Handlebar Grounded? Horn Problem: KZ400

I want to make sure I'm not going crazy.

On my 75' KZ400.. I notice it's a ground breaker that activates the horn circuit in the switch gear. Push the button... completes the ground... horn goes beep.

I just put painted bars on the bike... ran the electrical as stock... and got no horn. Hook the horn direct to the battery... beep beep.

So I took an alligator clip... clipped it to the screw on the bottom of the switch housing, and then clipped the other end to an exhaust bolt... what do you know. Beep beep!

To circumvent the issue and not ruin the painted bars, I made a small ground strap from the switch housing to the back of the gauge housing. Un-noticeable unless you're looking for it.

How ridiculous is this?!?! Is this REALLY how Kawasaki wired this? With a ground through the bars?

DannyKZ wrote: How ridiculous is this?!?! Is this REALLY how Kawasaki wired this? With a ground through the bars?

That is exactly how it works, though I'm not sure it's actually that ridiculous.

The KZ400 was intended to be a basic commuter bike. I doubt anyone envisioned it as a platform for customization so there wouldn't be much expectation of modification. The switch works as designed with the stock chrome bars and the setup was both simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

Btw, you can also get the horn to work by removing the paint under the switch assembly (if you want to get rid of the ground strap).

True.. I forgot this was a bargain bike. I don't want to remove paint and I don't mind the strap. If it works. It stays. Lol.

Yep, same problem on my 750 when I put painted bars on. Same solution, little hidden ground strap.

DannyKZ wrote: True.. I forgot this was a bargain bike. I don't want to remove paint and I don't mind the strap. If it works. It stays. Lol.

Exactly!

I ran into the same issue with a set of bars that I painted (the original superbike bars from my GPz) and then with a set of black factory-finished clubman bars. I'll probably run into it again when I swap to the clip-ons this winter. :laugh: