KZ550 no start *Updated*

The pickup coil plate. All three screws were rusted and had stripped screw heads. It took me an hour to remove all three. One of my screw extractors snapped inside one of the screws.

Much of the stainless hardware on this bike is rusted.

Is there a separate vacuum nipple for the petcock, whereby all four carb holder nipples remain plugged?
If so, such nipple is sometimes mistaken as a vent nipple.


If using a vacuum petcock, and regardless of which vacuum nipple is otherwise used to supply vacuum to the petcock, could test run with petcock in Prime position, and all vacuum nipples plugged.
This would rule out a vacuum leak through the petcock or petcock hose.

Good Fortune!

I cleaned and lubricated the advancer. Now I cannot get this to start at all.

Patton, I have plugged that vacuum line to the petcock

Loudhvx, my current compression tester lacks the proper adapter. I ran some tests on the ignition system.

Tested for spark, and I have no spark on any cylinder.


Took a multimeter to the ignition system today, followed the instructions on page 299-302 of my Kawasaki Service Manual '79-'82 KZ400-500-550.

My pickup coils passed a ohm test. Pickup Coil 1-4 has 427 ohms. Pickup Coil 2-3 has 429 ohms. One of the magnets came out in two pieces, neatly broken at the inspection window.

Next on this flow chart is voltage measurements, and ohm measurements of the Igniter.

In order of this chart -

Wiring Inspection
At 4 pin connector for the ignition coils
Meter + Yellow/Red, Black, or Green - Yellow/Red 10.22 volts, Black 10.10 volts, Green 9.4 volts.

At 4 pin connector for the pick-up coils
Meter + Black, Blue, Yellow, Red - Black no voltage, Blue .99 volts, Yellow no voltage, Red .97 volts.


IC Ignitor out of Circuit Test
At 4 pin connector for the ignition coils
Meter + Black/Yellow
Meter - Black or Green - Between Black and Black/Yellow infinity resistance. Between Green and Black/Yellow infinity resistance

Meter + Black or Green
Meter - Black/Yellow - Between Black and Black/Yellow infinity resistance. Between Green and Black/Yellow infinity resistance.

Meter + Yellow/Red
Meter - Black/Yellow - 1067 ohms.

Meter + Black/Yellow
Meter - Yellow/Red - 1070 ohms.

At 4 pin connector for the pick-up coils
Meter + Blue
Meter - Black - Infinity resistance

Meter + Red
Meter - Yellow - Infinity resistance

Meter + Black
Meter - Blue - Infinity resistance

Meter + Yellow
Meter - Red - Infinity resistance


I also tested the Ignition Coils. Secondary resistance includes the spark plug wires.

Coil 1-4 - Primary resistance 2.4 ohms, Secondary resistance 21.15K ohms, 10.95 volts at coil
Coil 2-3 - Primary resistance 2.3 ohms, Secondary resistance 12.31K ohms, 10.94 volts at coil


Even though my pickup coils are good they are still bad because of the broken magnet. It appears I have some general wiring issues, a weak coil, and the Ignitor is bad. I am undecided right now, I have couple choices to make. I buy a Dyna pickup set, take this thing to the shop, or sell it. I enjoy riding motorcycles more then repairing them.

If it was running before you cleaned the advancer. I suspect you assembled it 180 degrees out. So now the 1-4 pick up coil, which should be the left, or rear, as you look at the pickup coils,does not have the rotor pointing to it when 1-4 are on TDC. It would be pointing to 2-3 instead. Easy to check. Pull #4 plug, and rotate the engine so the 1-4 "T" mark is aligned. Check that piston is at TDC, then check that the rotor is pointed to the left/ rear.
Picture of broken magnet?

The ignition timing is correct. Triple checked. Even if the timing was 180* off I would still get a spark. I have no spark at all.

The broken magnet.

That broken magnet is not a problem, as long as you put it, and all of the other magnets, back together the right way. Put the broken magnet in place and the plates and screws should hold it together. The magnetism will tend to want to push the broken pieces apart. You just have to hold them together until you get the screws in.

Make sure to clean all of the parts sothere are no metal shavings anywhere. The shavings will diminish the magnetism. Use masking tape to pull the shavings off of the magnets and other parts.

It is critical to get the north and south poles correct when you lay down the magnets.

Also 4 of the screws are brass, and the rest are steel. Make sure the brass ones are in the right place. You need a JIS screwdriver, not a philips. You can make a #1 philips work on JIS screws by grinding a tiny bit of the tip off. Do a search for that.

Here's a link for checking the magnet's polarity and screws.
home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/Ignitio.../PickupAndRotor.html

Loudhvx,

I followed your instructions when I pulled the pickup/advance apart. Advance cam faces TEC on the advance plate. Pickup coils produce a positive voltage when a screwdriver moves toward, negative when moved away. I saw an average of 5 millivolts when moved toward.

BTW your site is very informative. Thank you.

When you tested for spark, you should only remove one plug wire at a time, so the other wire can still complete the loop. If not, the igniter or coil can get damaged.

Or another way to test is to pull both plug wires from the same coil, then bring them together with a small piece of metal in each plug boot. The spark should jump from one plug wire to the other.

To simulate a pickup signal, you might be able to just use a 1.5v battery (though I have not tried this). On the IC igniter, connect the negative of the battery to the blue pickup wire, and briefly connect the positive to the black pickup wire. That should create a spark on the 1-4 circuit, that is the coil connected to the igniter's black coil wire.

It is strange it went from running to no spark at all.

I realize you probably already checked this, but here's a rundown on voltages using the battery ground as a reference (black meter lead on battery negative post).


Not running:

Coils:
Yellow/red wire 12v
Black wire 12v
Green wire 12v

Igniter:
Large Yellow/red wire 12v
Large black/yellow wire 0v
Large black wire 12v
Large green wire 12v

With a 1.5v battery connected to the blue and black pickup wires (black to +, blue to -):
Coils:
Yellow/red wire 12v
Black wire approx 1v or 2v
Green wire 12v

Igniter:
Large Yellow/red wire 12v
Large black/yellow wire 0v
Large black wire approx 1v or 2v
Large green wire 12v

Ya, but remember how it was running. It didn't go from running great to no spark; it went from taking half an hour of cranking and almost killing the battery to finally start only to run at 5000 rpm or higher.

I shall probe the pickups, coils and ignitor some more. Personally, I believe I have an intermittently bad Ignitor based on my probes as followed from the FSM.

That is possible. All of the ones I've seen go bad (not many) went from working 100% to 0% all at once. Intermittent is far more annoying.

I'm sure you probably saw the link to making an igniter in my sig... just hate to see you spend money if it's not the problem... but sometimes losing a little money is better than losing a bunch of time.

loudhvx wrote: That is possible. All of the ones I've seen go bad (not many) went from working 100% to 0% all at once. Intermittent is far more annoying.

I'm sure you probably saw the link to making an igniter in my sig... just hate to see you spend money if it's not the problem... but sometimes losing a little money is better than losing a bunch of time.

Exactly. That is why I am trying to diagnoise what has failed.