TOPIC:

I bought a 1980 xz 1000 st. The number 3 cylinder sparkplug wire was corroded. But to cut back enough to get a clean connection to spark plug cap it's going to be short. Since the wires don't come out of coil I need to replace them too. Just need a suggestion on what coils are good to replace with. The bike is all stock. Thanks

Ignition Coils And Sparkplug Wire Choices
What came with the bike were ignition coils that even when new were marginal, add years of cooking under the tank in stop and go traffic, and the coils will fail when hot.

Replacement coils can be bought at www.z1enterprises.com. I believe "Emgo" is the brand. They also carry the popular Dyna 2.2 and 3 ohm coils along with replacement sparkplug wires.

Now, you have a choice on sparkplug wires:
1. Copper plug wires with no suppression caps(the best choice, will produce greater spark, but will produce audio noise on Radio's & T.V.'s)

2. Copper plug wires with suppression caps(a built in 5000 ohm resistor, that can some times fail, like what came with the bike).

3. Copper plug wires with no suppression caps, but using resistor plugs(the "R" in the plug number).

4. Suppression plug wires with no suppression caps.

NEVER use resistor plugs and suppression caps or suppression plug wires, as now there will be two (2) sources of resistance in the secondary loop of the ignition coils, greatly reducing the spark energy.

Another choice is the Accel 3 ohm coils, with a similar primary(small wire) electrical connection using ring terminals as the Dyna ignition coils. Whatever brand of coil you go with, make sure the primary wires will clear the mounting hardware, as the spacers will come really close, possibly causing an electrical short, blowing fuses. Some riders have replaced the metal spacers with Nylon or Plastic non conductive ones, reducing the chance of an electrical problem.

- Packard 440 Copper Core 7 mm Spark Plug Wire
- NGK Plug Cap SKU: #LZFH

If your existing coils work fine another option is to use NGK "splicers" to attach new wires to the coils. Here's the link. Ed

www.ngksparkplugs.com/products/performan...plicers.asp?mode=nml

I'm not sure if the coils on the ST are the same, but you can replace the wires on many of the older Japanese coils by pulling the wire forcibly from the coil. The coil has a recessed wire port with a metal spike at the bottom, and sometimes you need to go in there and dig the old wire out with a pick tool. Once you get the wire out then you can install some fresh 7mm copper core wires and new plug caps. Z1 Enterprises sells the supplies including wire by the foot. The entire process is easier than it sounds.

Good luck.

The later ones can be removed by unscrewing the retainer and gland, then fitting 7mm new wire is easy.
I use copper HT wire and non-resistor caps. Taylor leads look cool but are a lot of money for what they are, also mine didn't last long at all.

My GSX11 had moulded in wires too, seems like a really bad design.

Thanks for all the advice. I did try to pull out the wires out of the coils didn't seem like they wanted to come out. But might try again. Thanks again for all the info.

If they are similar to my KZ650-C1 coils they will not come out without wrecking things. Ed

650ed wrote: If they are similar to my KZ650-C1 coils they will not come out without wrecking things. Ed

The early coil wires are not intended to be serviced but I'd try anyway. Worst case you destroy a $25 used coil. Ebay has scads of the things.

Most of these early coils have the wire stuffed down into a recessed pocket like shown in the photo posted above. Worst case the wire will pull apart when you try to extract it, which is fine since you need to dig it out of the pocket anyway. Harbor Freight sells pick tools so you may want to pick some up if you don't already have some and start digging that wire out. Just be careful to not destroy the spike terminal at the bottom of the pocket.

Nessism wrote: I'm not sure if the coils on the ST are the same, but you can replace the wires on many of the older Japanese coils by pulling the wire forcibly from the coil. The coil has a recessed wire port with a metal spike at the bottom, and sometimes you need to go in there and dig the old wire out with a spike tool. Once you get the wire out then you can install some fresh 7mm copper core wires and new plug caps. Z1 Enterprises sells the supplies including wire by the foot. The entire process is easier than it sounds.

Good luck.

I did this with my coils way back when I first got the bike ....... put in Andrews copper wires ....got the stock wires out and the new ones in ok....not sure if I got lucky or not though ........then 4 or 5 years later went with a complete Dyna ign and their coils and soldered reg ends on them.

On some coils, the spike has threads, so you have to unscrew the wires from their sockets.