1980 KZ1000E ST project

What? 6v to the coil?
Hmmm... does not sound right...
Put the + lead to the positive, and - lead to true ground. You are probably reading voltage drop through the Igniter.
Anyhow, replacing the loom is just crazy talk. Just make sure your connections are good. There are only two cables going into the ignition circuit, Red comes from battery +, Black/Yellow is ground.
If all checks out, then your pulser or igniter are at fault... plug and play my friend!

Common sense I like it :ohmy:

There is a resistor listed in the diagram and perhaps can't be used with dyna 3.0 ohm coils. I will keep looking now that I have a diagram. Would an igniter short cause the battery short I have? It sure seems to be a straight dead shot to ground.

R

Bet he put in those 3 OHM coils and gave up.
Steve

That's my hunch too Steve. If I had a manual I would check the stock coil ohms. Given direct voltage halving, I am guessing stock is 1.5 Ohms?

R

Kawasaki designed their KZ electronic ignition with less dwell than points (for reasons having to do with signal to noise in the pickup circuits), and thus needed to use "faster" coils than what the points system used. They designed the system around coils with 2.3 ohms resistance. However, they could not get them soon enough. They did not want to use really low resistance coils, but that is probably all that was available at the time. So as a stop-gap measure, until 2.3-ohm coils could be manufactured, Kawasaki used lower (1 or 1.5 ohm ?) resistance coils on their earliest KZ electronic ignitions, and then added the ballast to make up the difference. This is waste of energy, but worked. When the desired 2.3-ohm coils became available, Kawasaki did away with the ballast on later bikes.

You are using 3-ohm coils, which are even slower than the 2.3 ohm coils, so you will definitely want to get rid of the ballast resistor.

If the crank is not turning, the igniter should not be active. The fact that you are reading low voltage on the coil connections means something is active. You should troubleshoot that first. The first step is to remove the green wire and the black wire and re-measure the voltages on the coil. If they are still low, then you have a voltage drop somewhere before the ignition/ballast circuit.

Thanks Louis. Is the ballast a component or an inline resistor? Or is it a ballast and a resistor.I would be dealing with? R

It could be like on my old Ford truck. A resistance wire going to the coil.
Steve

Okay while at lunch I tested the coil power wires for voltage. Coils disconnected, key on, V on bolt coil leads at 11.8

So this system may not have the ballast/resistor anymore? The system also has some discharging going on as I tested the leads before with coils connected and they were at 6v a piece. this coudl have been from the few cold cranks but seems too low for that (3 cranks) This is a good battery operable in another machine. Charged to 100% before today's test.

I looked at the other video when I tested and got 6v, I tested each coil while the other was still connected. Here today, I took both leads off and tested them while both were disconnected.

R

Wow... in car ignition circuits the ballast resistor was hooked into the system as to avoid burning your points...
12v would go to the ignition system only during start with voltage going through the ballast during normal operation.
Electronic ignitions did away with that a long time ago fellas...!

Ed_in_Miami wrote: Wow... in car ignition circuits the ballast resistor was hooked into the system as to avoid burning your points...
12v would go to the ignition system only during start with voltage going through the ballast during normal operation.
Electronic ignitions did away with that a long time ago fellas...!

What's your point? His bike is 35 years old. It has/had a resistor for the purpose of not burning out the transistor.

But with higher resistance coils, he needs to get rid of it if it still exists.

rrsmsw9999 wrote: Thanks Louis. Is the ballast a component or an inline resistor? Or is it a ballast and a resistor.I would be dealing with? R

Often times resistors are called ballast in this application, but it is probably not a true ballast, and is a simple (high power) resistor. A true ballast resistor would increase resistance as it heats up. Standard resistors are designed to try to keep constant resistance across temperature changes.

I'm not sure where it's located, but if you have the tank off, I would expect it somewhere under there in the coil area.

11.8 v is what I would expect when the negative side of both coils is disconnected. That would be both with and without the resistor in circuit. (When there is no current, there is no voltage drop on a resistor.)

So now you need to connect one wire (green or black) at a time a make the same voltage measurements. They should remain near 11.8v. If the voltage drops significantly, then you have an igniter problem or wiring problem, possibly a tach problem if it had electronic tach, and the problem shows up with the black wire.

If I were to go Dyna S, I'd use a relay connected to the kill switch avoiding the old system.
Steve