for confusing description about the time, I'm just thinking out loud.

Every time I tried before though, I kept the choke on only to start it and when it reaches around 4000 - 5000 rpm (because it sounded like it was going to keep climbing). Today I had the choke on all the time while I was revving it to 4000 - 5000 rpm. Probably doesn't make a difference either way?

I had someone on Yahoo! Answers telling me that one way to test the alternator was to check the battery voltage first, and then rev it to 4000 rpm and check that voltage at the time. If normally it's 12 volts, it should go up to 14 volts.

here's exact quote

Assuming you're just interested in the output of the alt and not trying to do a spark test - take a multimeter and put it across the battery terminals. A good battery will have about 12 volts with the engine off, and with the engine on should see 14 volts. If it's not making at least 14 volts, you've got a problem with the alternator.

I tested it. The battery was around 11.90 with engine off (it was around 12.03 - 12.23 before, but I forgot to detach the battery wires yesterday after testing something else), and when I revved the engine up to 4000 - 5000 rpm it went around 1 volt up, so around 12.9.

According to the description, it sounds like if I rev it it should go up 2 volts.

Opinions?

ps. The only reason I was asking on Yahoo Answers was because I was asking what "tlc" stood for, and saw someone asking the same question about testing the alternator, but on an 80-something GPZ 1100.

When the battery is good and fully charged, the voltage will get to about 14 to 14.6v when you rev it to 4000 RPM. With a battery with a lower charge, it may take a while for the battery to climkb to 14v.

Charge the battery and test it again, if you suspect the alternator or the reg/rec.

It's very possible the reg/rec is bad, but it doesn't usually fail altogether. It can fail "gradually". By this, I mean it may give you 14v at times. I've seen them where they will give you 14v at 2000 RPM, but if you sustain 3000 RPM, the battery will gradually drop back down to 11v.

You chould not run the bike with spark plug wires disconnected. It can ruin the coil or the ignition. In order to disabkle the coil, you pull off the coil's primary wire. That's the black wire for 1 and 4 and the green wire for 2 and 3.

You still need to do a direct comparison of the bike running with the 1-4 coil connected and disabled, to see if there is a difference in the way it runs.

If no difference, then the bike is not sparking on 1 and 4. If there is a difference, then you are at least getting some spark.

During your tests, you may want to pull off the headlight wire so the battery won't drain as quickly.

Thanks. My cylinders seems alright after all. It might just be because I didn't test it long enough. Newbie move I know, sorry.

Someone over at Kawasakimotorcycle.org showed me a guide on testing the charging system. I still haven't gotten around to doing that yet. My friend stopped by yesterday and I was going to use his fully-charged battery to test the charging system, but found out that he uses a different type.

He convinced me to charge the battery with the manual charger, and we discovered that the battery was actually at 100% charge already, because that's what the charger indicated (at this point, I measured it before charging, at 12.03V). We charged it for around 30 - 40 minutes, and the voltage went up to 12.23.

Before that he took a the bike around the block for a little bit, and he said it ran pretty well; but there was a lot of white smoke coming out of the narrow side of the muffler (manual said blue and black is bad), I guess where it connects to the engine pipes (not where it's supposed to come out). We never notice that problem even before, when I had just bought the bike (and we had taken it around the block a couple times). But then we discovered that we didn't connect the oil breather (he thinks it's what it is), could that be the problem?

Here's a pic of that component:
i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/will_dou/IMAGE_124.jpg

My bike also has no free play in the throttle, and surprisingly the Haynes manual has no mention of throttle. Not in index, not in routine maintenance; it's as if it doesn't exist...We adjusted it, but still little free play (like 2 - 3 mm), while he showed me his bike, which is also Kawasaki, and has around...fully 2 - 3 cm of free play (inch and a half). Is replacing the cable the only solution?

The clutch seems to have too much free play (more than 2 - 3 mm, which the manual said), but that's covered in the manual.

That photo is the crankcase breather. It goes to the airbox so the crankcase fumes can be burned.

Right after a full charge, the battery should be around 12.9v or even 13v depending on how long it sits before you measure the voltage.

I think you were right to notice the coldness in the pipes. They should heat up similarly. bUt if it runs smooth, then it's ok. You may have an intermittent problem.

The cable free play on the throttle is so the engine goes freely to idle, and does not rev when you turn the bars. You only need about 1/4 inch or so for that. The throttle cable should have a adjustments at the carbs, and at the throttle housing end. There should be plenty of adjustment range so you can get whatever play you want.

The clutch also has adjustments at the lever end and in the middle.

Download the manual from my signature. It may have some info you can use.

Thanks, I checked out the manual and it actually had information about throttle. In the future I'll consult that when my Haynes manual is insufficient.

I'm starting to think that there may be some problem with my battery, in addition to whatever electrical problem I may have with my bike.

As I mentioned, I had charged the battery two days ago, and today when I checked the voltage again, it's at 12.0x (12.2x right after charging two days ago).

Then, I charged it again for almost an hour on 12V 2 amp (this is the charge setting, where 12V 6 amp is faster, 2 amp is slower), even though the charger's meter needle is at just below 2 amps, around 1.5 (this is charging meter, and not the charge setting switch). The meter is supposed to show below 2 amps when fully charged, as said on the manual. My friend had said it wouldn't damage it if I charged it just a little longer, so I charge it today again for almost an hour. This time, by the time I went to pull the plug, the amp needle was at 0.

The voltage on the battery right after charge was 12.45V, twenty minutes later, 12.3x, another twenty minutes, 12.2x, then just holds there (I checked it just now, and it's some hours later).

It's not at 12.9, as you said; and I'm worried that if I charge it longer, it would damage the battery (which is why I only charged an hour).

My friend said that he heard somewhere that if the battery had lost fluids (which mine had), and even if the acid was replenished (as I did), the full charge voltage would never be as high as it used to be.

Is that true, and is that just my case? Or should I just charge it longer (instead of an hour, maybe two)?

By the way, just some information on the charger, it says that it can charge three basic types of lead-acid batteries - (1) conventional and low maintenance, (2) maintenance free, and (3) deep cycle. My battery says Standard Flooded Battery (I only found out about the three types after buying the charger and reading the manual).

Sorry if my recollection of the timeline when I charged the battery if confusing, just wanted to make sure I didn't leave out anything useful.

Sidenote: Oh, and my friend said that the smoke was just oil burning because I had too much (the oil indicator window was full).

Well, I typed a long post, and then lost it. Thanks for logging me out KZrider you ****! Pardon me that, venting done.

Well, putting off testing the charging system seem to have saved me some time potentially. I got the battery to full charge the other day (well, it sat for one day, so the day I tested it, voltage 12.63) and tested the voltage at 4000 RPM again (around 13.63), and it did indeed go up one volt, as would normally. So I did that instead of the long way.

Edit: Actually, or is that the test for rectifier? My friend suggested to test that for battery-charging.

Next, my friend and I tried to move on to connecting to aftermarket rear signal that the previous owner had installed but never connected. And we found that we can find where to connect it to.

Here a pic of the bottom of my seat, where, as you know, a lot of wire and rectifier and fuses and whatnot are.

i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/will_dou/IMAGE_110.jpg

At the bottom you can see two unconnected wires, a yellow with green stripes (you can hardly see the green at the angle), and a white with black stripes. For some reason my friend didn't think they were it, and I can remember why - something about maybe they're to plug other things in, or they're different connector types. We're pretty sure the yellow and green is for the right rear signal, but we just can find the one for the left one.

I'm also having trouble with the horn, in that it doesn't work at all. The button seems crooked, or dislodged, and when I tested the wire connected to it, with a 12V test bulb, as suggested by the manual, it didn't light. The manual suggested that should that be the case, then there's something at fault with the circuit, and it must be found - not every helpful. The manual also said something about testing the horn themselves just with the battery, which I haven't tried since the circuit test pretty much nailed it, but I think I'm going to test it anyways just in case the horn's broken too.

I'm happy that the bike overall is working though, I'm just left with these "little" problems that I need to fix to pass the inspection.

Oh, and I got the crankcase breather on as well, though that's been done for a while, with mostly brute force, and a little bit help from a pick to get those hard spots.

Hey bud.. Those wires your asking about are accessary wires, for your radar detector, or cigarette lighter if you so prefer. Your signal wires arent pictured, they should be further back under the cowling.

Thanks! I'll probably not install a cigarette lighter (don't smoke), but maybe an electric jacket for the winter and whatnot.

I'm guessing you mean the rear cowl? (I'll take a look tomorrow during the day of course)