Motorcycle Repair: Ignition-1976 Kawasaki KZ400, headlight circuit, test light

Question
Hi Wayne,

I have a 1976 Kawasaki KZ400; I think it's an E.  The ignition recently broke.  I've contacted local stores about ordering a new one.  There telling around $120 for ignition and key.  Do I have to use the exact ignition? Is there a cheaper part that would work?  If I can salvage one off of another bike, do you know what models might work.   I'm a broke soon-to-be-grad student so anything helps.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.  For a newbie like myself, it's great to have people that explain stuff clearly and helpfully.

Take Care,
Aaron

Answer
Aaron,

-Your bike I believe has about 4 main wires on the
ignition switch.
-The light colored or white wire is your main power
from the fuse.
-This wire would connect through the
switch to the brown ignition wire.
-The red wire should be taillight and the blue/red wire
should be for the headlight circuit.

Get a test light and see if you have power on the
whitish colored wire.
This is where you need a switch to connect this
wire to the other wires, either all at once
or first the ignition and then the
headlight/tailight wires separately.
Any motorcycle switch should have enough positions for this.
Just find one that sort of fits your bike and test
the wires with a multimeter to see which wires
connect when the key is turned before you
hook it up to the bike.
Then hook up your bike wires so the proper
wires get connected when you turn the key.
Don't hook any switch wires to the black/yellow,
that's a ground and will blow your fuses.