Katana Owners Club U.K.

Do the switches in the side panel contain a relay? I’ve bought some small daylight running lights which I’m going to fit under the beak.

Hi Paul. Switches on the side panel are just that; latching switches, although some appear to be momentary as the tags inside break.

They were intended to switch ancillary equipment with power sourced from the 0 and 12 volt terminals at the bottom of the fuse block.

I haven't seen that little circuit diagram before - that's interesting - I did wonder where the easiest place to take the power from was for those switches.

Paul I assume that you intend to use the daytime lights instead of headlamp, I would advise that keep the headlamp on all th time to avoid reg/ rec problems.

fossie wrote:Paul I assume that you intend to use the daytime lights instead of headlamp, I would advise that keep the headlamp on all th time to avoid reg/ rec problems.

Ah, I thought that lurking in the back of my mind somewhere was something about reg/rect problems with Suzuki’s of a certain age thanks for that boss.
As all the bikes I’ve had for a good while now have been old Japs I never use the lights during daytime for fear of a flat battery plus Pussy’s battery isn’t brilliant
I had one of those “sorry I didn’t see you” moments the other day (thank gawd I’ve sorted the brakes out) which got me thinking about daytime lights as I point blank refuse to wear hi vis clothing
I must invest in a Motobatt dry battery as recommended by my water cooled two stroke Suzuki riding friends.
Yet again my membership of the KOC has saved me valuable beer tokens.

Completely with you re hi viz ......HOW CAN IT BE HIGHLY VISIBLE ? IT IS EITHER VISIBLE ...OR NOT,!!!
If they can't see your headlamp they won't see a yellow jacket that every man and his dog(literally) in some cases wears!

Hi Paul,

As an extra to this, the power source terminals are permanently live, so you may need to replace the battery if you keep forgetting to switch off the lights.

It would be fairly straight forward to tie in your LEDs to the parking light feed. Make up a little sub-loom to the LEDs so you can remove the fairing easily.

As for the Reg/Rec issue, the most common mod is to loop the switched phase from the alternator directly to the Reg/Rec as the other 2 phases are. This means that the alternator is not running with unbalanced phases.

The original colours of the 3rd phase wires are White/Green from the alternator to the switch and White/Red from the switch to the Reg/Rec. Of course if you have a replacement alternator then the wires could well be different such as all yellow. If you have the Honad CB250/400 Reg then that's a different mod that is documented on here somewhere.

Hi Jim, thanks for that but you lost me at permanently live
This electrickery is black magic to me. The extent of my electrical knowledge stops at if I press the starter button & nowt happens the battery is usually flat
Thanks anyway, Paul

if you want a brighter light but not headlight, you can buy quite high powered led sidelight bulbs that simply replace the existing sidelight bulb.

johnr wrote:if you want a brighter light but not headlight, you can buy quite high powered led sidelight bulbs that simply replace the existing sidelight bulb.

Thanks John but I don’t think my Kat has a sidelight fitted?
The right hand light switch is just on/off and then the left gives high/low beam. I think my bike was an Italian import so maybe that explains it?