zx7r ignition fuse - FIXED!!!

A few members may remember this happening at the october 3rd trackday last year.
but here goes: I have a 98 model zx7r.It has all road gear stripped off it and silly me also took the undertray off it. 4 laps into a wet track day at 220km/h the dash goes blank on me and i lose all power. Back in the pits, a bunch of very helpfull KSRC members recommend to take the seat off.We found that the battery tray was full of water. We emptied out all of the water and dried it all the best we could. Then i was told to check the fuse box and we noticed that the ignition fuse was blown.
its a 10 amp fuse, so a new 10 amp fuse was put in. The bike runs fine at idle and it can even be revved up a bit before it blows the ignition fuse again. At first we thought it could benefit from a 15 amp fuse. We put a 15 amp fuse in and the exact same thing happens again. So i called the track day off for myself.
Im not too electrically savvy but i thought if the moisture dried out then it might fix the problem. Several months later and the bike is bone dry and ive run a hair dryer over all of the cables that got wet. AND the bike has the exact same problem. The last time I tried to run it, it went through another 10 amp then 15 amp fuse.

Now, could stripping the wiring loom down to just what i need fix the problem?
any suggestions before i take it to my mechanic

Last edited by 98ninja on Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'd be very careful stipping the loom down mate, there are a lot of parts the operate together, as in if you remove one non essential part it can stop another much need component from functioning.

I know you used to be able to purchase a race only loom that already had all the road going cpmponents removed. There may be on on eBay or someone here may have one.

Another option could be to check with Kwak Addict as i know he was trying to get a loom sorted for his 7.

I'm about as much help as a punch in the head aren't i

I've had many issues with electrickery on various ZXR 750 Ls & been able to sort 99% of them out, unfortunately I've never come across this one. The ZX7R & ZXR L wiring looms & electrical components are basically the same & even share some of the same part numbers for the hardware so the 7 probly suffers from the same issues as the ZXR.
I've found that the junction box (which houses the starter & headlight relays), starter solenoid & even the Ignitor box (A.K.A. CDI) can all have intermittent internal faults which make diagnosis virtually unpossible The major earth junction hidden right in the middle of the wiring loom can suffer from dry solder as well which causes another intermittent fault. I'd hate to be an Autolec working on one of these.
That said, the best way to identiy the fault is to swap over the aforementioned components with known gooduns until the problem disappears, maybe a fellow KSRC member & 7 operator lives close to you & could hook you up (hook you up... fuck, I slay me ) Otherwise take the bike to a wrecker & tell them you want to buy an electrical component but you dunno which one so you need to do the above, they'll help you out because they know there's a sale in it at the end.
I hope I've been more help than a punch in the head but maybe less than an upside down American Bulldog

well i have a spare cdi
ill put that in then try it
anyone know of a place to buy good but competitively priced batterys?
mines gone dead after the great track bike sulk of 2010.

Maybe something else of note is that the only fuse that is on the bike is the ignition fuse.
It runs for 5 minutes or so then bang!
hrmmmmm

When my 7 decided that blowing the ignition fuse all over the place seemed like a fun thing to do, a wiggle of the wires under the tank seemed to fix it for a little while, we blew a lot of fuses tracking the problem that far, sometimes as soon as you'd turn the ignition on 'bang' it would blow, othertimes it would run for a little while. I never blew another ignition fuse after that, but then another time I lost all the dashlights etc, just when warming it up, ended up being just some dodgy wiring beneath the ignition switch, would run until I straightened the bars then lose everything. The lastest fun one was when the red plug on the starter solenoid thingo got corroded and melted the fuse and the starter solenoid. That is great fun when you have been riding all weekend, make a stop in the middle of a national park with no phone service and try to start it again and nothing.... the dash is completely dead and you get to ride home in a tow truck.

Anyway those are the three instances where my 7 has lost all the power to the dash, probably not of much help to you other than to let you know you are not alone. Hope you get it sorted!

Some progress today. I tried a new fuse box dealy. Idled for a few minutes then bang.
Tried a new regulator/rectifier. Same thing, idled for a few minutes then bang.
well thats taken care of the easy fixes. Going through all the plugs and electrical connections is next.
of course thats on my to do list after somethings in April.

Many thanks to SLAC who gave me some ideas yesterday.
I was told to look through the wiring loom for some exposed wire touching some metal.
I took the tank off and lo and behold, theres a stripped wire that had been crushed by one
of the lugs on the fuel tank. I covered this in electrical tape and repositioned the wiring loom further
down and out of the way of the tank, put the tank back on and fired her up.
It just ran for 15 minutes straight, with me revving the shit out of her and no fuse dropping out.
It wasnt the rain after all. It was idiot me putting the tank back on and crushing some wires.
All I need now is to get the fork seals redone and I can book into another trackday.

hahah......always the last place we think to look....well done mate