power problems

my 77 kz1000 shut off while i was riding at 25mph in front of my house. now my bike wont start. my battery has power. my head light will not come on. no power at points. i checked the kill switch it is working fine. the fuses are good also. now what should i do?

Thse older glass tubed fuses can look good but fail internally. The metal end caps get loose from vibration and loose grip of the conducting filiment.

Get either a self powered test light or a multimeter set on OHMS to test the fuse(s) Pull the fuses one at a time so you don't get the wrong one in the fuse clips.

The older fuses are the AGX type, 1" long. The more easily found AGC type are 1 1/4" long and may not fit the fuse clips/holders.

Most good auto parts stores can get the AGX fuses, so call first saving a trip.

Take some Brasso metal polish or something similar on a cotton Q-tip and clean the clips/holder well, this should help in electrical conductivity.

Look at the battery cables too, all must be clean and tight, especially the BLACK Negative(-) one going from the battery terminal to the engine mounting bolt

pitblue/kz wrote:

my 77 kz1000 shut off while i was riding at 25mph in front of my house. now my bike wont start. my battery has power. my head light will not come on. no power at points. i checked the kill switch it is working fine. the fuses are good also. now what should i do?

If not already done, would assure clean snug connections of battery cables to battery terminals.

And assure good ground connection where negative battery cable attaches to engine.

Good Luck!

And heed MFolk's advice!

that was the problem thanks for your time im replacing all 3 tomorrow

Kudos to MFolks and Patton,

This parallel processor we got going here is the best.

Bill

I love a good electrical mystery!!

Reminds me of a field service call a couple years ago...

OMR to local field tech... check fuses yup good...

You sure, you measured the fuse continuity for opens...yup...

You measured the voltage on both ends of the fuse... yup...


OMR flies 2000 miles to East coast, Baltimore area...
Goes to site...

Measures fuse... WIDE OPEN! Power on one side, not on other...

OMR asks local tech again, I thought you said this was good... Let me see your DVM to verify it's reading ok...

Tech replies, uh, I don't have a meter, only visual.... :blink:

OMR is now really


Moral of this true story is NEVER EVER only count on visual inspections for electrical troubleshooting! It will kick you square in the nads every time, leave you stranded, leave you frustrated, leave you in a non riding state always.... USE YOUR VOLT/RESISTANCE METERS! for electrical troubleshooting and you will be riding soon....

Glad you isolated and found the problem....

Old Man Rock wrote:

Tech replies, uh, I don't have a meter, only visual.... :blink:

OMR is now really

At least he looked at it with his eyes..... last year we released a new IC and right after release I was testing it and found out it oscillated with a certain size input capacitor. I am in the designer's office:

"You swore you checked this before release. You even sent me copies of the data from where you checked this."

Designer: "We did check it..... I ran simulations and it worked fine.":laugh:

Translation: you didn't really expect me to get my hands dirty in the lab and test one of these things did you?

Sounds like Boeing and their computer simulation for the 787. They found out much later and $$$$$$$$$$$$ the simulation was faulty and now have to re-engineer the wing box area and retrofit several assembled aircraft with the "Fix"!!