handlebar wiring in - out - side ? 1977 ltd

HRM, yes, as Matt mentioned you should have the clutch perch with the (hole) in it for the interlock barrel switch. Of course you said it was someone else's project when you'd gotten it. Only 77-78 had that goofy but nice, till ya have to work on it, wiring internal to the bars. Dropped in production 1979. Those original bars with the extra gusset between the top bridge clamps are somewhat hard to find! If it were my thoughts of why they changed back, maybe concerns of loss of strength in bars because of all those holes?? Of Honda did the same thing for years on their bikes too.    

Fox wrote:

Hello so for some peoples they are inside or outside.
I have here 2 kz1000.
One 77 ltd and one 78 ltd. I have 2 ltd handlebars and one is factory drilled on the center. The other one is not...
They are supposed to be oem handlebars for those bikes...

As I mentioned the 1977B1 & 78B2 (LTD) have factory internal control wiring, as do the same year KzA bikes. The bars for both “A” and “B” bikes although both having internal control wiring are different in shape. The “B” bars have more pull back. The best I can describe it is while riding your left and right wrists with be rotated counter clockwise and clockwise respectively, causing your elbows to be tucked more into your chest. With the “A” bars your wrists are more 90° to your forearm and your elbows are further from your chest. I have both and unless you have them stacked up on each other for comparison you’re hard pressed to correctly identify them. The LTD “B” bars are more prevalent used but are rare to find and the “A” bars are completely nonexistent in the used “for sale” market. If you do find a set of either there’s a good chance that they are bent, ask me how I know that. Then throw in that there are KZ650 bars with internal control wiring with a third shape, finding the correct bars is truly a nightmare. 

   As a side note: I have investigated having a set made by a custom handlebar shop, expensive and he can’t chrome them. He claims he can reproduce them exactly but only in raw steel that then would need to be shipped of for chrome. Not to highjack this thread but contact me if anyone is interested. 

I have 650 bars with internal wiring but with 650 controls.

HRM, YES, switchblocks are identical.

Had forgotten about the aspect of having to pull the wiring harness on the LH switchblock to install the clutch perch. So maybe..just a time saving decision? Heres an original bar/controls from a 1978 LTD1000. Maybe us Kawasaki fellas just fell over more often and dealership mechanics started to complain, ha.

And makes sense now as to why Honda used the referenced similar harness thru bar, clutch perch was integrated into the lower switch housing. Example, a CB400F laying around. 

This is the same problem I'm having with my current 78a build,while trying to stay as stock as possible these bars are nonexistent. For now I'm going with external and I have a set of originals that need rechrome. 

Yesterday I checked the clutch perch on my LTD (1980) and indeed it has a receptacle for an interlock, but the interlock switch has been removed.  I don't have a memory of removing it but a PO may have done it.

Someone obviously bypassed it. New (correct) length sheath/leads are pretty expensive. The barrel switch itself dimensionally remained the same and used on several Kawasaki displacements, just different 2-wire lengths. Seems the LTD version had the longest leads because of the handlebar height.

Ronnie, you had to of had to notch out the lower half's of those original switchblocks to allow external wiring. If when you get the "original" handlebars chromed and desire to bring back to original let me know. I have unmolested lower shell halves.  

I did and thank you. I'll definitely keep that in mind. 

I sourced 650 housings that will get the 1977 Kz1000 internals. Saved me some budget money.