Looking for tips

I've have my '78 kz650sr for three years now and each year I've been plagued by electrical gremlins. So it's a mess. I would really like to tear the whole lot of it out and completely redo it, new wires, conections, wraps, fuse box, and route it the proper way around the bike. Looking for tips or resources for doing this the proper way. And if anyone knows where to find a proper starter button, let me know lol

Best try to improve on those goofy blue bodge crimps with proper soldered connections and heatshrink. Alternatively heat shrink crimps. You have a non standard mcb breaker fusebox ? wired in on thick non colour coded wires but looks ok just needs better containment.

Your issues are almost certainly the bad diy crimp connectors. Quite rare for a wire to be damaged in the harness but most faults are in the connections,

Finding a stock wiring harness would be the best bet but may prove to be difficult since for some reason people feel compelled to chop them up into bits and pieces (like yours). Consequently, you may want or need to build you own harness. You can find the 1978 KZ650-D1 (SR) wiring diagram at:

diagrams.kz650.info/wiring/images/KZ650-D1.jpg

For taping the harness, or at least for taping the ends of the harness, I would highly recommend F4 silicone tape. It is not affected by heat, it insulates bigtime, it ONLY sticks to itself rather than the wires, and it never turns gooey. You can find it on eBay, Amazon, etc. See www.f4tape.com/ for details.

The correct fuse box for your bike can be found here:
www.diablocycle.com/Kawasaki-KZ1000-KZ65...e-Box-PM69-4232.html

Ed

For connectors you may want to check these sites:

hvccycle.net/electrical-connectors-wire/
www.cycleterminal.com/250-connectors.html
www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Product...tors/connectors.html
vintageconnections.com/

Ed

CycleTerminal.com is where I get most of my stuff. Z1Enterprises.com also has electrical stuff, including colored wire.
Get a ratcheting crimper for crimping open barrel terminals --- the crimps are very strong. same as stock. get extra terminal pins to practice. I already had a HF ratchet crimper but the dies were wrong, so I got an open barrel die set off of amazon.com.
cycleterminal has a nice terminal pin extractor set which is very handy to have. white handles.

cycleterminal.com

cycleterminal --- connectors

cycleterminal --- tools ... scroll down to bottom of page for crimping info.