82 Kz650 csr blowing a fuse

When I turn my key on my 32 amp fuse blows, and I dont have any power at
all. Battery is charged. Would it be my regulator/ rectifier? Is there a
good way to check it with a mutimeter? I couldn't find any spot where wires
were touching the frame or anything. But I didn't look too hard. It was
running when I parked it last fall. New battery last summer. But i had to
charge it this spring. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks.

 

You almost certainly have a short circuit somewhere in the wiring loom
(on the switched side of the ignition switch, obviously) to the frame,
due to the insulation on the wire wearing through. The exposed wire is
touching the frame and since the (-) side of the battery is connected
to the frame, you have a 'short' circuit across the battery that's
basically all wire or frame metal and no load, so there's a lot of
current flowing, more than the fuse will pass without melting.

This is what I have done to isolate this sort of problem in the past,
it is reliable and quick and doesn't involve using a meter.

Take basically any 12V light bulb, such as a turn signal or brake light
bulb, or even an old sealed beam headlamp, and wire it up with alligator
clips. Attach the clips across the fuse holder[1], and turn on the
ignition switch. If the short is still present, the bulb will glow
brightly, or dimly, depending on how good the connection is between
the wire and the frame.

Now, wiggle the wiring loom around, when you find the spot[2] where the
short is, the lamp will flicker and may go out altogether. Repair the
worn insulation and make sure it won't happen again by wrapping the
harness with friction tape or use some of that spiral armor covering
stuff.

[1] If you have a newer bike with blade type fuses you'll have to attach
male spade type crimp on connectors to the bulb wiring so you can push
them into the main fuse slot.

[2] I'll bet it will be right near the headstock where the wiring goes
to the ignition switch. I strongly recommend you remove the tank
before trying to wiggle the wiring, because the fault will most likely
be somewhere under the tank.

 

Is that the main fuse? Blowing the main fuse when you turn the key on
means there's a short on what aircraft electricians would call the
"ignition bus".

(The ignition bus is not painted yellow, it doesn't take kids to
school.)

A "bus" is the source of all electrical power to a group of electrical
components.

When you turn the ignition key on, the ignition bus is energized and
supplies power to the ignition coils, the turn signals and flasher,
the headlight, the horn, the instrument lights, the running lights,
brake light, neutral light and everything else that works only with
the key on.

The tail light is usually on different set of contacts inside the
ignition switch, but, if you remove the tail light bulb and turn the
key on and the fuse doesn't blow, you'll know the problem is with the
tail light or brake light wiring.

Sometimes the wiring for turn signals and running lights gets chafed
where it comes through the turn signal stalk and you get shorts that
way.

If you cannot find the short circuit by inspecting the wiring, then
disconnect everything you can disconnect. It's easier to remove light
bulbs from their sockets than to disconnect the wires and you don't
have to remember which color wire went where.

Then turn the key on and see what happens. If the fuse doesn't blow,
turn the key off and reconnect components one at a time until your
fuse does blow
with the ignition switch on.

Another way to find a short circuit is to remove all the other fuses,
and reinstall them one at a time to see when the main fuse blows.

Theoretically, all the other fuses are rated at less amps than the
main fuse and they should blow out first.

Your symptoms sort of indicate to me that your short circuit is
between the ignition switch and the fuse box.

Another thing to check out is ignition ballast resistors. Some
Kawasakis had ignition ballast resistors under the gas tank to reduce
current through the coils after starting.

The ballast resistors might be shorted out, but sometimes you can't
even find them on parts diagrams like the ones at www.partsfish.com

But the method of troubleshooting by pulling out all the fuses and
reinstalling them one at a time works.

Another aircraft electrician and I had to find a short circuit in the
cabin lighting system of a jet airliner with its miles and miles of
wiring. A circuit breaker on one of the busses was tripping.

We could have ran around like chickens with our heads cut off,
inspecting every wire and connection in the airplane, but we just
opened all the circuit breakers on that particular bus and closed them
one at a time and watched to see when the main circuit breaker
tripped.

We found the short circuit in about 15 minutes and repaired it in a
minute. The boss was impressed.

Probably not. Your RR is connected to battery power all the time.

Well, you could use the volt meter function of a multimeter and look
for lack of 12 volts at points in the circuits that you suspect of
being shorted to ground.

Lack of voltage at any given point either means that the point isn't
getting any voltage because there is an OPEN circuit, or it means that
the voltage is all
going into a SHORT circuit.

But you'd have to replace the fuse with a solid piece of metal or a
jumper so you'd get power to those places. Then you could tell where
the short circuit was.

But you might notice some wires were getting hot and the insulation
was smoking before�you ever checked all the suspect places for lackof
voltage...

Be prepared to make an utter fool of yourself if you try to
troubleshoot a short circuit with a multimeter.

The current from an ohm meter doesn't always go the direction that you
expect it to go...

I once traced what I thought was a short circuit all through the
electric system of a T-28 Trojan trainer.

It turned out that my "short" was just my own stupidity. I was reading
backwards through the generator to ground...

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm glad to hear its probably not the regulator.

JOE