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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 00:42 #523723

  • badrhino
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I am trying to get the Ohm readings from my coil primary and secondary wires. I have the Multi-meter set to 20K on the plug wires and I am not getting anything. Positive inside the plug cap and Negative to the ground. Someone want to enlighten me on what the heck is going on. I also can't get any reading on the small (primary) wires.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 00:48 #523726

  • Patton
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Put negative inside the other plug cap.

Good Fortune! :)
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD
The following user(s) said Thank You: wireman

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 00:51 #523728

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Would re-set ohmmeter to its lowest range when measuring resistance in the primary wiring.

Good Fortune! :)
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 00:53 #523730

  • MFolks
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For ohm reading on the primary side of the ignition coil, drop the setting on the meter to 200 ohms, as most ignition coils will read between 1.8 and 3 ohms(some may read as high as 4 ohms).
1982 GPZ1100 B2
General Dynamics/Convair 1983-1993
GLCM BGM-109 Tomahawk, AGM-129A Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM)

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:03 #523734

  • DiamondSkyBlue1000
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Don't know the model meter you have.
Verify your leads are plugged into the correct jacks on the meter if applicable.
Set the meter to autoranging, if that's not applicable, set it to 20k ohms.
Touch the leads together, don't let your fingers touch the exposed ends of the leads.
You should get zero or 0.0 ohms.
If you get infinite ohms or "limit" or something like that then you have an open in your leads or the meter has an open inside. Get new leads or a new meter.

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:11 #523739

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Got ya. I'm a dummy, I had one wire in a plug cap and the other on a ground to the frame. Ooops.

Ok, I went and tried it again. Is the ohm reading supposed to stay on the screen? The only time I get a reading is when I switch it from lets say 200ohm to 2000ohm reading and a different number will pop up every time it is switched back and fourth. Like 3.59 then 7.23 then 5.15 just random every time.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:24 #523742

  • MFolks
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How fresh is the battery? Some meters have a "Hold" button that will retain the reading.

This will help:


(Using a multimeter)
1982 GPZ1100 B2
General Dynamics/Convair 1983-1993
GLCM BGM-109 Tomahawk, AGM-129A Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM)

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:29 #523743

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When I touch the two leads together it goes to 0 and stays until I let it go. I put the wires on both sets of plug wires coming out of the one coil and I get nothing. Just a blank screen. I tried both coil and get the same thing. That is with the meter set to 200K ohms.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:33 #523744

  • DiamondSkyBlue1000
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It's been my experience that when a digital meter set to measure resistance acts like you describe it means there is some voltage present on the wire you are measuring. Or you have a reactive component (like a capacitor) in the circuit that is causing the odd reading because of the voltage the meter is putting into the circuit. Disconnect the coil wires from the posts to remove the condenser or the electronic ignition from the circuit. Put your leads on each of the posts and measure the resistance. It should be very low. Remove the spark plug wire from the coil and measure the resistance between each of the posts to the center post. Both of those readings should be very high. I think those numbers are in the manual. If you don't get the right numbers, replace the coil.
Here's a page with some info:
Dan's motorcycle page.

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Last edit: by DiamondSkyBlue1000.

No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:39 #523747

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That's the tricky part I have original coils and you can't disconnect the plug wires. In fact I had to get splicers to splice in my new plug wires to the old coil. I'm thinking I might have wasted money on splicers if my coils are shot. The bike will run just not right.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 01:45 #523750

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Well, as long as you can get to the end with your lead. The cap may have a resistor in it that will affect your reading. As long as you take that into account, you're okay.

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 15:35 #523849

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Ok guys this is annoying. :pinch: I even tried replacing the battery in the multimeter and no change. I am not getting any ohm reading from the coil wires of either coil. What is going on here? :blink: The ohm meter works fine on other wires.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 16:52 #523858

  • steell
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Roughly 15k-23k measuring between the two plug wires on a single coil.
Roughly 2-5 ohms measured between the two small terminals on each coil.

If you can't get a reading between the two plug wires then your splices are probably not working.
KD9JUR

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Last edit: by steell.

No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 18:40 #523875

  • Patton
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I prefer the analog meters with swinging needle, instead of the digital meters with numbers jumping all over the place. :lol:

Another option would be having the coils tested at a Kaw dealership.



Good Fortune! :)
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD
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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 18:54 #523878

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What does your meter say when you hold the two leads apart (not touching anything)?
What does your meter say when you touch the leads together?
When you say that you aren't getting any readings do you mean the display just goes blank?
That would be an indication that there is voltage on the wires, is everything disconnected? You cannot measure resistance on a circuit that has any voltage on it.
The meter introduces its own voltage (and resultant current) into the circuit and that is how it measures the resistance in that circuit. Any voltage on that circuit from a different source, be it a capacitor discharging, or the circuitry in a ignition system will cause the meter to blank its display or sometime cause the numbers to blink, depending on who made the meter.


Ohmmeters are fairly simple but the digital ones can be a pain because of their internal circuitry. An auto-ranging one will interact with the circuit you are measuring and cause erratic readings. When you mentioned you would only get a brief reading when you switched from one range to another, you were giving the circuit a chance to discharge and the meter would momentarily work but then when the component in the circuit charged up it would be seen as another voltage source by the meter and it would react as you describe. An autoranging meter causes the above scenario every time it switches from one range to another but it does it over and over and you will see the numbers blink on and off and every time they will be different because of the timing between the metering circuits and the display circuits.
Older, analog meters would peg the needle either to zero or full scale or would pop the fuse if you tried to measure resistance with a voltage present.
Verify the coils are completely disconnected from everything and follow the instructions in the link I sent before and you should get some usable readings.

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 19:04 #523886

  • Patton
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DiamondSkyBlue1000 wrote: ...You cannot measure resistance on a circuit that has any voltage on it....


Yes -- and the ignition switch should be in OFF position, where there's no voltage from the bike's battery being received at the coil.

Likely won't be an issue with stock coils where the battery positive wire (usually red or red/yellow) is disconnected to gain access for the meter probe. And the other primary wire (usually black or green) is also disconnected to gain access for the other meter probe.



The 2.3 is just for illustration, as the correct ohm number should be within range as shown in the factory service manual, perhaps something like 3.2~4.8Ω. The symbol means ohm.

Good Fortune! :)
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD
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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 20:24 #523900

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Thanks, man! A picture is worth a thousand words, and I think I came close to that today...
:laugh:

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 23:31 #523932

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A picture is worth a thousand words. Apparently I forgot to unhook a little wire or two.

I think that I have found my problem. I was still not getting any readings at the plug caps. I unscrewed one end of the splicer and tested from the splicer on both coils and got readings. Below is what the readings were. Are these in spec.?

Left Coil
Primary 1.9 ohms
Secondary (at splice) 15,100 ohms

Right Coil
Primary 1.7 ohms
Secondary (at splice) 15,800 ohms

Now my question is.....why am I not getting anything past the splicer? These are new wires.
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 23:47 #523934

  • Patton
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badrhino wrote: ... not getting anything past the splicer? These are new wires.


Are new wires solid core or suppression (graphite?) style?

Lacking hands-on experience with the splicers, am guessing they are intended for solid core both in and out of the splicer. :unsure:

Good Fortune! :)
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD

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Last edit: by Patton.

No Ohm readings. What am I doing wrong? 21 May 2012 23:58 #523936

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Patton once again thanks.

They are suppresion wires and are not solid core so guessing graphite. I ordered these wires along with the splicers from Z1E so I figured they were supposed to work with these wires.

I put the wires back on the splicer and am getting reading but they sound really high, especially on the left coil.

L (79,000)
R (24,500)

What do I need to do get solid core wires?
1980 KZ1000 with a 1982 KZ1000J motor with 1100 pistons and heads, Vance & Hines, 29MM Smooth Bores, Work in Progress
Franken Z!

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