I have had one for nearly two years, stock except an Acerbis 4.0 gal tank. I love it. But, now it has electrical problems. Not charging, I believe I have a defective rectifier/regulator. Early signs For a few days, the fan ran when I first turn on the ignition.This is not normal, but it is mid summer in Florida. Then, I noticed starter dragging a bit. The next day it wouldn't crank. I put charger on battery and after charging enough to start, checked voltage. It was around 13 at idle and went down into mid 12's when reved up to 4000 / 5000 range. Stator checked okay (no ground and 50 ish volts at 4000 rpm per service manual test. The book describes a regulator check using three batteries, But I don't have that many to work with Friday I on line ordered a new rectifier/ regulator. Saturday I received an Email " backordered from Kawasaki and has no current release date" I then checked with the local Kawasaki Dealer and got the same information. Is there an aftermarket version available? Or My unit has the numbers "SH530-12" printed on it. Searching shows the same number associated with the Rect/Reg for a Kawasaki EX500. Looking at a picture of one, it has different plug(s) but the body of the unit appears identical. There is an extra wire coming out of the body (6 versus 5 on the correct unit White, Black and Brown). Does is seem possible to substitute , by swapping my leads and plugs to an ex unit? Any help or advice is appreciated.
Some of the Kawasakis use a 6th wire as a voltage sense wire and the wire is keyed. That is, Kawasaki wanted to prevent the sensing circuit in the regulator from draining current when the bike is off by bringing a separate wire to the rectifier/regulator sense circuit and the wire opens when the ignition key is off. For most other bikes the regulator sense circuitry is tied to the + wire and the sense circuit draws a little current when the key is off. Your bike should be able to use the 6-wire rectifier/regulator if you tie the 6th wire to the + wire and if the other 5 wires are situated in the mating plug correctly, but the 5-wire rectifier/regulator is much more common. Just use a 5-wire one.