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2001 KZ1000P Hot White/Red wire & other issues

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c7j6y1

c7j6y1

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well the Gremlins have started to rear their ugly heads

First off I lost all electrical power, lights, gauges. Then they wouldnt shut off with the key off

so then i opened the seat and started feeling around the White/Red power wire is warm bordering on hot to the touch.

Bike runs just fine though

Any thoughts?

No farkels or add on electrial add ons
 
Maine harness shorted up at the steering neck where it flexes.
 
The wiring of a police vehicle could be highly modified, and modification removed leaving a patch.
 
julimike54 said:
The wiring of a police vehicle could be highly modified, and modification removed leaving a patch.
Click to expand...
No it's not that. I'm a emergency equipment upfitter/installer. I've gone thru that bike with a fine tooth comb. There is zero police equipment or wiring left.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J320A using Tapatalk
 
last time I checked and actually looked at one, the KZ-P was a in house factory made PoPo bike. the stator housing was a specific part made to provide clearance for the larger stator fitted to the P bike, switches factory parts and even the gauges.

the connie 14 and Honda ST bikes are conversion bikes.
 
the bike wrecking yard in Acton actually had a P model parts bike, unfortunately they went out of business.
 
focus frenzy said:
last time I checked and actually looked at one, the KZ-P was a in house factory made PoPo bike. the stator housing was a specific part made to provide clearance for the larger stator fitted to the P bike, switches factory parts and even the gauges.

the connie 14 and Honda ST bikes are conversion bikes.
Click to expand...

This is true, but the only thing Kawi installed on the bike was a pair of flashing par36's in the fairing, and a prewire for the siren. All other lighting/siren/radios/cameras/etc was installed via a person like me or the individual departments.

often when a bike gets upfitted, theres about a hundred ft of wire added to the bike to achieve the functions desired.

More often than not when it can time to retire or sell a bike, the departments just cut the wires leading to the lighthead or device and leave the wires dangling. hot, ground, just uncapped and a fire/short risk.

This is where quite a few ex cop bikes have issues.

However. i KNOW that there is none of this on the bike. wiring wise, the bike is as left the factory. (with the execption of steady burning par36's in the housing, but those are about to go byebye
 
check for correct fuse values. at each junction on the warm/hot wire, open ONE of the connections to see if anything changes, if not try it the other way. if you made a new harness, put individual fuses on each wire[load] and see which fuse blows. or, do you have a new-fangled DC clamp-on ammeter[yup, they make em], follow each wire for current flow to determine where excessive current is flowing. hope this helps. stay in touch
 
Ok so i've gone thru the bike again... (free time at work is lovely)

Somebody messed with the fuse block. I've since fixed it, and replaced the glass fuses with new ones, and found that the main fuse which is supposed to be a 30 was a 10.

so thats been replaced.

Unfortunally i was a clumsy oaf and kinda sorta dropped the battery. so now it isnt right.

I gotta get a new one.

so the question now is replace with a conventional Battery or go with something a bit more exotic like Lithium-Ion?
 
My son wasn't happy with his L-ion and went back to an AGM[sealed]. my .02, YMMV
Having said that, a SMALLER THAN NORMAL fuse value would stop current flow QUICKER[your description sounded as though you had a larger than normal load but not a "short"]. dropping a battery is not nearly as bad as dropping a screw or nut into the intake manifold. just sayin:-P
 
Here's part of the long term issue. The white/red wire is the main power supply for the key switch. Everything runs thru it. Yes, a bigger alternator is installed, but the wires have not been upsized to correspond to the greater current flow, thus the heat in the wire.

I looked up a service manual for this bike, not available electronically from Kawasaki, paper only. Do you have a factory manual (99924-1026-03)?

My experience with this model (I had an '81 KZ1000J), is that the connectors will get hot and develop a black coating on them, thus resistance. That resistance equals more heat and other issues.
 
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I dont have the Kawi book, but I do have a Clymer.

I would gladly put an 10 or 8 ga wire in place of the stock one, but i just dont have the patience for chasing the wiring thru the conduits and re pinning the connectors.

wish there was a complete wiring kit out there that was properly sized.
 
I had three of these and had to fool with a fourth at once time or another. The last one was brand new (2004 the last year I think) but it was department owned and I left that department after I rode it about a year. That was the only one I never had electrical problems with. We also had the red lights and siren installed at once by one person. The other bikes were all hodgepodges of god knows who worked on them and there were plenty of "who the heck did this"? moments. They were also all old when I got them.

That being said that original fuse box is a good candidate for the root of all evil. On all of them but one we replaced that darn thing with a blade fuse block. The first one we replaced was after the original caught fire while I was riding it. The others we just replaced as the first thing when we started having electrical problems and it was convenient. (Re reading the whole thread I see you may have already done that. Hopefully that will help a lot, it did with me. )

Like Chris said all those wires are old now, I agree I'd look at replacing that main wire with something better than the original.

For all the problems they had I miss those bikes. They would take all kinds of abuse and keep on going.
 
Agree on the fuse box. Mine had melted the fuse box, connectors and wires several times. Then the stator failed. I lived in LA at the time and took it to Vance & Hines for repair. If I recall correctly they told me they installed an updated stator or it might have been reconditioned, not sure. Never the less, I never had any electrical issues after that.
 
Chris is basically correct. Oxidized[prolly from being loose or higher current flow due to more stuf running] connections can create a lot of heat. If all the police stuff was removed=means "regular" current flow a bigger alternator shouldn't matter as it only replaces the "normal" "power"[current] used. Tarnished connectors will reak havoc as well as corroded ones[like those in my toyota p-u from windshield leak that dribbles down on to master fuse panel].
GLWR
 
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