Kill Switch issue (76 kz400)

loudhvx wrote: Going to the kill switch there is a brown wire and a red/yellow wire. Jumper the two together.

loudhvx wrote: They are going to be in the main harness. The brown gets power from the ignition switch and the red/yellow goes to the coils.

If you want to just hot-wire it, run a jumper from the main fuse to the ignition coil's red/yellow wire. But make sure to have the ignition switch turned on when running so the charging system works and lights work. And also make sure not to leave the jumper in place as it will kill the battery. You will also not be able to shut off the engine with the ignition switch. You will have to pull the jumper.

I would find where the right-hand switch assembly harness goes. It would be easier to jumper it that way and then the ignition switch will do everything for you. Maybe it's in the headlight bucket.

Unplugging the right-hand control harness will also disable the electric start. If you want that to work, you will have to jump the wires while the connector is plugged in.

It might be easiest to jumper the wires inside the kill switch housing. You have to take it apart to replace the switch anyway.

loudhvx wrote: Jumpering means connecting one existing wire to another existing wire by connecting them together directly or with a third new wire. The third new wire will just be a short wire. The short wire is the "jumper".

When jumpering, the two original wires might be cut or disconnected, or they might be left entirely in tact as they were, with the only difference being that they are now connected to each other.

In your case, what you do depends on what your overall plans are.

If you are going to replace the entire handlebar unit, including the sub-harness, then you can just cut the brown wire and yellow/red wire near where they go into the handle bar control unit and connect them together. (And insulate them with tape.)

If you are going to repair the unit and want to keep the original sub-harness, you have a few options. You can open the switch unit and disconnect the brow wire and yellow/red wire from the switch contacts and connect them together somehow. Or you could unplug that sub-harness and install a special jumper into the main-harness end of the connector to connect the brown to yellow/red. This jumper will have to have terminal ends that can plug into the harness connector. Or you could live with the hot-wire method I described earlier. This is less invasive, but less convenient.