TOPIC:

Went to start the 1100 today and I turned the key on, and I 'think' I heard a click, then nothing, no dash, no starter, no electrical power anywhere. I checked the battery first of course, it has 12.8 VDC. The power is going to the chassis, ground to positive batt terminal is live. All fuses are fine, including the main 30 amp one, in the fuse box under the tool tray under the seat. The ONLY thing I can get out of it is if I turn the key to the second position and switch the hazard switch on, I can hear the relay clicking on and off really faintly, but no hazard lights flashing though. So, main power relay or? If something like that, where is it? I see the starter relay, and that wouldn't be it, that only operates with the start button, not for the main chassis power.
I'm sure someone will ask, yes, I did shim the valves recently, and no, I'm not uploading random pics until something specific is needed. The bike has ran flawlessly up to this point, and it does not sit out in the rain or cold. Thanks in advance for any help.

Nobody?
I have 12v to the ignition switch, it checks out, all connections made in it. But back at the three 10 amp fuses it only gets 0.6volts or so, can't figure why that is. The wire to power those fuses is ok, so it's something after those.

Check the battery negative terminals to the frame and engine case have a good continuity test.

I pulled the smaller ground wire off the battery and cleaned it all and put it back. Have not pulled the main ground wire off the chassis yet, will go look for where that terminates and clean it. But those would give problems under large loads like the starter etc I would think.

Is the battery in good condition, like acid Level in spec and fully loaded?
An old or weak battery has the same symtoms and will lost power if get under heavy load.

Battery is ok, 12.7 VDC. Remember, this is not a high load problem, just no power anywhere with key on, well, 0.4 volts I can measure in a few places. Key switch seems to work fine. It's something after the fusebox I think, which is all smaller stuff.

Disconnect all wiring connectors and give them a good clean with a deoxid spray.

Well that was wierd. I pulled main connectors, repaired a few shoddy looking connections from an earlier owner, and still nothing. Key on, 0.4 volts at the fusebox, yet 12.7 volts at the battery when key off. This was with the headlight unplugged too, so very little load. So, just for the sake of it, I plugged a charger in and turned the key on, and it all lit up! So the battery had 12.7 volts with zero load, yet couldn't even run the dash lights with key on. It must have totally dropped it's guts in a sudden way. Was a not so old AGM battery too, which usually hang in there, even when neglected. Bought a maintenance free lead acid battery for it and all is well. Learned something about AGM battteries I think.

One thing, a few retailers list the KZ1100 battery as being a 14 size, but it's not, it's a massive 20 size.

I would trace the voltage from the B+ at the starter solenoid through the main 30A fuse (white/red strip wire is B+) , up to the ignition switch, then back to the fuse block. My 81 Has 5 fuses total (going from memory here) It feeds from the sol, through a 30A main fuse then to the switch, from there back to the fuse block. Not rocket surgery.

Naturally all of this is ass-u-me ing that the battery is in proper order.

The fuse connections under the fuse block (into harness) also go bad, and usually burn / melt the wiring and fuse holders over time. Bad connections cause resistance, which causes heat, that in turn burns sh!t up.

Grounds do go bad too, as stated above, but are less likely to cause a total no start situation, just flaky intermittent behavior.

Hope this helps.

You DID read that I fixed it I assume? Was the battery died in a strange way, still had 12.7 volts yet couldn't even supply enough amperage to power the dash lights, bike started fine the day before.

DGA wrote: You DID read that I fixed it I assume? Was the battery died in a strange way, still had 12.7 volts yet couldn't even supply enough amperage to power the dash lights, bike started fine the day before.

ooops! My bad! I misunderstood your "solution" post. I was under the impression you were still having problems with it. As in assuming you had 12.7 volts on a good battery, yet nothing coming on. Batteries normally don't have 12.7 volts when they are no good, so on that thought process. I assumed you had a problem with the 30A main fuse.