kill switch?

im currently trying to get a 78 kz 650 running by replacing most of the wiring. the po absolutely hacked the last harness. my question is does the kill switch knob have to be hooked up in order for the bike to run? all the wires are intact for the right side controls but that "guts" for the kill switch were removed and some type of toggle switch was used as a kill switch which im not a big fan of. looking at the wiring diagram there is a brown wire on the controls that goes to the kill swithc and the headlight switch but its not hooked up to the kill swithc itself. can i just use the key as my kill swithc? thanks

If you stick with the original harness, yes the kill switch has to be working to get power to the ignition.

It would help to know exactly which model you have 78 kz 650 B? , C? or D?, and is it a Canadian model? You can put it into your signature so people always know what you have.

Assuming it's a 78 650 B from the U.S., you just need to jumper the brown wire to the yellow/red wire at the switch to get the ignition to be controlled by the key switch. In order to maintain the electric start, don't cut the yellow/red wire, only splice into it and jumper to the brown wire. Also don't cut the brown wire either, in order to maintain headlight operation.

Arrgh,myspacebarstoppedworking.Have to gofixit.

yes the bike is a us model 650 b. since the top half of the controls (where the kill switch knob is located) does not have any type of connection, am i able to re solder the brown wire to the yellow/red wire in the bottom half of the controls? or should i use an actual electrical connector to splice into the yellow/red wire? thanks

The diagram doesn't show the actual physical layout of the wires, but as long as you connect the yellow/red to the brown somewhere near the control, that should do it. (Unless there is other wiring messed up.)

I would not use a pinch splice connector, I would solder a proper jumper in somewhere.

If the previous owner soldered in a toggle switch, there should be a brown wire and yellow/red wire there. Just solder them together and tape them off so that they can't short out.

what do you mean by a jumper exactly? or is connecting these 2 wired creating the jumper?

A small piece of wire connecting the brown wire to the yellow/red wire is what I am calling a jumper. You don't have to use an extra piece of wire, and could just connect the brown and yellow/red wires together directly, but I use the word jumper to imply that the brown wire, and yellow/red wires should not be cut. They still need to continue going where they are going, but are now also connected together.

What are the wires on the toggle switch? Are they brown and yellow/red? If so, just solder them together.

Also, there may be more than one brown wire. There may also be a brown/white wire. Make sure it's the brown wire going to the kill switch, and not the brown/white wire which is for lighting.

ive already undone the po wiring but the wires that were connected to the toggle switch were the brown and yellow/red. he had someone rewire the coils somehow and had a relay wired up for the coils. ive actually seen a write up about this on this forum. it was done really poorly meaning no solder was used or electrical connecters. he just twisted the wired together and threw some electrical tape on it. i figured it would be best just to rewire the whole bike with a new harness with good connetions

well i just tottaly redid my bike kz 65o 1977 and i rewired it all if you have a book on it go all the way in the back look at your wiring diagram im pretty sure you have to have it but you and over look it by finding witch wires they are and bypass them but i think you need to ask an inspector i dont no if it will pass inspection or not
get back to me in the mean while ill look in by book and try to find it for you and ill forward a diagram to you ok

well i just tottaly redid my bike kz 65o 1977 and i rewired it all if you have a book on it go all the way in the back look at your wiring diagram im pretty sure you have to have it but you and over look it by finding witch wires they are and bypass them but i think you need to ask an inspector i dont no if it will pass inspection or not
get back to me in the mean while ill look in by book and try to find it for you and ill forward a diagram to you ok