screwy PO battery cables

I just purchased my first motorcycle a KZ650 SR. It has been sitting in my garage for the better part of a week and I have spent some time cleaning it and replacing obviously missing hoses and becoming familiar with the machine. I have yet to attempt to start it because of a battery cable issue that I thought some of you might be able to give some help on.

The battery as it came to me had obvious signs of trouble; in fact the negative contact is all but burned off. I have purchased a new battery but was a bit confused as to how the cables should be attached. I am concerned that perhaps it was hooked up wrong at some point.

There seem to be a bunch of negative wires. I have attempted to attach a photo so that you can see what I am talking about. I have one battery cable that is attached to the right side of the crank case which seems pretty good for grounding. However the loose end is attached to a bolt and another small wire going somewhere up front. I have a second battery cable that comes out of the crankcase on the left hand side of the bike near where the drive chain enters. This wire has a second wire coming off of it which I think the PO had possibly attached to the bolt along with the small wire going up front. Any ideas on how this might be hooked up?

Thanks
Colin

Post edited by: bakerco3, at: 2007/07/13 15:16

there is a wiring diagram on this site for that bike, the pos wire should go to the solinoid and the ground should go to the engine case, not sure about what other wires you have

I have seen the wiring diagrams that is part of why I am confused.

Here is another attempt at the pic

the big wire going to the left side of the engine is the starter motor wire that should be connected at the starter soleonid switch, it runs the starter motor. the positive cable should go from the battery to the other big connection at the soleonid switch.

batt+ short fat wire to soleonid switch then soleonid switch to starter motor wire on the left side of engine.(biggest fat wires on bike)

the big fat ground wire goes from the battery- to the rear of the engine and there may a small black with yellow tracer wire there too that is good to ground also

Ok I think I got the photo issues worked out so this might help. Thanks for your previous comments and help. The solonoid wires seem to be in order (see 1st pic.) the BIG red wire can be hooked up to the battery and there seems to be a wire headed into the crank case to the starter.





(By the way as you can see in the pic it seems that I am missing a relay?? below the starter solonoid) any ideas what that is might be helpful and possibly related to my extra wires.

A picture of the multitude of potential ground wires is below. I put a piece of paper under them so that they might show up better. The top black wire in the pic is grounded to the engine case. There is also a white wire attached to this with the bolt. (the white wire is connected to a black/white further down).

The second set of wires (lower left) goes up into the crank case and I assume the starter but do not know for sure.

Thanks for any advice you have

Well I finally got ahold of the PO and he said the screwy wires were supposed to go to the positive termainal along with the starter switch wire. I am not sure why but I believed him. Anyway the bugger started right up. sure needs a baffle though. I still do not know what was supposed to go under the starter solenoid. Anyone know? From what I can tell all the electrical switches work ecept the "brights" indicator and I haven't had low enough fuel to see if that indicator works.

If your 78 SR is like my 78B model, then that missing part under the starter solenoid is for a flasher unit. My 78 has turn signals and four-way hazard, two flashers, one for each. Do you have a hazard switch on your left handlebar control? I don't know which one controls what.