ignition switch

can any one help? the ignition switch on my z650c3 (with the six wires in the connector and the seperate brown wire) has had the wires replaced with different colored ones, does any one know the proper colour of wires that go to each terminal, they are marked tl1, sl, etc.

If you search the filebase you will probably be able to get the wiring diagram to compare it to.

To get to the filebase scroll to the top of the page go to KZ information-filebase. Hope this helps you

thanks , but i already have the wireing diagram, it shows the wires connected to the switch but i need to know which wire goes to each terminal, as they are a different layout in the picture, and not marked tl, hl,etc

Without knowing what you have it will be difficult to help you. You may have a control unit from a different brand bike or you may have a K&S unit. Kawasaki color codes all of their bikes exactly the same. For example: black and yellow is always a frame ground Brown is always Live Ground Etc.

otakar wrote:

Without knowing what you have it will be difficult to help you. You may have a control unit from a different brand bike or you may have a K&S unit. Kawasaki color codes all of their bikes exactly the same. For example: black and yellow is always a frame ground Brown is always Live Ground Etc.

Don't mean to interupt but what is the difference between frame ground and live ground? My switch also has the separate brown wire. I have a nice switch (no extra brown wire) off a 78 but won't work on mine and never see ones on ebay with the extra brown wire which mine also has. My tumblers are so loose that key falls out hitting bumps so I need another one.

I found out the hard way about live ground. It is actually a positive wire. It is for example used on things like most sending units, horns, oil pressure and neutral lights, to name a few. If it is a SOLID BROWN wire, it is a POSITIVE ground. If it is YELLOW & BLACK it is a negative frame ground. BLACK & WHITE is a intermittent or switched ground and BLACK is a main switched ground. While, YELLOW & BLACK is a permanent ground. If it is coming from your switch controls it may be a HORN wire or a ENGINE KILL SWITCH wire, or even a brake lever wire. Brown is also used with your fuel gauge, Electronic Speedometer and electronic Tach.

otakar wrote:

I found out the hard way about live ground. It is actually a positive wire. It is for example used on things like most sending units, horns, oil pressure and neutral lights, to name a few. If it is a SOLID BROWN wire, it is a POSITIVE ground. If it is YELLOW & BLACK it is a negative frame ground. BLACK & WHITE is a intermittent or switched ground and BLACK is a main switched ground. While, YELLOW & BLACK is a permanent ground. If it is coming from your switch controls it may be a HORN wire or a ENGINE KILL SWITCH wire, or even a brake lever wire. Brown is also used with your fuel gauge, Electronic Speedometer and electronic Tach.

I've never heard of a positive wire being called a "positive ground" when there is already a negative ground. That kind of defeats the whole concept of "ground" being a reference point for all relative voltages doesn't it?

I've only heard of positive ground when a system uses a battery's positive terminal tied to the frame/engine. It seems what you are referring to is simply a "live" wire. It has 12 volts on it relative to ground (when the ignition switch is on).

(Incidently, my wiring harness had black/white wires tied to black/yellow wires, and some black wires, so I'm not sure how absolutely consistent the color codes are. Also, the starter relays are wired with a black/white as a switched positive and the ground was a yellow wire.)

The positive ground is used when the device to which it is connected is directly attached to a grounding surface. As in the case of the previously mentioned devices. If you want to try it for your self, you are more than welcome to combine your brown wires and yellow/black wires and see what happens. Actually I think just one anywhere on the bike would do the trick. After you try it, make sure you let us know what happens, OK? Call it reversed polarity call it anything you want, it's just semantics.

Obviously, one would not attach a live wire to a ground.

My only question is where do you get the term "live ground" to mean the same as a "live wire". The only time I see the terms "live" and "ground" used togethter is when someone is using it as notation to mean "live-to-ground". Usually this is only used in household AC situations. For example, if someone wanted to indicate that a wire was 120 vac relative to ground they would say the wire was "120 vac live-ground". This is to differentiate from when a wire is 120vac relative to another phase. In houses with 220vac, one live wire can be 120vac relative to ground (120vac live-ground) or it can be 220vac relative to the other live wire.

Is it possible this is where you got that term?

Call it anything you want, the truth of the matter is that any device it is connected to is reversed in polarity in respect to the bike.

The brown wire is a switched 12v for the lights, horn ect. Kawasaki calls it "batt 1" in the scematic for a KZ650. The other end of the lights is ground, the other end of the horn is switched to ground through the horn button. Like you say call it anything you like, but "switched power" makes a lot more sense to me than live ground.

ok, thanks for all this info