No spark, need help!

Hi all!

Let me start by saying I'm new to working on engines in any capacity, but I've had a cursory understanding for awhile.

So I picked up a 1981 KZ440-B last week, and I was troubleshooting it all weekend. After charging the battery, it turns over (woo!), but after further testing, I found that the spark plugs don't spark. I bought brand new plugs, put them in and had the same fate, no spark. I have ordered a new ignition coil, but I'm not entirely sure that that's the underlying issue.

I've tested the ignition coil secondary circuit (measured at 14.3 kOhms) to ground on the bike and don't get a voltage while turning over, nor does the lead spark to ground. I tested the primary circuit and found the resistance to be about 6 Ohms. I'm not sure how to definitively test the pickup leads though, the yellow lead reads 11.4V to ground and the black lead reads 0V to ground.

I don't know how to further test the pickup leads though, so any help would be appreciated!

-Ben

How to test your pickup.

Hi Bman,
Grab your meter
AC Voltage
Disconnect the pickup.
Put a probe on each wire coming out of the pickup.
Hit the start button on the motor.
You should get an reading on the meter as the engine rotates.
Probably around 4 volts AC.
This is Lou's territory. He may chime in on what kind of voltage you will see from the pickup at cranking rpm.

Scirocco, I'm not sure where the pickup is on this bike, as it would turn out. Any image I can find has a small box that I can't seem to find. Here's an image of what I have under that CD-sized cover. I've cleaned the contact breaker points and the shaft. The white lead in the bottom goes directly to the ignition coil.

F64, when I bridged the two leads that go into the ignition coil using the ACV readout on my meter, I don't get any reading.

Is there something I'm missing here?

You have points.
No pickup


Rotate the engine counter clockwise with a wrench till the points are closed and touching
Grab your meter.
Bike ignition on/ engine not running
meter on DC V
red meter probe on battery positive post(the post will be the metal part of the battery that the cable attaches to)
black meter probe on battery negative post
Note voltage

move your red meter probe to the coil's positive terminal
Note voltage

move the red meter probe to the coil's negative terminal
Note voltage

rotate the engine counter clockwise with a wrench till the points are open at their widest
red meter probe to coil's negative terminal
Note voltage

Turn off the bike--coils will overheat if left on too long

The gap between the point contacts at their widest should be between 3 and 4 US dollar bills thick.
.3mm-.4mm

i included a picture of the points. The contacts have arrows pointing to them.
photo: www.ebay.com/usr/retro-motorcycles?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Ok, here's the voltages:

Battery Voltage: 12.56V

Contacts Closed:

Coil Pos to gnd: 11.09V

Coil Neg. to gnd: 11.08V

Contacts open:

Coil Neg to gnd: 11.08V

So this leads me to believe that the contact points might not actually be coming together?

You have a break in your points line somewhere between the coil and your points contacts.
And you have a big voltage drop in your wiring. Could be negative wiring or positive. We'll figure that out later.

Ok,
Let's figure out your points line first.
What I'm going to do is have you put your black probe on the negative post of the battery and you are going to take the red probe starting at the negative terminal of the coil and meter along the points wire back to the points till you find close to zero(0) volts.. At that point, you fill find your problem. That's the synopsis. This has to be done with the circuit completed and on.
ok, let's do this

points closed
bike ignition on/engine not running
meter DC V
Black meter probe--negative battery post
Red meter probe---on the points terminal screw(red arrow)
Note voltage

Turn off ignition

If you find zero(0) volts here. then you have a break in the white wire from that terminal to the negative terminal on the coil.
You will have to probe back toward the coil's negative terminal along the white wire. Once you see the 11.09 V, you have found your break.
If you see 11.09 V at the terminal screw then you have to work in the other direction (toward the actual point contact) to see what is broken. Once you find zero(0) you found the problem.
There is a possibility, as you mentioned, that the points' contacts are not touching when closed. If that is the case, your voltage at the terminal screw will be 11.09v and you won't find zero(0) volts till you get to the contact at the green arrow.


photo:Bmanc2000

So after a bit of fiddling with cleaning the contact points, I got the plugs to spark! The bike still doesn't run though, any idea how to troubleshoot that? May have something to do with the timing I screwed up on the way to get it to spark (oops)

Ok, let's give your timing a shot.
I'm better with electrical but we can do this.


You have to set your points gap first.
.3mm feeler gauge.
Rotate the crank counter clockwise till the points are at their widest opening.
Check the gap--it should be .3mm
If not, slightly loosen the screw indicated by the green arrow.
The pink arrows indicate where you can put a slotted screwdriver to pry open or closed the points' contacts.
Insert the feeler gauge between the contacts.
Adjust points and tighten screw.

Static Timing

Look through the hole indicated by the orange arrow.
There will be a line inside the hole at the top(indicated by the short green line).
As you rotate the crank counter clockwise look inside that hole. You will eventually see an "F" with a line right before it.(black and white photo attached)
Rotate the engine till the F line aligns with the mark (green line) above it.
slightly loosen the 3 screws(pink circles)
meter on ohms
engine and ignition off
one probe clamped on the terminal with the green circle
the other probe clamped to the points housing(light blue circle)
What you want is for the meter to go from 0 ohms to Open when the F mark lines up with the green line.
You will rotate the points plate till the meter reads "open circuit". Use a slotted screwdriver on the pry points in the green box to rotate the plate.
Tighten screws in pink circles down
Rotate crank counter clockwise and watch meter to verify points open exactly at the F mark.
Readjust the points until you get the meter to change exactly when they line up.

We still need to figure out your voltage drop at the coils. You may have to do the relay modification as well. Pretty easy.

Nice job F64. I’ve never done timing with a digital meter, only analog. If the OP has analog it’s the same procedure but you watch the needle to start to twitch. That’s the point when they start to open.

If not know or mentioned only rotate the engine with the 17mm nut and not the advancer bolt.see red arrow

So I did the static timing, poured some gas in the cylinders and it came to life for a second! I think I can sort it from here it's just tracing the fuel/air line back and making sure it's getting fuel to the cylinders as well as getting new fuel. Right?

Fuel, air, spark.. That's it.
As long as the carburetors are clean and adjusted properly and fuel supply is good.
Did the bike sit for a long time before you bought it?