Brown wire from stator issue ????

I am having a charging issue with my 85 KZ1000P. I have replaced numerous parts of the electrical system but am having a recurring issue.

After replacing the stator with a Rick's unit and the reg/rec with a new one as well, the bike wouldnt charge. This was later diagnosed as a broken yellow that occurred during my install. After fixing that, I also installed a Kuryakyn led voltmeter.

Current charge levels are 14.5 at 4000 rpm. I show 2 green leds on the voltmeter at all times with the headlamp OFF. Headlamp and parking lights ON, it drops to 1 green led. Brake ON shows NO greens.

With headlamp and park OFF, brake ON shows 1 green led. I then removed both front park/turn lamps and removed the rear brake bulb, switching to 2 E911 leds for the brake lamps. This still drops the green leds to 1, regardless of Headlamp ON or OFF.

With Headlamp OFF, and brakes ON, I get 2 greens. Headlamp ON and brakes ON, I now get 1 green.

Here is new problem. After riding two funeral escorts for 85 miles total, including highway and surface streets, combo of 20 mph to 75 mph (75 mph = 3900 rpm due to 15/36 sprocket swap), and using High beam Headlamp while on interstate, and using NO Headlamp but using full led emergency light package for surface streets during actual escort (20-30 mph), the bike went dead.

When I stopped to refuel at the end of the 85 mile day, the bike wouldn't crank. It showed 1 green and flicker for 2nd green led on voltmeter. After jumping it off, it cranked when I arrived home 1 mile later.

Question: Would the brown wire in picture 1 need to be hooked up to something? The red plug is plugged into the 5 wire plug from the new reg/rec. There is NO brown wire provision in new regulator.

Would this be the culprit for battery drain? I plug the bike into a battery maintainer after every ride.

What or how should I wire the brown wire into the system? Brown wire is upper left on RED plug (PIC 1), and there is an empty slot in the WHITE female plug from the reg/rec in the upper left shown in (PIC 2)

HELP PLEASE

there's a police wiring diagram in this website. My understanding is there are no brown color wires in the stator wiring, only yellow ones.

www.cyclepsycho.com/kz1000p/kz1000p.html I don't think the wiring changed that much from year to year.



The regulator/rectifier plug on the 80’s bikes usually has six wires in it:

A. One (1)WHITE with RED stripe, this is the bikes main power wire usually 12 gauge in size.

B. One(1) smaller Brown wire, probably 18 gauge or so, the voltage sense wire for the regulator/rectifier, helps keeping it from overcharging the battery.

C. One(1) BLACK with YELLOW stripe wire, part of the ground circuits, maybe 16 gauge in size.

D. Three(3) YELLOW wires, maybe 14 gauge in size, the alternator output wires going to the regulator/rectifier which converts the Alternating Current(A.C.) to Direct Current(D.C.) using rectification, producing the power to run the motorcycle and charge the battery.

Some replacement (and even some stock) regulators do not use the brown wire. You would just leave it off.

Do you have a way to monitor actual voltage level on the battery while riding (in digits rather than led ranges)? If not, i would recommend it (I realize you already invested in the Kuryakyn). If you are doing a lot of slow speed riding with a lot of lights, you will want to monitor the actual voltage and possibly adjust the lighting load accordingly, in order to prevent a dead or dying battery during an escort. 13v is basically the break even point where the battery will be stable (not discharging or charging much). If you see the voltmeter drop below that, you will know you may have to start cutting out some of the lights before too long, because the battery is discharging.

In addition, make sure all three yellow wires are in tact and well supported throughout the harness, from stator all the way to regulator/rectifier. Then from there, make sure all of the wiring is good from reg/rec to the battery.

I realize it's a pain, but it may be worth it to check out the stator and make sure there are no burnt/discolored wires on the stator.

You can use an inexpensive AMP meter to go into the Red/White R/R output and the battery. It should show the load, negative AMPs when key is on. Then once running it should show positive Amps, charging. They are rated for 20 Amps Max output at a high RPM, but when I did my write up the full rated output was achieved at a lower RPM. 2500 had the full 20 Amps and still 14v. So the Amp meter needs to be able to handle 30 Amps or more.
You can check your Key Off Current draw with a DVOM. Most of these can do up to 10 Amps. Disconnect the Negative battery cable and put the DVOM in-line with the battery and cable completing the circuit, range the DVOM first to 10 Amps, then to 100 ma. Should be 0 unless you have accessories that have a memory function, clock, radio, Gps, etc. Still needs to be less than 50 ma or you will drain slowly.
Definitely check your battery condition, and Key Off Current Draw.

Edit: Don't know if you want to but here is a three phase load test I did on a 82 1100.
kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/389324-so...-findings-82-1100-a2

It does show 14.5 volts at 3000 rpm and higher. It is charging, but I just couldn't understand why it wouldn't start after jumping off the interstate after riding at 75 mph for 30 miles. I went to all leds for the emergency lights to avoid putting an undue strain on the battery and system.

I do have the full manual and the police specific wiring diagram. Just not sure about the brown wire.

I know the brown wire doesn't come from the stator, but it does join in the harness and plug into the reg/rec along with the 3 yellows from the stator. The broken yellow from the stator was fixed as originally posted.

So, the bottom line is: don't worry about the brown wire not plugging into anything?

I do have a multi meter which is where I am getting my readings from. I have not checked AC output since the stator repair. I can do that tomorrow...

I believe www.electrosport.com makes an overwound stator that will charge at lower rpm's than the stock one does.

If after checking the stator output and finding you've lost a phase or two, inspect the electrical connectors on the fuse block and regulator/rectifier for burned pins or melted connectors.

load test your battery I fought a quote charging problem for a month replaced the regulater no change had a guy load test my new AGM battery and under a load it dropped to less than 10 volts. Put a new one in and havent had a problem since. hope this helps. as for the brown wire part of this post Cant help ya there

Brown wire should be hooked up to switched +12 volts.

etbike3135 wrote: Brown wire should be hooked up to switched +12 volts.

motorscot wrote:
"Question: Would the brown wire in picture 1 need to be hooked up to something? The red plug is plugged into the 5 wire plug from the new reg/rec. There is NO brown wire provision in new regulator."

Loudhvx wrote
"Some replacement (and even some stock) regulators do not use the brown wire. You would just leave it off."

So with the OEM 6 wire r?R you would be correct, but with the replacement 5 wire, it uses the Red/ White Battery wire as voltage sense, like many OEM Kawasaki R/R.