New list me Spectre 1100 - IGNITION SYSTEM NEEDED

Quick intro: Bike rider for 40-years (Kawasaki, Ossa, BMW) and back into biking now that I have found my desired bike, a 1982 Spectre 1100. Purchased it this week, and want to do a COMPLETE maintenance of it... it currently runs, and once the deal is closed, I'll be driving it back from upstate NY to upstate NJ.

It has new battery, and new tires, was started and rode occassionally, starts and runs fine, but being this old I expect problems (which I plan to head off during my upcoming maintenance of it). Current owner rescued it from storage drove it very little, and now has back problems, so he sold it to me.

Knowing all the new technology (since I owned my 750 Spectre in 1985) I need the following information for some MAIL ORDER PERFORMANCE STORES and STOCK PARTS WAREHOUSE,

I also need information on the following items that I want to immediately update: IGNITION SYSTEM, AIR FILTERS, EXHAUST. Yes, I understand I can find all of this in a mail order performance store, but I need to know, what WORKS BEST... especially the IGNITION !

For the price and reliability, the stock ignition is probably best. You may want new coils as they are the part that suffers from age and heat. The best match for the coils would probably be Dyna 2.2 ohm grey coils. If you can find new stock coils that would even be better as they will fit better etc.

Yours is the mechanical-advance, transistorized ignition. Very common and reliable.
The police models used your exact ignition up into the 19990's so you can probably still get the parts.
If the igniter goes out, you can make one easily and for little money.

You can spend a lot more money on a fully programmable ignition, but it will be less reliable and won't really give you any gains.

You can use BuyKawasaki.com to look up part numbers and availability.

Kawasaki mistakenly lists the KZ1100-D1 Spectre for 1982, as a 1000 Spectre in the general listing, but the parts fiche seems to list it correctly. Let's see if this parts diagram comes up. You may have to hit the green arrow for it to display. Google Chrome sometimes messes up the display of the parts fiche. It will sometimes hide the left panel.

www.kawasakiepc.com/SystemSearch_Frames....974&CFTOKEN=57434160

The best place for some stock and aftermarket KZ parts is www.z1enterprises.com .
Dennis Kirk will also have some stuff.
And there are suppliers that will deal with any available stock parts, like PartZilla.

You should put your year and model in your signature so it shows up in your posts so you don't have to specify the bike everytime.
1982 Kz1100-D1 Spectre

For performance parts, I guess try Ape Racing.

THANK YOU. I am going to check, and do all that you say. Your link would not open.

When you say you want to update the air filter do you mean the previous owner stuck pods on it and you want to return to the performance offered by a stock airbox? If so, eBay is your best bet, you will also need to correct the jetting. Otherwise, if you already have the stock airbox and are just looking for the stock air filter element the good news is that it is still available. Partzilla shows a price of $13.98. Ed

ew I imagine the air filter element is obsolete, so I was going to update/upgrade it with after market. If the NOS/original elements are still out there, do you think the make a washable element ?

K&N makes a washable filter element. I'm not sure if it changes airflow enough to require rejetting though

loudhvx wrote:
www.kawasakiepc.com/SystemSearch_Frames....974&CFTOKEN=57434160

www.z1enterprises.com .

Do those links not work?

They both work on my computer, but that may be due to a cookie or pop-up setting etc. Like I said, you may have to click on the green arrow if the parts drill down doesn't appear.

Someone, likely Patton, has instructions for looking up parts on the Kawasaki website. But on the 1982 listing it says Kz1000 Spectre. If you click on that, it gives you the Kz1100 Spectre.

The Z1 link is OK, but not the parts site. No biggy, I'll find out how to log into it some other way.

Spectre 1100 wrote: ew I imagine the air filter element is obsolete, so I was going to update/upgrade it with after market. If the NOS/original elements are still out there, do you think the make a washable element ?

You may be able to find a K&N washable element, but why bother? Considering that the air filter usually will only need to be replaced about every 10,000 miles I wouldn't think the much higher price of a K&N filter ($56.00 vs. $13.98) would justify it. At that price difference, you would need to ride 40,000 miles on the K&N just to break even compared to replacing the Kawasaki filter every 10,000 miles. Also, you may need to fiddle with jetting changes and spend $$ on jets, etc. if the K&N air flow is different than that of the stock filter. Considering how low the price is, I would definitely stick with the stock filter. Ed

You have some valid points, but I will also have to look at microns that can pass on both. I used to sell AMSOIL a while back, and they sold me on their micron terst of what passed, what didn't and how it affected the internal combustion engines.