Not charging

On the meter, the RX1 means Resistance X1 where X1 means times 1 so the scale is X1 where if it reads 3, then you have 3 ohms. (did that make sense?) If you have the scale on R X100 and measure 3, then you have 300 Ohms. Measuring resistance is sometimes a bit dicey.

As far as your alternator, at idle, the alternator will put out far less voltage than at higher rpms. I am going to try and put the electrosport.com fault finding flow chart into the filebase in the generic section. It is too large to attach in this thread. Take a look at it and see if it helps any.

kzrider.com/component/option,com_docman/.../gid,252/Itemid,231/

Post edited by: wiredgeorge, at: 2006/01/06 15:44

I know it's a decent meter, but I've gotten lazy using a Radio Shack auto ranging jobbie I found at a cell tower in my past life. I loaned it to another biker friend and he moved away, so I'm forced to use the better but harder to understand meter. What you said makes sense. I'm printing the flowchart and will go through it step by step over the weekend.
It helps doing this stuff in the daylight. I've been working in the evening with a drop light and need three arms to do everything.

I went through the flowchart step by step and got to the beginning of "B", and the test showed 1.5 or 1.6 volts which took me to this:
Bad connection from the battery(+) through the ignition
switch to the switched +12V supply-input on the RR.
Check the whole electrical circuit. This is one of the most
difficult faults to find. Suspect the ignition-switch itself, the
fuse-box and its connections. The RR thinks the batteryvoltage
is too low while the actual voltage is correct or too
high. Disconnect all terminals and clean them with
contact-cleaner. If you have fixed the problem, return to
START
So I started cleaning connectors. I cleaned/greased every connector I could find, under the tank, in front of the forks, under the side panels. It did improve but still around 1.2 volts with lights on.

Next I'm going to pull the RR and see if I can better ground it. I don't know if it relies on the body for any ground, as it has a black/yellow wire coming from it, but it's mounting bolts are rusty for sure. There are other devices mounted under the battery box that I can't get to so hopefully there is a bad connection under there that I can fix once removed. It looks like the carbs and air box have to come off to remove the battery box which has the RR mounted to the bottom.

The power from the battery area to the ignition switch goes along the MAIN harness. There are few times when the MAIN harness won't conduct electricity effectively. The wire doesn't somehow wear out with age. UNPLUG the first connector on the main harness out. This will be where you plug into the ignition switch. MEASRURE voltage there (on 20VDC scale). Then take the switch out and meaure putting your probes on the contacts... then measure the connector out where it goes to the kill switch. You can put probes on the connector carrying voltage. Then take your kill switch apart and measure INSIDE the switchgear with the killswitch in the on position... in other words, both sides of the switch. Then the connector coming out of the kill switch that takes the voltage back to the battery area. I know it sounds like a lot but everytime you check voltage, you can clean with contact cleaner and slather on some dielectic grease.

As far as ground for your reg/rec, I suspect that the black/yellow goes to the starter solenoid which seems to be a Kawasaki grounding practice. The reg/rec won't ground through the case or the mount bolts I think. If any of this stuff is rusty, you may want to start measuring bolt lengths. They are measured on the threaded part and not the head. Buy stainless hardware and clean the threads of the hole with a tap then blow the threads out with compressed air and if they are really nasty, some carb cleaner then compressed air before install of the stainless fastener. Once you have collected the lengths of all the bolts that really should be replaced because they are prone to rust, call Maryland Metric mdmetric.com and order stainless stuff. Stainless is great for non-load bearing bolt applications like case bolts and holding down stuff.

I would be looking at the battery, since you took a spill it may have sent one of the plates to ground, when you charge it it will show good and work for a little while, I would have a load test done, most part stores can do this.
I have chased a lot of automotive problems and found it to have a bad battery causing the problem

There is a Yahoo KZ1000P group that I found another test procedure for the regulator that confirmed that it was bad, so I ordered a replacement from Jeff at Z1Enterprises.com. It came Saturday so I embarked on the replacement process...

For those of you who've done this before, you know what a job it is, being nearly impossible to get to without taking off everything around the battery box, airbox etc. I thought I'd try to remove it without taking everything off first, and just see if it was possible...
Halfway through the removal process, as I was removing the first and only bolt holding the regulator on that I could get a socket wrench on, it dawned on me to drill out the bolts from the top. Basically it took about 1/2 hour turning the bolt only a fraction of a turn at a time because of limited space to move the ratchet back and forth. When the bolt came out it was so rusty I wouldn't have been able to use it again anyway. (I had sprayed PB Blaster on top of each nut that's spot welded into the bottom of the battery box that these regulator bolts go into, hoping to loosen them up some.) When I figured out that I could never reach the front bolt with any socket wrench I own, I decided to drill out the bolt, through the nut from the top. I chose a bit that was about 1/4" to make sure I cut off the threads of the nut. The regulator was loose now and removing it was easy.

Putting on the new one was easy. I used a couple of 6 mm bolts that were about 1.5" long. These longer bolts put in from the top, down through the drilled out nuts in the bottom of the battery box, were long enough to push the new regulator over them, prop up the regulator with a wrench to hold it in place while I put on the lock washers and nuts from the bottom. To do this, I tore off a 6" piece of duct tape, folded it up to make a flexible tool to stick in under the regulator with the nut and washer taped to the end. I left a sticky side out near the end to push the nut down onto. I used a tiny piece of duct tape to tape the washer edge over the nut and hold it in place. Then using my portable drill with a long extension with a 10mm socket, I put it over the top of the bolt head in the battery box. Holding the taped nut and washer over the end of the bolt in the bottom, I turned the bolt with the drill and the nut threaded on beautifully and spun tight. Repeated the process for the other nut, and then was able to hold a socket wrench on the nut from the bottom good enough to torque the bolt tight from the top.

Much easier than having to remove everything it calls for to replace the regulator, and if it fails in the future, it will be even easier to replace.

The recessed area where the nuts are welded into the battery box are deep enough so that the head of the new 6mm bolt is still out of the way for the battery to slide in nicely. Just thought I'd share the idea in case anyone is getting ready to replace one that's mounted on the bottom of the battery box!

Charging system is working nicely again and lights are bright. Feels good to have that behind me!

Doug