ZZR 600 Left Side Indicators Stopped Working

[MahatmaAndhi]

Hi all,

I haven't had a bike for four years. Now I have a house with a garage, I wanted to get back in to it. I bought a Kawasaki ZZR 600 with my very meagre budget.

This morning I set out for my first ride. I checked the lights and indicators all around the bike. All good. So after checking the rest, I went out for a ride.

About 15 miles in I noticed that I wasn't getting a dashboard notification when I indicated left. I checked the actual indicators themselves and they have stopped too - front and back.

Hayne's manual has been ordered. I'm not very mechanically minded, but I want to learn and this seems like as good a place as any.

In the meantime, I tried squirting contact spray in the holes either side of the switch. No joy. I ended up taking the casing off, disassembling the entire indicator switch's inner gubbins. Cleaned it, greased the moving bits. Reassembled. Still the same issue (albeit with a much better feeling switch).

I'm now wondering if it's the wire itself? But I have no idea when it comes to electrics either.

I've ordered a replacement switch housing set from eBay (£12 - bargain), so if it really goes tits up then I can just replace it.

Does anyone have any idea what to do next? Could it be a fuse, if the right side all works absolutely fine? I'm fairly convinced that I've ruled the switch option out. What would you do next?

Thanks.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Nobby the Bastard]

Have you checked to see if you have.a blown bulb?
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Triumph Sprint ST 1050

[MahatmaAndhi]

I haven't. I figured that as all three (both indicators and the dash notification) stopped working at the same time then it wouldn't be that. But I honestly know naff all. Is that possible then?

Edit: I checked both the front and back indicators. Both are fine. I wouldn't know where to begin getting to the dashboard's lights though.

Edit 2: I've also checked the fuse, just in case. There's just one fuse for the indicators and it's in tact. The quest continues...
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Nobby the Bastard]

Unplug the rear ones and swap them over. does the one that was not working now work when you. Obviously it will be flashing on the wrong side.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Triumph Sprint ST 1050

[Islander]

Spray the switch through the slot with some switch cleaner and work it. It might well be dirty contacts on one side - this is a quick thing to do and may well provide a solution before you have to delve into wiring.

[Easy-X]

If I'm looking at the right wiring diagram you have an orange wire coming from a simple 2-pin flasher unit. This goes to the indicator switch (hazards are wired in parallel so shouldn't affect things.) The switch directs the flashes to either gray for right or green for left. Return is via the frame as a common ground.

For a given side the bulbs - front, back and clocks - are wired in parallel so one bulb going wouldn't affect the others (although the flash rate would probably change.) If a bulb somehow shorted then the fuse for the indicators would blow and both sides would have gone down.

I would suggest getting a multimeter and comparing the output of the green & gray wires as you flip the indicator switch. I'd guess either the switch is faulty or the wiring close by e.g. corrosion in the switch connector.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[MahatmaAndhi]

My two friends who are most likely to have a multimeter are both on holiday. Typical. I've put the feelers out to try and get one. In the meantime, I can try switching the bulbs over to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the suggestions.

It appears that one of the previous owners has decided to put the horn on the fairing as a separate button. I've no idea what possessed them to do that, but I suspect that this could be somehow related to the dodgy wiring on the indicators.
I have the new switch in the post, so we'll see if I can diagnose it before it arrives.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[MahatmaAndhi]

Update: I tried a bunch of stuff with the multimeter, but - long story short - I was checking the wiring between the handlebars and the fairing and jiggled it about a bit. Left indicators started working. Then they stopped. Re-jiggled and worked. Then stopped.

I didn't get it working a third time. I didn't know if what I was doing was going to cause any sort of damage so I didn't want to mess about too much. But I think the wiring down there was a bodge job done by a previous owner (which would explain the horn on a separate button on the fairing itself). Next step is to isolate the problematic wire and fix it, I guess.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Easy-X]

Nice, that's solid progress. Given you have one wire from the switch going to 3 wires (front, back, clocks) you may find half way down some cable wrapping the wires simply crimped together. I had this on an old
Kwacker recently with the clock backlights circuit.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[MahatmaAndhi]

This all looks super suspicious now.

There's just red and black, everywhere.

This image you can see a red cable just loitering in thin air near the horn. That's not connected to anything on one end, but goes up to that scotchlock(?) that's the higher up of the two in the image.

https://i.imgur.com/DYl3Slet.jpg
(Big version) https://i.imgur.com/DYl3Sle.jpg

Two of the scotchlocks appear to have cables that stop. I don't know why. I'm still trying to figure this out.
https://i.imgur.com/XbfZcpOt.jpg
(Big) https://i.imgur.com/XbfZcpO.jpg

And when I open the other, it doesn't appear to be connected to anything at all.
https://i.imgur.com/SZlnMYzt.jpg
(Big) https://imgur.com/SZlnMYz

I'm wondering if the floating one should be part of these somehow? But the floating one has an exposed set of wires at the end (like when you cut speaker wires) and these seem very clean cut. I dunno!
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Nobby the Bastard]

Right, in the connector blocks the bit that joins the circuit is the metal piece thats cutting into the sleeve of the wire. It cuts through the sleeve and touches the metal core.

Not sure if you are aware but metal conducts electricity....
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Triumph Sprint ST 1050

[MahatmaAndhi]

Yeah, but in the bottom pic if that's a positive and negative wire and the metal is touching both would that be causing a short?
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[rpsmith79]

That is exactly how a Scotch Lock works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U0N_BFHyaY

The other end (in your first photo) should be connected to something though, not just flapping in the wind

EDIT: Oh, and don't just assume that the colour of the cable is the polarity, just because a red cable (usuall positive) has been scotchlocked to a black cable (usually earth) doesn't indicate it will be a short, it's just that the numpty before didn't have any correct coloured cable
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Current Bike: Honda CG125 ES4 // Honda CB600FS Hornet // Triumph Street Triple R

[Nobby the Bastard]

[MahatmaAndhi]

You've both made a very good point. At this stage, I don't know.
I don't really want to admit defeat, but I'm already well past what I knew before about electrics.

I had it booked in to the garage on Friday anyway, so I've got until then to figure it out.

It's big brain time.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250

[Easy-X]

The bike has, as they say in the trade, "been fucked with" Good luck!
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[doggone]

Vehicle electrics often don't need live and neutral as things can be earthed (back to neutral) through the frame.
But if it's bodge central who knows what they've done.

[UncleFester]

If it's that bad I'd probably be after a spare wiring loom - you can pick them up for not much and then use that to either cannibalise or just replace the existing one.

Appreciate that may be a bit more work than you're after doing.
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2017 Z1000SX

[MahatmaAndhi]

Thanks guys.
I've been pratting about with it all afternoon. That red and black wire in the same lock was the passing light. So that's been reassembled and electrical taped. It works. It isn't important to the task at hand, so it's now really identifiable and put aside.

I've got a new switch set on the way from eBay, so if it all goes tits up, that's my back up. But while messing I seemed to have got it in a position where the left indicators work again.
For how long? No idea! But now I've finished my (push) bike ride, I'm going to take it out for a spin.

I'll let you know how I get on, but thanks for your advice and perseverance, particularly Nobby and Easy. I'm really useless with this stuff.

Edit: Nope. Broke again. Too dark and the engine's too hot to try and sort it out.
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2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250