Went out to go to lunch, no electric...

The ignition switch has been a little flaky. Sometimes I have to jiggle the key to get it to turn the switch on and every once in a while the key turns to the on position, but no lights etc. until I jiggle it again. Well, I was supposed to meet one of my buddies at the local bbq and went out and nothing. No amount of jiggling will get any lights or power. Battery was on the tender last night and everything worked fine, lights etc. on the way to work. (usually the key turns on everything fine, and one hit on the starter button and she's fired up.) My wife is getting ready to bring me the volt meter so I can start checking things out, and I'm afraid the ignition switch has gone, but until I get a meter on the battery etc. I won't have a clue.
Man, this can be frustrating. Seems like every time I have one more thing fixed, something else gets thrown into the pot.

Is it common for the ignition switch to die? Anyone else having the jiggling issue?

My nephew had that problem with a 79 KZ750SR, when I checked it out I discovered the switch housing was broken into two pieces.

Usually it's just bad contacts that can be cleaned though

Check the back of you ignition switch. My Z1 did this while riding it :ohmy: :S !! I KNEW it wasn't the ignition switch. Man was I wrong:whistle:
Mine was the brown wire on the back. Seems they get pulled and pushed over the years of turning the handlebars ect.. and break the solder joint. At least mine did. Looked fine when I looked at it ( several times ) Not until I pulled it out did I find the solder joint had failed after only 31 plus years:P
Good luck and thanks Gran for pointing me towards my ignition switch problem.
Pat

Your contacts are probably burned in the switch, the wires got hot, the solder melted and wiring came unsoldered from the switch. This is a variation of the melted fuses and fuse clips we've talked about here. One the contacts start to go bad, the connection is kind of iffy, it may make contact, it may not. Every time it is "not" the resistace between the contacts increases, heat increases, the contact starts to get very hot. This continues until something burns. In the fuses case, the fuse eventually melts, in the switches case, the wires burn off. The switch actually gets hot enough to act like a soldering iron and melt the solder. Usually resoldering the wire to the switch is not a long term fix, because the heat that melted it is still going to be a problem. You either need to take apart the switch and polish the contacts real nice and shiney with Simichrome ect, if it's not too far gone, or replace the switch. The nice thing is that the key part of the switch is easily separated from the switch part, so if you like you can get a new or used switch and swap your existing key lock to it.

I know that you are focused on the ignition switch but a kill switch will do the same thing. If some jokester comes up to your bike and wants to mess with you... well, check your kill switch. The kill switch on an old KZ is flakey enough to begin with. If you want to check your igniton switch, disconnect the connector between the switch and the right hand switch gear. Look at the wires. The MAIN power will go through the kill switch so check the voltage on the lug that connects to the wire that hooks into the kill switch. If you have 12V when you switch on the key, the problem is likely a connector under the tank (right side) OR the kill switch.

If you find you have a bad ignition switch, Emgo makes a replacement and gives you two keys. These things plug right in (inside headlight shell) and can be installed in minutes. Keep your old keys as you will need them for helmet locks, steering locks, seat locks, etc. Your buddy Jeff can hook you up. They are not expensive either...

If you ever get stuck where the bike is dead, and you have wire, you can hotwire the coils right from the pos battery terminal. To start the bike, get a short piece of wire and touch the pos battery terminal and the side of the solenoid where the starter wire is connected. Make sure you disconnect the coil hot wires when you stop running the bike as it will fry the coils if they are powered when the bike is not operating.

Well, I came in from working on the bike and had all these replies! I love this forum. It's like having a KZ club in my neighborhood! Anyway, I pulled the headlight after checking the battery voltage (12. and pulled the connector going to the ignition switch. Voltage at that white wire was only 6.3 volts. So I backtracked to my fuse box and same voltage there. The white/red wire coming from the pos battery terminal goes to a Y bullet connector where the white/red going to the fuse box and another white/red pair into the single one to the battery. I unplugged both of them and white/blue powder corrosion dropped out of it. I picked up a small drywall screw and used it as a reem and cleaned out the connector as good as I could and tested voltage there and got 12.8. I cleaned the male connectors with sand paper and retested and got 12.8, as well as on the white wire on the ignition plug. So I plugged them back together and all is well again. I'll be cutting that connector out of the system and soldering/heat shrinking tonight when I get home.

I believe all the wire on this bike will be new when I get done (if I ever get done!)

Thanks guys for all your help!

Suggest next time you are in the computer store, to buy some electrical contact cleaner... also some dielectic grease. After cleaning connections, you really need to use some dielectic grease else the connection will oxidize so quick it will make your head spin! If you understand the general path electric takes on your your bike, it isn't hard to find the source of problems... unplug and check voltage...

I picked up some a few weeks ago when I did the coil mod and have been using it on every connection I've worked on since. I'm a believer in the stuff! I did wireless internet installs for several years, outdoor coax connections etc. where we used it everywhere. I just redid our satellite dish installation and I even put it inside the connectors before I crimped them on the coax. It's good stuff.