Power Commander 5 on First Gen 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Z1000

Sorry for the long title, figured it would be easier to search.

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere clearly, but I figured I would put it here and make it easy to search. I didn't take photos, but it's damn easy. The hardest part for me was getting the damn tank up for the first time!

The PC5 works fine on the 1st gen bike though, I have one on mine. You will want to buy the Power Commander 5 for the 2009 zx6r (NOT the zx6rr). A few other years, like 2010 and I'm pretty sure 2011, are the same model and will work just fine too.

Install is easy, at least I found it to be. You will want to put the Power Commander module in the storage compartment at the back under the pillion seat. I put it at the back left side of the compartment, and used Velcro to stick it so that it was vertical (the short side was vertical, so that the USB connection faced the front of the bike, and the label faced the right side of the bike).

Before you start routing the wires, you will have to do a small modification. Look at the ground wire with the ring tab on it - you will see that there are actually TWO wires going to that ring tab. Snip the wire that is BLACK w/ WHITE stripe, right at the ring connector. Now you will have to make a small cut in the protective covering of the harness (I did it right near where the grey wire comes out of the PC5 harness), and you will pull that black w/ white stripe wire out of the harness, so that it comes out of the harness right near the grey wire. Now that you've pulled that wire out of there, you route the harness out of the storage compartment, over the lock mechanism for the pillion seat, and down towards the battery area. You will want to slip the harness through a little gap that's there, to ensure it stays where it belongs, and doesn't move due to vibrations. You will end up bringing THREE wires from the harness out at the battery/ECU area (the three wires that come out near the battery are the grey wire, the black w/ white stripe wire, and the main ground wire with the ring connector tab). The rest of the harness routes forward along the left side of the bike, towards the engine. You can pull off the left side cover piece (the one that covers the coolant tank) and route the harness under the frame at the rear, from the battery side to the outside of the frame, then under the front friction fit locator piece for the cover you've removed, and then up around the frame again and under the gas tank and near the airbox.

It will go froward from there, and the plug that is CLOSEST to the Power Commander on the harness (i.e. the first injector plug) will connect to the LEFT side injector plugs (i.e. when you are sitting on the bike and look down towards the injectors, the one on the left). Then just keep going with the other three, plugging them in in the order that they come out of the harness, with the last one plugging into the injector near the TPS sensors. This is different than the Z1000 PCIII instructions, as the PCIII plugs into the main harness at only one location, instead of individual injectors. Since the PC5 for the ZX6R uses individual connectors for each injector, that's fine, don't worry about it being different from the Z1000 PCIII.

Now that the injectors are all connected up properly, you need to do some splicing of the wires. Near the battery, you have three wires left coming out of the harness near the battery and ECU area.

First, you will then splice the BLACK w/ WHITE stripe wire into the BROWN w/ BLACK stripe wire that is on the LEFT side of the LEFT ECU. NOTE: Do not CUT this brown w/ black stripe wire, just tap into it. Two options for tapping into the brown w/ black stripe wire:

1. Carefully cutting the insulation off of it in just a very short (1/8" or so is fine) section of the wire, then stripping 1/2"-5/8" of insulation off of the black w/ white stripe wire, and tightly wrapping the uninsulated portion of it around the brown w/ black stripe wire, then soldering the wrap so that it cannot move, and then wrapping that with electrical tape (I usually also put a light coating of liquid electrical tape over connections like this, to ensure they are water proof and protected from corrosion, which can happen easily with some solders.

2. Use an easy tap (that's what I call them, not sure what the real name is). This is a simple little guy that has space for two separate wires, and has a metal "tab" with two cutouts for the two wires. One space is for you to snap in the wire that you want to splice into (so you snap the easy tap over the brown w/ black stripe wire), then you will take the end of the black w/ white stripe wire (you have not cut off any insulation off of EITHER of the wires when you use the easy tap), and you will slide it into the other space in the easy tap (this space has a "block" or plug kind of thing built into the end of the space, which will make sure the black w/ white stripe wire will not go too far into the easy tap). You then fold the snap cover over so that it clicks, and will now be covering the metal tab. Then I use a pair of vice grips (I like the needle nose ones myself), and set them so that they do not close too much over the cover and the easy tap. Clamp down gently and watch the metal tab get pushed over the wires, just a little bit. Then tighten the vice grips a small bit more, and clamp again. Keep doing this until you can see the plastic on the side of the easy tap opposite the metal tab start to turn white from the metal tab pressing into it. At this point, you've tapped in successfully. Now take some liquid electrical tape and coat the easy tap in it, and then wrap it in regular electrical tape (or just use electrical tape).

Now you need to splice the GREY wire from the PC5 harness into the Main (Primary) TPS Sensor signal wire. This wire is a yellow w/ white stripe wire and it runs from the Primary TPS sensor to the ECU. I tapped into this wire near the ECU because it was closer to the harness and it kept things looking cleaner. The caveat here is that you REALLY don't want to screw up tapping/splicing into it, because if you do, there isn't much extra wire to work with. Same thing with the first wire you did - be careful, if you screw it up you're going to have to cut the wire and splice in an extension piece, and you want to avoid that. The yellow w/ white stripe wire goes into the ECU plug close to the brown w/ black stripe wire, on the far left side of the plug. As far as I remember, it should be numbered as wire 14 in the connector, but don't quote me on this. It's the only yellow w/ white stripe wire on that connector though, so it should be easy to find. Do the same thing that you did to connect your black w/ white stripe wire to the brown w/ black stripe wire, for the grey wire that you are splicing into the yellow w/ white stripe wire.

Easy Peasy. Install is done. Put the bike back together, but DO NOT start it up yet.

Now you will have to load on the map for your bike. Because the PC5 you have is made for the ZX6R, it might give you a hassle for installing it on a Z1000 - just tell it to quit bitching and do it's job. It will listen.

You will want to first open up the PCIII Z1000 map that you want to use (though you CAN flash the ZX6R zero map and use it), open it up in the Power Commander program, select all the data points, and press ctrl-c to copy them. Now open up a zero map for the 2009 ZX6R that you've downloaded from the interwebs, select all data points on this ZX6R zero map, and press ctrl-v to paste your stuff over top of it. Now you've got your First Generation Z1000 map in PC5 format, ready to flash into the ZX6R Power Commander 5. You need to do the copy/paste because the Power Commander module looks for a signature on the map that confirms it is a map designed for the same bike that the Power Commander module was designed for. You need to do this copy/paste to trick it into thinking it's a ZX6R map. You will notice that the ZX6R maps have room for RPMs that the Z1000 will never reach - I just set these all to 0 and forget about them - they aren't important to us.

For example, you have the Full Hindle map for the Z1000, you open it, select all the data, hit ctrl-c, then you go open the zero map for the 2009 ZX6R that you also downloaded, select all of the data, hit ctrl-v. now you click save map and give it a new name. Keep the zero map for the zx6r for doing this with other maps if you want to try out different ones.

Now you're going to plug the computer into the power commander module, and tell it to send the map to the power commander. After that's done, you can open up the config options and set up the accelerator pump option if you want to - I don't find it really does all that much for me, so I have turned it back off. Your results may vary here though - I'm not the fastest rider in the world yet, and half the time my 6 year old daughter is on the bike with me, so in those cases I'm rarely past 1/4 throttle most of the time . Some guys swear by the accel pump option... look it up, I'm not addressing it here.

Now, before you are ready to go ride, you're going to need to set up the TPS voltage. Make sure you've already sent either a Zero map or the map you want to try out first, to the PC5 unit. After you're sure you've sent it and the program has confirmed it was sent, start up the bike and let it run until it is warmed up to close to normal riding temperature. Now shut it off. Leave the computer plugged in and the Power Commander program open.go to the configuration options from one of the drop down menu's up top (I'm not sitting in front of my personal laptop right now, so I don't have the program open to see what menu, but it should be very obvious when you look at it - if it's not, remove the PC5 and sell it, you likely should not be doing this yourself). You're going to go to where you configure the Throttle Position Sensor voltage. You will see a small window pop up with a slider on it, and two boxes for 0% throttle and 100% throttle. You will see another box that will show you the voltage sensed on your throttle position sensor, when the bike is on.

What you're going to do to configure the TPS voltage is, when you've got the config window open for TPS voltage, and the PC5 is still plugged into the computer and connected, you will start the bike up. Now you will see, in the main PC5 software window, your RPM will be shown, along with throttle %, duty cycle, etc. In the TPS voltage config window, you should see a voltage displayed. It will be a pretty low voltage, because your hand is COMPLETELY AWAY from the throttle, and the bike should simply be idling and warmed up. Look at the voltage number that's displayed, and then click on the 0% throttle box and type in that same voltage (you can also click the left pointing arrow and it will put the number there for you - but really, typing a voltage isn't very hard).

Now comes the "slightly trickier" part. You need to set up the 100% throttle voltage. If you have a dyno, you can just gun the throttle to 100% open and take note of the number. Most of us don't have a dyno in our backyard (if you do, I envy you), so we need another way. Some guys gun it when the bike is in neutral or when it's in gear on the stand. I don't like either method, I've never been a fan of gunning the bike really hard in neutral, as the engine isn't loaded, and I've NEVER been a fan at all of running the rear wheel while the bike is on a stand, and CERTAINLY NOT at a high rate of speed (idling in first, maybe, if you really need the wheel spinning and can't just do it by hand). If the bike vibrates or jumps somehow off the stand and the engine is at 8,000 RPM in first gear, that bike is going through the nearest wall or into the nearest car etc. Don't be dumb. Here's a better way to do it:

You should still have the bike running from when you set the throttle voltage at 0%. Make sure you are ready to watch the window and remember the voltage number that shows up. Put one hand on the throttle but leave it idling for now. You're going to use your thumb to shut off the engine, and then very quickly you're going to flip the kill switch back to the on position. Don't do it so fast that the engine stays running, just as quick as you can but still killing the engine. AS SOON as you flip the switch back to the on position, crank the throttle wide open until you can't twist it anymore. This is 100% throttle. Look at the screen really quickly and take note of, and remember, the voltage number you see. You will only have about 2 seconds until the Power Commander realizes that the bike is not running, and it will shut down, and you will lose that voltage. You might have to try it once or twice, but it's honestly not hard at all to get it right.

Now you type in the voltage number you saw when the throttle was at 100% - mine was 4.739 volts - yours will very likely be different than mine. Once it's put in there, and all other config options are set up how you want them, you click "Ok" on the config window, and it will send all settings to the PC5 module. Close the software, unplug the computer, put the bike back together, and you're done.

See? It really wasn't that hard. And now you can go buy the Autotune module and have a threaded O2 sensor bung welded into your exhaust collector, thus giving you the ability to tune your PC5 on the fly. That's my next plan, once I get my muzzy header cut down to fit the bike.

Hope this helps you guys, and sorry for making it so long. I edited it just now to make it longer, but more readable and with more info. I really hope that the length doesn't piss anyone off. And sorry for no photos, I might have taken a couple, but they likely wouldn't help, and honestly, they aren't needed. This explanation covers everything you need to do in enough detail that anyone who's mechanically inclined at all should be able to do it. Pulling the tank off the bike was harder than installing the PC5......

Credit for the black w/ white stripe into the brown w/ black wire splice goes to Dynagreg from this forum and the Riderforums. Not sure if he figured it out first, but he's the guy I got that info from, so I'm giving him credit. He sent me a few photos and a little write up, and it helped me feel comfortable I was really doing the right thing - I don't have it handy, but I think my description of what to do is pretty damn good, so you shouldn't have any issues.

Credit for finding out that the PC5 will actually work on the Z1000 goes partly do Dynagreg and partly to a guy on Youtube (don't remember his handle) who posted a short video of his bike running with a PC5.

There are others who have done it and a few that posted about it, but these two were the ones I first looked at, so I figured I'd mention them. I don't want to take credit for this idea, or for finding out it worked. I did have to do some leg work, going through wiring diagrams for the ZX6R and Z1000, confirming that I was right on what color wire to splice the grey one into, and where I could splice it and the brown/black wire (because the brown w/ black stripe wire goes to a few different sensors, I wanted to be sure I was able to connect it where I did - and I can).

I also installed Ivan's Fuel Cut Eliminator at the same time, and for me personally, it made a huge difference. Together, the bike went from being a bit rude, a bit jumpy, and fun, to being a nicely mannered bike at low RPM to a wicked ripper at higher RPM. No more jumpiness around slow corners in traffic, no more jumpiness while following a car slowly in traffic, etc. I love this bike even more now.