TOPIC:

i have a 1980 kz650 and today i put a new battery in it and turned on the key and it started smoking severely from under starter cover/ replaced starter. now all it does is blow the ignition fuse every time i turn the key on any suggestions?

trace your wiring from the starter to the solenoid and back to the battery, with that smoke you saw I am sure you have a direct short due to melted wire or wires

did that bro it is all good, possibly the stator? over charging? im baffled!!!

Post edited by: lkng4jaws, at: 2007/06/22 01:17

Has to have a short somewhere. Smoke is not good, something might have melted. Should be easy to diagnose though. Make sure the big wire on the starter is not shorting out anywhere. You should have an OHM meter or a test light so you can check the wiring. With a meter just put it on OHM and put one lead on the negative battery terminal or other suitable ground spot and the other lead on the big wire on the starter solenoid NOT the one that goes to the battery! (will blow up meter and let all the magic smoke out). If it reads close to 0 ohms than the wire is shorted to ground somewhere.
With a test light clip the aligator clip to the POSITIVE terminal on the battery and probe the same big wire that goes from the solenoid to the starter. If it lights up it is going to ground.

If that checks out ok, get a peice of wire or test lead and quickly short the 2 big lugs on the solenoid together. Make sure the bike is in neutral or it will lurch and fall on you If the starter turns over than you know thats all good now.

Ok so you know the starter and the wire to the starter are good. Now you need to check the solenoid. The solenoid has 4 wires on it, 2 of which are big and you are now familiar with. 2 of them are small. One goes from the solenoid through the off/run switch, clutch safety, to the starter button. The other one goes to ground. I don't remember the colors off hand, for some reason I want to say the positive wire is actually black but you better check that for yourself. Determine which wire is the positive one and gently test that with your peice of wire or test lead from the lug to the positive terminal of the battery. If the starter does not work (and it did work when you tested it to the battery) the solenoid is bad.

If that all checks out ok you need to check your wiring from the solenoid to the switch.

I'm guessing you may have a bad solenoid though, or the wire is shorting out somewhere to the starter.

I guess anything is possibl, try disconeccting the stator and then see if it still blows the fuse, but there is no battery power going to the stator, it just produces ac voltage when engine is running, pull headlight out and check wiring in there for rubbing or pinching same with under the tank, do you have a manual, it is going to be in the ignition circuit so a detailed trouble shoot is probably going to be in order, if there is no pinched(shorted) wires

will do on the headlight deal, and ill bet that your right since i've been into the headlight recently before putting new battery in. but that will have to wait untill tomorrow, thanks for your time everybody.

well guess what? the plain and simple fact is that my starter just burned up and after replacing it the reason my fuse kept popping is it would probably be a good idea to put a 20 amp fuse in a 20 amp link instead of a 10 amp!!!!!!!! geeee who would have thought. more often than not for me a little humility seems to work the best in my life!

glad you fixed itB)