TOPIC:

I'm confused. While trying to wire up a replacement control I'm trying to figure out the horn and headlight switches. What I have is a brown wire that is factory spliced to several places and assume it to be a ground, and a black and white stripe wire that is a shirt to ground from the LH control. Two grounds? From this i am wondering is the brown supposed to be hot? Also the headlight high/low and pass. Are these intended to switch 12 volts to the headlight when switched? The pass switching 12 volts momentary to the high beam only?

Thanks!

What bike and year. Most Kz use the brown as hot. Headlight need ground and two hots, low beam and high beam. But you might have only one to the switch and it selects which element get power... I’m not familiar with pass, but I’d assume it’s a momentary 12 volt the the high beam.

Apologies. 78 kz650 sr

Here’s a link to a downloadable FSM

www.manualslib.com/manual/1006638/Kawasa....html?page=28#manual

Brown at the ignition switch is ground. Brown with a white strip comes off the fuse box from red/blue.

I have the schematic but its pretty poor and almost makes it worse. Wondering also, whats this thing? Brake light failure switch?

Yes that looks like a brake light failure switch. Sorry the Schematic I linked is such a poor copy. You need to look at the table near the margin of the Schematic it will tell you what wires connect in the different ignition switch positions.

I would be surprised if a brown wire was a ground. I know on my bikes it's a hot wire. I use it to power my ignition. Also on my bikes, there is a black wire coming out of the end of the left switch that goes to the horn.

So i found a brown bullet, on the back end of the brown splice, that when put to 12vdc voila! everything works. SO you are correct brown is supposed to be hot. I cant find a mate for this brown lead, so ill have to connect it up somewhere to an accessory 12 volts I guess. The harness on these things is so wonky. they switch from hot colors like orange to red or yellow to brown. wtf. Thanks for the poke in the right direction. It fires up and runs great, but Im thinking having lights an d signals and a horn should also be a thing

There are various hot wires to make checking stuff simpler, I guess. Black-yellow are always ground.

Wiring diagram from the KZ650.Info site. Brown is hot:
diagrams.kz650.info/wiring/images/KZ650-D1.jpg

So in looking at this diagram and with the advise above to look at the tables as well (missed those so thank you! ) it seems I should have power on the brown from the white at the ignition switch. This doesn't seem to be happening. I do have a spare ignition so Ill swap that out and check again.

thanks as always you guys are amazing

It is my understanding the pass light function was used on bikes sold in other than the North American market. So I assume you have one intended for other markets. There are some differences between the wiring depending upon just which market.

Not sure if this will help any but have attached a non North American wiring diagram for the D2 (sorry do not have one for the D1 other than North American) Please note that there are some differences between the D1 and D2, but it does show the pass light feature.

I don't know why they did it but all my bikes have a double female brown connector near the headlight with no intended use. It shows on the Z1 circuit diagram.