Igniter bad?

Yesterday on my way home my bike dumped me... I've had a randon issue with losing spark on one of my coils, but it usually cleared itself up quickly. I was thinking a short somewhere was the issue.

Yesterday it started again and I decided to see if I could locate the issue and pulled over. I left the engine running and removed the side cover. About that time the engine died and wouldn't restart.

I got the bike home and did some testing. My Clymer says to apply voltage to the pickup coils pins and I should get spark. I didn't. I did apply a negative voltage to one of the negative lines going to the ignition coil an got a spark. I made sure I was getting volage to the igniter.

Everything seems to point to the igniter. I plan on buying one, but wanted to make sure I didn't need something else. Can anyone think of something I'm missing?

This is on a 81 KZ750 LTD.

Thanks!
James

If the igniter is dying/dead, it should kill spark to both coils not just one.
The igniter on my GPz550 would die on me when it would get extremely hot outside. Upon trying to retsrat my bike before everything had a chance to cool down, the bike would crank over about 10 revolutions and then backfire LOUDLY and shoot a 4' blue flame out of the exhaust pipe - it made everyone within a 5 block radius jump! :evil:

Sounds more like the pick-up coils/advancer, or the coil that is cutting out is suspect.

Check all wiring and connections first.
Often times it's simply a loose/corroded connection or damaged wire(s) causing the problem.

Post edited by: RetroRiceRocketRider, at: 2007/05/26 12:08

Both are dead now. In the beginning I thought it was a wiring issue becasue it was only one and was random. Yesterday both died.

The wiring on the bike is in poor shape. I need to go through it all... Yesterday I made sure the igniter had power, but it still wouldn't fire. I also tryed applying power to the pickup leads as the clymer says but still nothing.

I called a local shop/salavge yard to see if he had one. He said he could order it for $640!!
:ohmy:

Thats damn near what I paid for the bike... Found a couple other salvage yards and they are looking to see if they have one. If not, I'll be ebaying!

New ignoters are a wicked price. You could make one - if you need to - for a lot less. See this thread

kzrider.com/archive/viewthread.php?tid=27518#pid240976

Someone may come by and suggest a test for the igniter. I would suggest that you first check all the wiring and connections. I had battery acid corrode an igniter connection once and it drove me nuts thinking the igniter was fried.

Post edited by: JR, at: 2007/05/26 13:48

JR wrote:

New ignoters are a wicked price. You could make one - if you need to - for a lot less. See this thread

kzrider.com/archive/viewthread.php?tid=27518#pid240976

Someone may come by and suggest a test for the igniter. I would suggest that you first check all the wiring and connections. I had battery acid corrode an igniter connection once and it drove me nuts thinking the igniter was fried.<br><br>Post edited by: JR, at: 2007/05/26 13:48

Thanks!
I am going to try to make one of these this weekend!

loudhvx is an electrical genius and lucky for us a member here.

Check out his own site and you can see a "how to" with photos.

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZgmHEImod.html

If my ignoter ever bites the dust then this is what I'll be doing.

JR wrote:

loudhvx is an electrical genius and lucky for us a member here.

Check out his own site and you can see a "how to" with photos.

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZgmHEImod.html

If my ignoter ever bites the dust then this is what I'll be doing.

It worked! I now have a running bike. It seemed to start much faster and threw a nice blue spark when I had the plugs out testing.

My set up doesn't look as nice as his. I am going to secure it down a little better tomorrow. Over all I am very happy!! Total price was right at $50. The HEI ignitors were $17 each. I spent $14 at Radio Shack but bought some other stuff like 2 heatsinks, solder, and a PC board to mount the stuff on.

Thanks for the link! I can get back to riding my bike now!!


I have a question.
Why couldn't I have used one igniter for both coils? Is the timing to close for this to work?

Got my bike back together and all is well. Actually runs a little better now. I had a slight miss before at normal cuising that appears to be gone.
After a 1000 miles or so I'll post back about how its doing.


As of right now all appears to be great!

Cool, I'm glad it worked.

One ignitor for two coils really wouldn't work. There are timing issues, reduced dwell issues, unbalanced load in the coils, and probably some other problems I can't think of off the top of my head.

loudhvx wrote:

Cool, I'm glad it worked.

One ignitor for two coils really wouldn't work. There are timing issues, reduced dwell issues, unbalanced load in the coils, and probably some other problems I can't think of off the top of my head.

Thanks for posting the info online. It got me back on the road much quicker than buying one off ebay or trying to find one from a salvage yard. I have a one off ebay on the way that I bought before I saw the replies to this post. I'll use it as a spare after I test it.

Thanks again!
James