Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

hi all, hopefully someone can help me, or has had a similar experience.

last monday while out enjoying a very hot ride, we stopped at wisemans pub to cool off. when we came back out my bike wouldn't start

i had no ignition lights, couldn't roll start it and couldn't jump start it either, once i got the bike home i checked the battery and its reading a healthy 12.9V, all fuses are fine (unless there's one i haven't found yet). i started pullling the bike apart last night to see if there were any broken/melted wires but haven't found anything so far.

i have a feeling that maybe the ignition barrel has crapped itself??? i dont know, just a gut feeling at the moment.

has anyone else ever experienced something like this? or can shed some light on what they think may be going wrong? or does anyone have a wiring diagram/service manual that i can refer to, including voltages & current readings etc???

any help is appreciated, really want to get it back on the road asap

I just googled zx7r wiring diagram you could start there:

eg:



Standard points of failure are kick stand switch, kill switch, and clutch switch if it has one

your better at google than me then lol, bike doesn't have kick stand or clutch switch. and im pretty sure the kill switch in the off position still allowed the ignition lights to come on.

thanks for the diagram

Before you go to too much trouble, test the volts on the battery and while testing turn the ignition ON, and see what happens to the voltage. My prime suspect from your description is still a dud battery. (They get a hairline crack inside that allows normal voltage, until you want to use it!

(-8

ok thanks brett, will check that out.

ps just realised i had downloaded a service manual a few months back and have just found it......winning

BrettZZR wrote:Before you go to too much trouble, test the volts on the battery and while testing turn the ignition ON, and see what happens to the voltage. My prime suspect from your description is still a dud battery. (They get a hairline crack inside that allows normal voltage, until you want to use it!

(-8

actually, thinking on that more, will that test work considering when i turn the key im getting no ignition lights at all....therefore it wont be drawing any power. would i be better off taking the battery into a battery shop to get it tested?

ZX_Menace wrote:

BrettZZR wrote:Before you go to too much trouble, test the volts on the battery and while testing turn the ignition ON, and see what happens to the voltage. My prime suspect from your description is still a dud battery. (They get a hairline crack inside that allows normal voltage, until you want to use it!

(-8

actually, thinking on that more, will that test work considering when i turn the key im getting no ignition lights at all....therefore it wont be drawing any power. would i be better off taking the battery into a battery shop to get it tested?

tested it last night, no change in voltage when turning the ignition on. checked coils etc, all getting correct Ω

ended up chasing wires to the ignition barrel, and both ignition wires and battery are receiving power, so im still leaning towards the ignition barrel shitting itself. will hopefully get the battery tested today and see how that is then go from there

ZX_Menace wrote:... tested it last night, no change in voltage when turning the ignition on ...

Okay then it's not that internal batt issue (if it drops to ~0V soon as you put any load on it then it's a likely suspect).

Was worth a check - I have a few chapters in my book of car and bike stories with me chasing expensive / complex fixes for cheap / simple problems. You seem to be homing onto it...

(-8

haha, thanks mate, didn't get a chance to look at the bike on the weekend, hopefully i find some time this week, going to pull the ignition barrel apart and have a crack at fixing it, otherwise ill be ordering a new one

ZX_Menace wrote:haha, thanks mate, didn't get a chance to look at the bike on the weekend, hopefully i find some time this week, going to pull the ignition barrel apart and have a crack at fixing it, otherwise ill be ordering a new one

My L3 ZXR did the same thing
And it was the contacts in the ignition barrel

lunatick wrote:

ZX_Menace wrote:haha, thanks mate, didn't get a chance to look at the bike on the weekend, hopefully i find some time this week, going to pull the ignition barrel apart and have a crack at fixing it, otherwise ill be ordering a new one

My L3 ZXR did the same thing
And it was the contacts in the ignition barrel

cheers mate, will pull it out and have a look, were you able to clean/replace them? would probly be better off just getting a new barrel hey.

i remember when i went to start the bike before it carked it, there was a loud click in the ignition barrel when i turned the key to the on position, didn't think much of it till now tho lol

bit of an update,

as i thought the ignition switch is busted, bought a new one off ebay (cheap Chinese copy unit) but turns out that its wired differently.

also when the the ignition switch blew it also caused the pickup coil to fail, anyone know where i can get one? been scouring ebay for the last week and no luck unless i pay 50 bucks postage from america.

Item 3 in the image below


hoping someone on here has one lying around

looking at the parts fiche the ZX7R ignition barrel is specific to that model only.
http://www.partsfish.com/oemparts/p/kawasaki/27005-1199/switch-assy-ignition

have you called up any bike wreckers?

Not that it matters but the 9R, 6R, and ZZR6 all share the same part

Mitch wrote:looking at the parts fiche the ZX7R ignition barrel is specific to that model only.
http://www.partsfish.com/oemparts/p/kawasaki/27005-1199/switch-assy-ignition

have you called up any bike wreckers?

Not that it matters but the 9R, 6R, and ZZR6 all share the same part

thanks mate, ended up getting it sorted a couple of weeks ago, all good now

another update

still having problems with this thing lol, we'll get there one day.

so problem is this time......im pretty sure.... is the battery has died, basically whats described below by BrettZZR is what is now happening..... "WHEN WILL IT END" haha

BrettZZR wrote:Before you go to too much trouble, test the volts on the battery and while testing turn the ignition ON, and see what happens to the voltage. My prime suspect from your description is still a dud battery. (They get a hairline crack inside that allows normal voltage, until you want to use it!

(-8

question is now, anyone have some recomendations on a decent battery suited to these bikes,

any help is appreciated