TOPIC:

No it's not the headlight causing the heat, not a ground problem either. This problem has been ongoing for 35 years. It's 100% positively the fuse clips causing the heat, 100%, no other possibility. Of course every extra draw you add to the bad fuse clips causes the fuse to get hotter yet, so yes the headlight draws a few amps so with the crap clips the fuse will get hot quicker and with more amplified results. The cure is either new blade fuses with better clips or clean and polish your existing clips to a shine and hope for the best. The 20A fuse will always run hot, but how hot is too hot? I polished the clips then got plastic zipties and zipped the clips to the fuse for added tension and that seems to work. I rode many a ride at pitch black mountain roads at night or even the NJ turnpike, it doesn't matter, this issue was always in the back of my mind as the 20a fuse blows you are dead in the water with no power, no lights, no nothing. Trust me it's the clips.

saxjonz wrote: You know too, sometimes it could actually be a short in the bulb itself. I had a shorted bulb that worked but blew fuses. It drove me crazy till I changed out the bulb. All of the wires will have corrosion on them. Clean the ends like MFolks said. The buttons, all of that stuff. Guarantee you this will help to make things run cooler.

We tried another bulb and same thing happened........hes gone over probably 80% of the wires. The horn wasn't working either. He found a bad ground in the left bar switch which fixed that but the darn fuse is still hot.

Fuse And Fuse Holder Designations

1. The older Kawasaki’s use a glass tubed fuse with the designation of AGX 1” long. Most good auto parts stores can get them for you. They are ¼” in diameter.

2. The more common AGC is 1 ¼” long and may not fit the smaller fuse clips. Again, ¼” in diameter.

3. To clean and polish the fuse clips, I use a cotton swab(Q- Tip) and some Brasso metal cleaner or Turtle Wax Chrome Polish. I suppose any good metal polish would work.

4. These fuses can fail internally but look good, only by using a multimeter to check for voltage going through the fuse, or when the fuse is removed for physical inspection for tight end caps & continuity checks,can it be determined if it’s serviceable.

5. Most modern motorcycles are now using the automobile “Blade” style fuse with the designation of ATC or ATO.

6. The reduced sized “Mini” Blade style fuse holder uses the ATM size of fuses.

7. If the fuse and fuse holder overheat, it could soften or anneal the grip of the clip, it might require squeezing the clip to restore the tightness.

8. A list of where to purchase “Blade” style fuses and holders:

www.waytekwire.com order.waytekwire.com/productdetail2/M50/...20%20%20%208%20FUSE/

www.rallylights.com www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=765

www.delcity.net/store/6!way-fuse-blocks/p_10822.a_1

www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Product...ers/fuseholders.html

www.autowiringsolutions.com/item.php?item_id=251&category_id=89 (ATO/ATC Fuse Holder)


9. A source for the glass tubed AGX fuses:
www.boatownerswarehouse.com/browse.cfm/2,4986.html

www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Result.aspx?N...&D=AGX&Dk=1&Dp=3&N=0

saxjonz wrote: I'm sure its a ground somewhere. Mfolks was the first thing with his checklist. I had a problem with my ignition. It was loose and shorting out fuses, also the starter switch the other day got wet from the rain and blew a fuse. All of the contact points after 30 years need cleaning or switches replaced if the stuff is bad. I hate electrical gremlins but what can you do?
Listen, make sure all that stuff is checked over cause if you blow a fuse in traffic on the highway you will be in deep without a paddle up that creek you don't want to be up. Happened to me but I had a feeling about the fuse and decided to switch to an outside lane in traffic and just as I did it blew.
If you take it to someone they will charge the dahmer price. Get a manual and one of those volt ohmeters and go to town checking the wires.

What part of the ignition was loose and did it blow the main 20a fuse? He hasn't check under the pick-up coils yet.

Funny you say getting stuck on the highway because thats what happened to him! We were going to bike night and he got stuck in the center. Good thing there was a u turn there and center with grass.

MFolks, yeah we didn't know how hard it is to find these smaller fuses! He went to quite a few store before finding them. We tested the voltage on both sides and it was the same.

MFolks wrote: You can remove, clean and tighten the Negative(-) battery terminal, and the one going to the engine mounting bolt. Also any place you see a BLACK with YELLOW stripe wire, that's a ground too. Check the ring terminals(the kind with the hole that bolts go through) for tightness and corrosion. If in doubt, get a M6 X 1 tap and clean out the threads in the frame.

His neg. cable off the battery looked a little funky but was clean maybe I'll have him replace it just for the heck of it.

RonKZ650 wrote: No it's not the headlight causing the heat, not a ground problem either. This problem has been ongoing for 35 years. It's 100% positively the fuse clips causing the heat, 100%, no other possibility. Of course every extra draw you add to the bad fuse clips causes the fuse to get hotter yet, so yes the headlight draws a few amps so with the crap clips the fuse will get hot quicker and with more amplified results. The cure is either new blade fuses with better clips or clean and polish your existing clips to a shine and hope for the best. The 20A fuse will always run hot, but how hot is too hot? I polished the clips then got plastic zipties and zipped the clips to the fuse for added tension and that seems to work. I rode many a ride at pitch black mountain roads at night or even the NJ turnpike, it doesn't matter, this issue was always in the back of my mind as the 20a fuse blows you are dead in the water with no power, no lights, no nothing. Trust me it's the clips.

He cleaned the crap out of the oem clip. The fuse is on tight too. They do run hot all the time?? It gets to the point where you don't want to leave your finger there.

Why bother to check anything that is not possibly the problem? Just waste of time and effort. It's the clips. If they are cleaned and polished, then they are not clean and polished enough. The design is the shits. A deathtrap. The fuse runs hot enough you can barely hold your finger on it and that's when it's normal. Any defect in contact amplify the problem. It is the clips, that's all it cn be. Some of these guys are great mechanics but I doubt electronic techs. It's the clips.100% probability.

Whatever type fuse block you decide to use, whether it's OEM or the newer blade-style, get two of them and put one in your on-board tool kit. On the side of the road, it's easier just to unplug the damned thing and swap it out whole.
I know these guys give great advice about how to go through the wiring with a fine-toothed comb based on their experiences and it seems tedious but, if you are riding a vintage bike, resign yourself to the fact that you are going to be touching pretty much every part of the thing in any given year. Get to know it, every nut and bolt, wire and connector, the shiny and the greasy. It's part of the experience and you'll be better for it and your riding will be that much more rewarding.
Don't be scared of that thing, after a while it becomes an extension of you.
And that, is what it's all about.

You can measure the amperage across the Main Fuse to find the system draw, it should be less than the rated fuse. They DO get hot, the old glass fuses, the more current the hotter. Rarely do the blow, they usually come disconnected at one end cap or the other. This is why Modern vehicles no longer use those, the spade type ATO/ ATC have a much better contact area.
Here is the wiring diagram in File Base. www.kzrider.com/filebase/doc_download/274-z1000e1

I think only the main fuse was getting hot on mine, but I don't remember for sure. It was only the main fuse that was blowing, and cleaning the fuse clips did the trick. If you've already done that then it must be somewhere else. They all run pretty hot but shouldn't melt the plastic fuse box...I've seen that before too.

Maybe there would be a way to run another inline fuse in place of that main fuse temporarily? If it doesn't blow, then you'll know it's the clips. Might be hard to do though without hacking up your wires...

RonKZ650 wrote: Why bother to check anything that is not possibly the problem? Just waste of time and effort. It's the clips. If they are cleaned and polished, then they are not clean and polished enough. The design is the shits. A deathtrap. The fuse runs hot enough you can barely hold your finger on it and that's when it's normal. Any defect in contact amplify the problem. It is the clips, that's all it cn be. Some of these guys are great mechanics but I doubt electronic techs. It's the clips.100% probability.

He hasn't taken it for another ride(after cleaning everything) because of how hot the fuse still gets. I never knew they did that! I'll have to check my z1 now........

Looks like its fixed! He said the left signal ground behind the bulb was really bad + he put in the auto style fuse in place of the main glass fuse. Thanks all for the help!