a friend of mine purchased a Lt500R and we removed the lights and key and want to run the bike this way...what do the wires coming out of the crankcase go to exactly and what do we need to keep besides the coil? is the CDI necessary and what about the heatsink on the steering stem area?

 

The lights will unplug. The key switch unplugs also, but those two wires in the harness need to be plugged together so the engine will run. The heatsink (voltage regulator) is not necessary. Your kidding about the CDI box, right?

 

Like he said just unplug the lights and remove the key switch. I would leave all the electrical stuff on the zilla. You mite change you mind later

 

For some strange reason I traded a new seat cover (didn't match the black fenders) for a key switch for my Zilla, not because I was afraid of it getting stolen, but to keep friends from "helping themselves" when we all went riding in the pits.......now Mr. "Hey-I-just-wrecked-my-quad-lemme-ride-yours-where's-the-key" can only sit and wish...

 

so plain and simple, there is four wires(i think) coming out of the crankcase...what should I do with each one...the lights and keyswitch is gone...so two of the four are eliminated right? the other two go to a kill switch right? i could probably figure it all out if i was looking at it but i'm not, so i know someone has their zilla set up like this so how is it done?

 

I did the same thing on my 88 LT500. Also if you don't want lights remove the two lighting coils I removed the lighting coils, that helped out power a surprising amount, the revs are much quicker with the lighting coils removed, they add alot of resistance as the flywheel spins around them. The lighting coils are behind the flywheel and there are two of them, make sure you leave the magneto coil. To remove the flywheel make sure you use a flywheel puller, a normal claw puller may damage the flywheel or case if it slips off. If you don't want lights get rid of the controls on the handle bars, and just hook-up a kill switch. The quad looks much cleaner without all the unnecessary stuff on the bars. I can't just walk you through what wires get taken off and what wires stay without actually standing over the quad and tracing the wires, get a shop manual from Suzuki it's all in section 6, wiring diagrams and what goes to what. That was one of my best purchases. Good luck, if it doesn't start when you are done you made a mistake, but all in all it's easy once you have all the wires mapped out. All the wires come to connections under the gas tank.
Yes the CDI needs to stay. NO CDI NO GO.