Frank Angerano

Hey @Muleman I like the Kawasaki logo ! 

That’s a great welcome @Ajmboy  !!!!!!

Welcome everyone to Quadcrazy! The only real place for atv help and info! 

Welcome to Quadcrazy @grizzlysixsixty ! 

There is obviously a dead short.  Was anything new wired into the bike ? Or maybe an old plow wire that was left there ? Accessories that were incorrectly installed or left on the bike that’s causing it ? 

I would start unplugging the plugs on the starter relay and any other plugs you have. Put a new fuse in and look for when the fuse pops as you re connect each plug.  Start there and see if you can trace it back.  

Also look for anything that stands out like a bundle of tape on the harness that may have been touched or any damage that may have been caused by maybe someone that put a ratchet strap on the fram over a part of the wiring harness and crushed it.  

Process of elimination. 

Get a few extra fuses!!!!

Welcome to Quadcrazy! 

You put power to the two smaller wires and the relay should click. Then the two larger lugs on the relay should have continuity across them. Take power away and there should be no continuity across the big terminals.   

The neutral safety depends on the bike.   For instance on my Kawasaki I have two wires coming from my neutral safety switch. So one would naturally assume to splice them. That’s not the case. I had to take one of the wires from the harness and attach it to a ground in order to  bring in the starting circuit.

That relay looks banged up but a lot of the time they are ok.   

As far as the cdi goes here’s my take. I have a Yamaha Bear tracker. Stator coil was bad. Replaced it and the bike was fine.  When I ordered that stator I ordered a cdi as well just to be safe.   It looked great and plugged right in but would not work.  It was the right one for the right bike. But no good.  I put the old one back and if fired right up.   I tried it again later the bike fired and shut down.  Put the old one back it fired right up.  It was like it worked some time.  I ordered one for my  fourtrax and it did the same thing.  

Haha that’s awesome that you can’t wait to be a quad rider.  Good luck with the bike and be sure to go back and re tighten things after a little riding. Screws and bolts have the tendency to loosen up due to some vibration.   

Yes you are on the right track.   The neutral safety switch will lock out the starter relay but you can jump it out and test the circuit that way.  As far as the relay goes I would replace it if it’s corroded.  I would have guessed that the stator was bad for sure.  The cdi is a tough and expensive call to make.  Can’t test it.  Caltrec makes a replacement one cheap enough but they don’t work so well.   

Every bike is obviously difrent.  If yiur bike is the same as mine which it should be then you should see a gear shifter on the left lower side ? 

If so it’s all the way down to neutral and up for first, second and so on.  Then reverse is when it’s in neutral there is a round knob on the left front plastic under the handle bars.  You turn that and hold it while pressing gear shifter down and it will go into reverse.  

Hey @Muleman good luck with the bike.  Should be fun working on it and getting it running.  I’m currently working on the same bike so any questions you have I may be able to help you with as well as the rest of the member base her at Quadcrazy.  

Good luck and feel free to post some pics. 

Thanks @Rick Shropshire It’s a good bike I picked up sitting in a shed.  It’s in excellent condition aside from the dirt and a little rust. The last owner put it away due to his age and the bike would not start any longer.   Hence the neutral safety switch replacement.  I jumped the switch out and the engine runs excellent 

Honestly I’m 50/50 on keeping it.   I guess I will have to see how it turns out and make a decision.  But I’m prob leaning in the direction of a 4x4 for him. So I will run it after it’s done for a bit and prob put it up for sale along with a Mojave that I picked up and will be posting soon. Combined sale should leave me more then enough to buy a nice 4x4 for him.   

Hope your feeling better.   

True. I was going to just yank the engine but I just got done putting the front plastic on last week.  So the part will be her Wednesday and maybe get after it Thursday 

Thanks @06kfx440 I found one on eBay new.  Should have it by Wednesday.  Sucks bc I would have had this done today !  What I don’t understand is how the part goes bad.  Is just a simple brush type part that I find strange to go bad.  It’s a small amount of pressure as well. But anyway it is what it is.  

Update; so I got the bevel gear cover off exposing the switch.  The engine had to be unbolted and slid forward.  Turns out it’s the pin on the reverse stopper that’s bad.  The pin is spring loaded and factory pressed into that part and has collapsed not pushing the contact pin out so no fixing the part. Have to buy a new one.  Hopefully it won’t be hard to find.

You can see by the pics it’s stuck inside the part and not pushing out. When I turn it over the part sticks out   

What kind of screw ? Phillips , flat ? 

100% metric. About how long is the screw ? 

And lastly any hardware store has metric screws and bolts so no worries. You can take another screw off the bike that fits that and use it at the store for reference. Or just buy a few different sizes that are close. One of them will fit.   Post a pic if you can of the area where the screw goes.  

Most likely the stator coil.  Easy to test that though.    

thats  a great bike.

What condition is the bike in ? 

There are two relays, one is the starter relay and one may be a safety relay like a neutral safety switch that locked out a relay for safety reasons. I am going to stick with my first gut feeling of the starter wire being tapped by another 12v feed someplace.  

It very well could be. But I would spray the bolts ahead of time in case you do have to take apart.  My guess is it’s a 12v wire that’s tied into the starting circuit wire.   If you go through the harness it’s going to stand out.  Something that will looked taped in or some funky wire connector that looks out of place 

I would take that plug off the solonid and test each wire for voltage. See who has what and the one that’s live with 12v I would start following that first along the harness.  

Believer it or not I’m so surprised how clean and perfect this bike is.  That’s the only reason I’m going after this switch.  If this bike was a beat up bike I would not do all this. 

Yes one of them will tie into that starter relay. If you have to cut one at a time and re splice it.  One of them will knock the starter out.  Look at the wires coming from the start button. Also look at the plug coming from the start button at the handle bars.  See what color it is.  The manual should be in the down load section. If you have trouble finding it or need help figuring it out let me know.   

Ugh FML! Thanks brother. 

I just went back and looked at the pics from wanrep and it shows the engine on some sort of wood bench.  Oh well. Wasted my time dropping the rear out I guess. 

That red wire coming from the battery goes to a relay and from the relay to the starter? 

That relay should have another small set of wires coming onto it. Unplug that and see if the starter does the same thing when connected to the battery.  If yes then the relay is bad and stuck in the closed position. 

If not then the three wires must be traced back using the wiring diagram to where they originate from.  Either there is voltage being applied to a wire that shouldn’t. And that’s the wire that should come from the start button. One wire gets voltage when you are cranking. (Hitting the start button) 

@wanrep so here’s a stupid question.  I got some free time today 🤫! The bevel gear case ? The shifter shaft doesn’t come out as well with the cover ? Because the way I’m looking at it now there is no way that case cover can come off with the shifter rod and not hit the frame.  

Ugh I’m thinking this engine has to be pulled and that sucks! Means I pulled the rear off for no reason I hope. And if so Kawasaki sucks for this design! 

Well at least you found this out now then later like you said. There are parts available on eBay for that bike. If its a master cylinder then the Brake handle should have a plunger plate on the lever like the one you posted. I looked up a lot of other brake parts and there is plenty. 

Post a few pics of your master cylinder if you can