Starting Issues

Thank you all for your help. I sprayed some carb cleaner in the air intake, hoping it might help. Spend another minute or 2 trying to start it, and then it caught, ran really rough. But I kept at it and got it to idle up. Ran it for about 10 minutes at idle after a couple of minutes at about half throttle. Running pretty smooth. What are some keypoints I might want to check out now taht its running? Before I have the title service register it.

Make sure that its running on all cylinders first.
If you just hover your hand near each exhaust header pipe, you can feel the heat eminating from it, if its running ok.
if you can t feel any heat, use the tap method by very quickly tapping the pipe to see how hot it is. VERY QUICKLY, like your tapping a hot stove, right!

If its running on all four, get some seafoam from NAPA and dump the whole thing in the tank. After a few runs it will start to make an incredible difference.

GL!

Change oil.
Make sure brakes work good.
Tires up with air.
Every bolt tight...
Giver!

I would still replace the plugs. I have a nearly new set of NGKs here at the house somewhere I will send u for the postage if u cant find them locally. I would also spray the carb cleaner as u did a couple more times with the bike running at 2000/3000 rpm.Kawis have a "balance" port in their carbs that is very small and runs at a funny angle to the rest of the carb.Those thing get gunked up and the bike just wont start well or idle.Sounds like u are on the right road.bj

I like using a spray bottle of water to see if all cylinders are working, this way no burns! Water flashes to steam at 212 F.

i replaced the plugs. Found them at a local ATV shop. I think the next venture is dumping the oil and refilling....next pay day. All for plugs are firing, but I will check for heat. SeaFoam is not a bad idea. Same thing, next payday. I am still working on getting my license so I have some time to tinker. Is there a way to change the real signal lights to signal / running? And are there any good places to get parts? I need a new tach. the one I have is shot

I did that Water method of checking. Sure enough, #4 is either not running at all or only some of the time. When I pull the Boot from the Spark wire, there is corrosion in there. Is there an easy way to replace the wire or to I have to replace all 4?

Some kawasaki's have/had replaceable ignition coil wires to the sparkplugs, others were molded into the coils.

Remove the gas tank and see if the coils have removable caps, if they turn, then the wires are replaceable.

7mm sparkplug wires will fit nicely, available from the local car speed shop or from www.z1enterprises.com

Z1 sells Dyna sparkplug wires in two types:

1.A carbon fiber designed to reduce noise on radio's.

2.An insulated copper type for more spark energy.

This will help when you start replacing sparkplug wires and knock the wiring loose:

Ignition Coil Primary And Secondary Wiring

Ignition coils on the 80’s Kz1000,Kz1100’s and Gpz1100’s are wired the same, that is as you sit on the bike, the LEFT ignition coil primary(small wires) are two wires, RED and BLACK. The secondary (or sparkplug wires) got to #1 and #4 sparkplugs.

For the RIGHT ignition coil, the primary wires, again are two wires, RED and GREEN, with the secondary going to #2 and #3.

The RED wire gets it’s voltage from the run/stop switch on the right handlebar switch pod.

The BLACK and GREEN wires connect to the IC Igniter(if the bike has the Kawasaki supplied electronic ignition) it actually gives the coils their grounds to fire the sparkplugs.

Primary(small wires) side of the coils will read between 1.8 to 3.0 ohms.

Secondary(sparkplug wire ports)side of the coil will read between 10.4K to 15.6K ohms.

Keep in mind that the smaller 4’s (650 & 750) may have the wiring reversed, that is the RIGHT coil primary will be two wires, RED and BLACK with the secondary(sparkplugs) going to #1 and #4.

The LEFT coils primary wiring would be again two wires, RED and GREEN, with the secondary(sparkplugs) going to #2 and #3.

These engines have what is known as a “Wasted Spark” that is, a sparkplug will fire during an exhaust stroke. It does no damage and many other motorcycle engines have this design.

How hard would it be to change out the lights to all LEDs?

This was the Golden Thread got my 81 CSR 1000 running :woohoo: