First post, First KX500... what a mess...

[chach]

So sometime last year I landed on the east coast after not having ridden over a year and a yearning to get back on the saddle again. I had never owned a 2 smoke before and wanted to experience this pink elephant. Naturally since I'd also always wanted something kawasaki green and wanted something I could ride on the street I decided to try to find a street legal KX500.

Well shortly after I started looking I found exactly that, and only a several hour drive away. So I made the arrangements and that weekend was driving this beast back home.

Being the impatient bufoon that I am I bought the bike before I had any gear and didn't even bother test riding it, not yielding to the owner's heckling because I've wrecked too many times to not ride even around the block without at least my own helmet that has a proper fit.

Where do I begin? It was easy enough to get the title transferred and get plates for the bike, and I was riding it around town before I realized PA requires motorcycle inspection! It ran alright for the first 15 minute ride and then started sputtering out in all gears under WOT after that point. Not knowing what I was doing with this thing and not yet having any tools either way I took it to a local kawasaki shop with the directive to make it run right and make sure I can pass inspection. I wasn't worried about it and didn't bother trying to micro manage these guys because I'd heard good things, and then one day I get a letter in the mail that this shop was going to repossess the bike if I didn't come to pick it up within the week. And when I got there and checked out the bike there was rust where there wasn't before and all they managed to do was install a kill switch and setup the carb for the factory recommended fuel settings.

To add insult to injury the shop foreman argued with me for about 15 minutes that this bike would never pass state inspection no matter what was on it, despite the fact that I told him it had a street legal title and there was an up to date plate mounted on back. I really just wanted to scream right then and there, a bike I overpaid for just to be sure I'd be able to ride everywhere I wanted turned out to be a bigger headache than I could've ever imagined.

So I was pretty much back where I started a couple months back, and I decided that it at least ran good enough that I could take it to a MX park a couple hour drive away and see how it ran. Same problem as before I dropped it off... and so it sat after that point for several months before I got the itch to straighten it out myself.

First thing's first... the bike had a barely chargeable battery when I got it and the PO promised to send me a replacement that he had on order. I was so confused after I got a battery of completely different specification from him that I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that the guy probably wasn't exactly straight forward with me about just "unplug the one that's in there and plug this one in".


Which takes us to a few weeks ago when I started stripping it down.



Unveling the rat's nest behind the headlight.



Gives a whole new meaning to "breathtaking" for someone that always swore off working on electronics if at all possible.

















Wiring from the stator - the baja designs electical schematic I printed out shows 2 wires from the stator and this has four ... ?















And as she sits as of yesterday... with what I believe is most if not all the baja designs wiring pulled off... besides what's connected to the bike on the other end...

[chach]

Here is the wiring I pulled off the bike, it really doesn't match up to the baja designs electrical schematic.


My biggest question is where are the front and rear wiring harnesses in all of this?

[tcoop474]

You need a owners manual bro. You need to find the wires coming from the lighting coil off the stator those will run ur lights. Other wires coming from stator are ur ac regulator wires. All wires should have colors that match what they plug into. Im not sure of colors or what wires u have just going off some of my machines maybe itll help u maybe it wont.