1978 kz400 points to electronic ignition swap.

I'm new to this forum and I've had many bikes over the years. I know much more about Yamaha viragos and Harley's. I'm wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction on how to upgrade the ignition from points to electronic. It was my girl's father's bike and that's what we think will help. Other than that the bike is in pretty great shape.

I was going to recommend a Dyna S but it looks Dyna Tech does't even offer the Dyna S for metric cruisers any more just the Dyna 3000.
here is their # if you want to call and see it a Dyna S will work, if so you can still buy them on eBay new and used.

What does your spark look like?
Is it white or blue?


.

I think you can use the electronic ignition from an 81-on KZ440.
needed parts: pulsing coil, timing advancer & ignition coil. I would get a new ign. coil.
The pulsing coil & ign coil from an 82-84 KZ750-Twin can also be used.

Aftermarket electronic ignition system: 7thgeardesigns.com .
kz400.createforumhosting.com --- 7thGearDesigns Electronic Ignition for '75 KZ400
The guy who came up with the ignition is known as KZJim on the various forums. Someone posted an installation topic which kinda indicated that the install was quite a bit of work, but it's possible improvements have been made since then (2008). Not sure if it's still available.

I think you can also use 1/2 of a Dyna S. I thought there were a few topics on that in the Kz400twins forum.

Using the Dyna S would require a Dyna S from another model, but I forget which one, possibly the one for the 550/650750. And the Dyna S ignition Rotor which should fit the stock advancer mechanism. You can use the old coil, but you will probably want to upgrade that to a new, 3-ohm coil. ("New" being the key word there.)

And if you just get a brand new set of points, that are good quality (many from China are terrible), you could use the points as a trigger for a GM igniter. That will eliminate wear at the points so they won't have to be adjusted for years (just cleaned by sliding a rag through them), and will allow you to use a more energetic coil. The igniter only costs about $20, and the other parts are a dollar or two.

home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/Ignitio...heiModForPoints.html