2020-12-20 Kz1300 Electrical Gremlins

On the last test ride, the Kz overheated and had electrical gremlins.

1. Three times, no activity when Start button pressed. After multiple attempts, bang, all good. Intermittent starting is no good.
2. Charging voltage at battery is at 17+ vDc.
3. Emergency flashers, only left hand side works.
4. HI/Lo beam switch and headlight not working. Stuck with both elements on. Kawasaki 'Head Lamp'. See below.

Here we go. 

The manual says says these wires should have continuity when switch is on Low and Hi beam position. I didn't understand the Lo diagram until later...

Schematic from FSM.

My circuit is not stock. I installed a headlight relay years ago, it was located in the tail section. Later, when engine was rebuilt, Ray relocated a modern and physically smaller relay to the head stock area.
Not sure why I decided to install a relay in the first place..
First up is to refresh my relay wiring knowledge.

Turns out Kawasaki uses a 'Reserve Lighting' feature. Should the lo beam fail, it switches to reduced high beam automagically. Seriously? 
What a waste of wiring, time, and money. The Reserve Lighting is what triggers the 'Head Lamp' warning light. The Reserve Lighting (RL)
is located under the battery tray, along side the turn signal self-cancelling module.

Some of these connectors haven't been apart for years. Back in the day I used cloth electrical tape... 19802 or so... and many connectors still had this tape on them.

Some of these connectors were simply grody. I don't remember why, but for some reason I cut the inner plastic fender.. .shortened it.. so these connectors took the full brunt of road grunge too.
Notice the dual RR set up.. very rare.

Used indelible ink pen to temporarily identify each connector before pulling apart.

Here's some of that tape I was referring to. This is the turn signal cancelling module.

Yuck.

Each connector was cleaned with electrical contact cleaner, then for male pins, a small alligator jaw from a test lead was used to gently scrape corrosion away.
More electrical cleaner followed by air compressor blow job. Final step clean and lubricate using DeOxit, the best you can buy legally.

Got the lable make out too. Notice the RR insulation detoriation. I'll be getting new RR soon.

This isn't good. Corrosion from stator output to RR.

The LHS handlebar switch gear has two cables and three connectors that plug into the main wiring harness. This is the largest of the three.

Poor old bike..

Closeup view of RR insulation damage. Heat, age, all of the above?

I have to get a shop built. It's freaking cold working outside.

All cleaned and labelled up.

After all that work:

1. Charging is 15.0 volts, not 17+.. Yippee Skippie!
2. Emergency flashers still LHS only. Crap
3. Headlamp still not working correctly.

FSM RL info.

Suprisingly, the RL module passed all diagnostic tests. Of course it did, as just yesterday I spend 70 USD on eBay for another one..

Diving into the Hi/Lo switch. The two copper pieces slide and contact pads on a stationary pad. They are spring loaded to maintain contact
with conductive pads. 

The springs have become 'sacked out' over time and use. I'll find replacement springs later. For now, gently 'stretched' them using needle-
nose pliers. 

This switch brings power in via the Blue and Blue/Yellow wire. The switched output go to Red/Yellow and Red/Black wires. 
NOTE that the Red/Black wires are joined in the switch housing. The Red/Yellow are joined somewhere in the harness.
This explains the wiring diagram I had questions about earlier in this post.

The upper pads are power in. NOTE that the bottom left contacts are physically larger. Presumably for higher current demand of high beam light?

The emergency flasher switch had 15 ohms resistance from switch side to harness end. Too much. Cleaned, blown, preserved with DeOxit and now less than one ohm per leg.

Shop kitty Oliver!

Such a good cat. He's a big kitty, and behaves more like a dog. Follows me everywhere.

This pictures shows the headlight ground (Blk/Y) Hi () and Lo () beam wires coming to headlight bulb from RL unit. 
Don't know why, yet, I only have 11.8 or so VDC from ground to 'hot' leads. The H4 bulb is lit, but is not bright. When the relay is put back
into circuit, the bulb is fantastically bright.

Using the relay does trigger the RL 'Head Lamp' warning light. But now, after switch repair and other connector cleanup, the relay triggers
between hi/lo beam consistently and without chatter. Most likely will simply remove the bulb in the Head Lamp warning socket. The next
long term solution is purchase new switch gear and wiring harness from Helmut.

Self portrait. Yes, I'm Covid-masked up. Not for Covid, for WARMTH!! It's 41F in the shop.

Wiring color identification.

x