1982 kz1100 shaft

Checked the input voltage to the coils? It should be the same as the battery voltage. On these older Kawasaki's, it's been dicovered that some of the soldered joints in the switches are crumbling. Open up the right handlebar switch pod and inspect the soldered connections.

The Red or Red/Yellow wire supplies voltage to the ignition coils when the ignition switch is on.

If the joint looks bad, some Rosin flux, and a 25 watt soldering iron will correct the crumbling situation. Just use rubbing alcohol as a flux remover for cleaning.

Would also get new (solid core) Dyna spark plug wires along with the new coils.

Dyna wires come with the boots already attached.
Are relatively inexpensive, and available at Z1 Enterprises.

Good Fortune!

bearshawk wrote: ok guys i got to work on the kz1100 today, turns out there IS spark! i got some new plugs for it and tightened the plug wires on the coils a bit and there is spark to all 4 plugs, now my real problem is the gas tank... it was RUSTY, the PO didnt really understand that rusty tank meant rusty gas... and figured it didnt have good enough spark.. well the spark is fine, the tank is pretty bad... not horrible but it will take some work.

now this thing has bs34's (correct?) from what i have read and i am contemplating just tearing them down, and rebuilding them to the best of my ability and seeing what happens.

i got the bike for 400 bucks and if i can put another 400 or so into it i can easily make money on it at the very least my dad will buy it from me for a small profit.

how tough are the bs34s to rebuild? i have only done vm26's and smoothbores before so this will be a new experience.

i also got a motion pro carb synch tool with the bike along with the clymer manual.

any help would be great, ill get some pictures up asap

Download the service manual in my signature, it will cover The BS34 Carbs, also go here to Filebase for some help: www.kzrider.com/filebase/doc_download/50...retorrebuildtutorial
As long as your Diaphragms are good, then carefully inspect the Float Needle and Seats. You should be able to go through them without any huge expense. I do recommend the rebuild kits, as it will give you new needle and seats for the Float valves as well as gaskets, but you may be able to get by.

i have rebuild the carbs, i took them completely down and spent hours dipping each one in cleaner and using compressed air and spray cleaner. they are extremely clean... but i cant tell if the issue is no fuel. or not enough spark... there IS spark to all 4 cylinders. but the spark just doesnt look strong at all

@Mfolks, i dont quite understand where to take the readings with the multimeter... i have one and i tried using your directions from the previous posting figure it out but i had no luck...

is your battery fully charged?

So what happens when you take a plug out, after trying to start, is it Wet with Fuel? Or Dry?
Have you tried to add a small amount of fuel to the spark plug holes, or the other, Ether? backfires? Or just Nothing, but wet plugs?

i have not taken the plugs out after trying to start it... right away at least, but they have been dry every time... i was planning on getting some ether tomorrow and giving it a try...can i play around with starting it with the airbox OUT? will it start up with it off?

gengomerpyle wrote: is your battery fully charged?

battery was fully charged this morning when i started trying to start it, has a little less luster now, but its on the trickle charger as we speak

bearshawk wrote: i have not taken the plugs out after trying to start it... right away at least, but they have been dry every time... i was planning on getting some ether tomorrow and giving it a try...can i play around with starting it with the airbox OUT? will it start up with it off?

it will do something. If you have the choke/ Enricher on full, and the carbs are straight, then it should run. but if you give it much throttle it will more than likely die without the Airbox and boots. If you use Ether just shoot it in the Box. Otherwise you could add Gasoline a couple of ways. Down the plug holes, or into the Vacuum ports on the Manifolds/ carb holders.

MFolks wrote: Checked the input voltage to the coils? It should be the same as the battery voltage....

This is important.

What are the voltage measurements??

Good Fortune!

ok that will allow me to figure out wether i need to pull the carbs and see whats going on.
@patton i dont know where to start with doing this i read Mfolks reply and i couldn't figure out where to begin. does the key need to be in the on position? do i take the multimeter and put 1 needle on each side of the coil?

If you download the manual in my signature it would help you a lot, it has all the tests for the Ignition system as well as carb repair.