1978 KZ650SR Won't Start

[troy71mo]

Hi all,

My 1978 KZ650SR and I had a mishap on July 1. I was doing a right turn from a highway onto a side road and there was a whole bunch of gravel at the entrance. Well as you know, bikes don't like gravel, brakes and leaning all at the same time and I dropped my baby . I was wearing all my gear (which I always do), so I wasn't hurt and my SR could have been a lot worse.

My front right signal light is bent a little and I will want to replace the brake lever, and the throttle padding. The major damage is the plate cover and gasket for the ignition contact breaker (the cover is completely broke). The condensers are a little bent.

I can't get the bike to start. I have power, lights work, the neutral and oil lights are on. Kill switch is on (ie. set to run bike). The bike turns over. I have spark. But nothing. When I pull the plugs they are dry, so it seems as though there is no gas, but I have 2/3 of a tank.

A guy at work said it may be a fuse, so I will replace the 3 fuses tonight. Any other ideas? Do you think that I should get the ignition contact breaker replaced.

The funny thing is, I'm not mad that I dropped the bike. It's a great lesson in being careful on country roads where gravel is present, one that I won't soon forget.

I'm not that mechanical, but would like to try to fix the bike myself.

Thanks for any help.

Troy

[MFolks]

Your bike probably has the older glass tube style fuse. This is the hard to find AGX type. It's 1" long. The AGC style from auto parts stores will not fit because they are 1 1/4"long. When you went down, one or more fuses internally broke the small filiment. Some stores still carry the AGX fuses.

If you can get a multimeter and set it on OHMS, the bad fuse can be easily found. The fuse must be out of the circuit to be tested. Another way would be with a self powered testlight, again with the fuse removed from the clips.

When the testing of the fuses is completed, check the tightness of the fuse clips as corrosion and poor mechanical grip of the fuses can cause problems.

[rstnick]

The longer fuses will work in a pinch.
Switching to newer style blade fuses sometime in the future is a good modification as those types of fuses are a lot easier to find when necessary.
Here's what I used on my 650:




Set your fuel petcock to PRIme to fill the carbs before cold starting.
You mention the engine's got spark, so fuel may be an issue.
A whack to the timimg plate might have caused more damage than you think as well.

Got any pictures of the damage?

The 650info link in my signature will take you to all the maintenance and spec info you need for a kz650, including manual downloads if your in need of a service manual.