TOPIC:

I have a ZK550-F2 (1984, Canadian market). Last year I had to put it away because of a racing idle (suspected vacuum leak). Worked on it over the winter, new airbox, air ducts, carb rebuild, only to turn the key and have absolutley not electrical power. No lights, horn, etc.

Examining the harness, I discovered it was completely butchered by the previous owner. The ignition and a few other parts were hotwired into the main harness and many other parts were pretty beat up. So, i managed to snag a replacement harness for a good price, as well as a reproduction ignition barrel, a brand new gel-electrolyte battery, and... still nothing.

So, my question is, where do I go from here? I'm not great with electrical systems, and this is my first bike so my knowledge in this area is extremely limited at best. I also just moved into a new place so a lot of my money is tied up. I do have wiring diagrams, so what is my best course of action to hopefully narrow down the issue and figure out why my bike has no electrical power?

1) Get an inexpensive multimeter; you'll need it. Harbor Freight has one for about $6, which will be fine to get you started. Read the manual carefully and keep it handy.

1a) Get some [electrical] contact cleaner at your local auto parts store.

2) Use the meter to check continuity in the fuses; do one at a time, and take them out of the fuse folder to test them. Checking continuity visually is not sufficient.

3) Use the wiring diagrams to check all of your ground connections. Then check them again.

4) Check the connections to the ignition switch. One of them should be hot (12V DC); figure out which one it is and use the meter to see if you have power to the switch.

5) Check all of the other connections. The little waterproofing sleeves can hide broken wires and bad contact, so go through the whole harness and disconnect/clean/reconnect each pair of terminals. The contact cleaner will help with this.

And because I don't want to assume: do you have an appropriate charger for the new battery, and is the battery fully charged?

Edit: just checked and there are no Harbor Freight stores in Canada; you would need to go across the bridge into NY. Canadian Tire has one for $22, or you could use Amazon, etc.

Basically they have to get power to the coils, you can feed them directly to do tests and understand the circuit.  then check the emergency switch and continue backwards if necessary.

The below guide will help you to get to the bottom of your issues in conjunction with a meter and a wiring diagram

kzrider.com/forum/forum-index/faq-wiki/6...-fault-finding-guide

I'll give it a shot.

Grab your meter
set meter to DC V

Key switch on
kill switch set to run

make sure you leave everything connected
all fuses in place

red probe on positive battery post(post is the metal part of the battery)
black probe on negative battery post
what is your voltage to the tenth decimal place? (ex12.4v)

move your red probe to both sides of each fuse
you will have 2 readings per fuse.
What are they to the tenth decimal place?

Move your red probe to the ignition switch.
Probe each wire.
list voltage to the tenth decimal place and wire color

Move red probe to a bare metal place on the engine case.
The reading should be a STEADY 0.0V
If the reading bounces around, you have ghost voltage.
Which means there is no connection at that point to the negative battery post.
Any reading over 0.5v indicates too much resistance in the ground circuit.

Turn bike off and disconnect negative battery terminal.

I'm having you disconnect the terminal so your bike doesn't catch on fire because of a wiring issue.

F64 wrote:

I'll give it a shot.

Grab your meter
set meter to DC V

Key switch on
kill switch set to run

make sure you leave everything connected
all fuses in place

red probe on positive battery post(post is the metal part of the battery)
black probe on negative battery post
what is your voltage to the tenth decimal place? (ex12.4v)

move your red probe to both sides of each fuse
you will have 2 readings per fuse.
What are they to the tenth decimal place?

Move your red probe to the ignition switch.
Probe each wire.
list voltage to the tenth decimal place and wire color

Move red probe to a bare metal place on the engine case.
The reading should be a STEADY 0.0V
If the reading bounces around, you have ghost voltage.
Which means there is no connection at that point to the negative battery post.
Any reading over 0.5v indicates too much resistance in the ground circuit.

Turn bike off and disconnect negative battery terminal.

I'm having you disconnect the terminal so your bike doesn't catch on fire because of a wiring issue.
 

thank you very much for the detailed walkthrough. I will be moving my bike to my new place within the week, once it is here I'll go through these steps and come back with the results.

Just to clarify, when you say to test the ignition wires, do you mean i should unplug the ignition switch and test the pins in the plug? Or to strip some of the insinuation off and test while plugged into the rest of the harness? Or do you mean the actual spark plug wires(may be a dumb question but i am VERY stupid with anything electrical)?

totally legitimate question.
i'll have you backprobe the ignition switch connector.

When you do this testing you have to leave the connectors connected. If you disconnect connectors then the readings will be skewed.

i'll usually use a needle or T-pin to make contact with the wiring terminal inside the connector. Try not to pierce the wire as that can lead to corrosion later on.
And then you can touch your probe to the needle to get the reading. You do this because most meter probes are too big to backprobe with. They do make special probes that do this but they aren't cheap(they are cheap but it's another thing to buy). A sewing needle, paper clip, safety pin, or any thin piece of metal or wire will usually work.

 






this is the connector you will be backprobing.
Remember, when you are probing the connector has to be connected to the main wiring loom.