CDI box (IC IGNITOR) 550 ltd

Hello,
I have been reading these forums off and on for several years but this is my first post. I have owned many old kawasaki's over the years and am very knowledgeable, or at least I thought. What is with the IC ignitor? everyone on Ebay wants 100 bucks for an old one and I found a place that has new ones for 200! This must be the most saught after part of the old KZ's anyhow what exactly does it do? i know where it goes but what does it do to the pickup coil signal before it sends it to the coils? is there any way to do without it? a cheap alternative that doesn't involve having an electronics degree, I was able to figure out what all bikes shared the same one as mine but that still means slim pickins now days. One other question, I am almost 100% sure mine is bad, it blows the main fuse when plugged in but I was wondering should there be resistance between the power wire and ground wire (white/red and black/yellow)? I am thinking about trying to remove all the rubber on this ting and try to fiure it out, for 100 bucks its worth messing around with. Anyway any info/ideas or opinions are appreciated. -shane

Courtesy of our resident electronics guru

Homemade GPZ ignition module using GM HEI ignition modules fits KZ 550/650/750/1000/1100, and the twins with a simple mod.
No electronics degree needed

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/

The 83-85 GPz750 and GPz1100 are a little different.

Are you sure it's the IC igniter and not the Regulator/Rectifier? The reg/rec has a white/red wire, but I don't recall the igniter having a white/red. It's far more likely a shorted Reg/Rec would blow fuses rather than the igniter. I'm not saying it's impossible for the igniter to be shorted, but a shorted reg/rec is more common.

yes it is the ignitor, i went thru the wiring and found the short it was in a another location and now i am not blowing fuses. When i said white/red i meant yellow/red i.e. the power wire for the ignitor. I may try that home made one but it looks complicated, i'd hate to mess it up and fry something else. So i played with the ignitor some more and made sure all wires are connected properly and there is no spark at all now on any plug. hmmmm.

Make sure the igniter has a good ground, no ground equals no spark.

Where was the other short? Maybe that fried something, although not very likely since the fuse blew.

Oh and what year are we talking about? I'll post a diagram here so it's easier to see what we are talking about.

I believe the ground wire is connected good, does need to be bolted to the frame to get a spark, currenty un-bolted while i was troubleshooting. The real short was in the kill switch, power wire shorted against the handle bar. fixed it, btw its a 81' 550 LTD "C" model.

The kill switch supplies power to the igniter and coils. Since the kill switch was worked on, we should verify power is getting to the coils and igniter. Can you measure the voltage on the yellow/red wire at the coils? It shoulod be full battery voltage.

The igniter does not need to be bolted to the frame to work. Oh, and what year is the bike?

Courtesy of our resident electronics guru

Homemade GPZ ignition module using GM HEI ignition modules fits KZ 550/650/750/1000/1100, and the twins with a simple mod.
No electronics degree needed

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/

The 83-85 GPz750 and GPz1100 are a little different.
Please note, although no boardcode and smiley buttons are shown, they are still useable

I can personally vouch for this system. I made one for my twin using a bunch of parts i bout from Radio Shack and a Wells DR400 HEI module from an auto parts store. This system makes my sparkplugs light up way brighter and and It is incredibly easy to start. plus if anything should ever fail I can switch back to the old system. The LED light also helps to get the engine timed pretty well. It cost me about 40 bucks but since I now have extra transistors, resistors, diodes, wires, soldering gun and solder (not to mention the experience) I bet I could make a second one for less then half that.

Crap, suddenly that link doesn't work. Hmmm... I know I have a picture of it somewhere If I find it I'll post it on here.

maybe i will give that one a try, does it work with aftermarket coils? i have dyna coils 1.5 ohm.

Becker wrote:

Crap, suddenly that link doesn't work. Hmmm... I know I have a picture of it somewhere If I find it I'll post it on here.

This is the one for the stock electronic pickups.
www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZgmHEImod.html

Becker, it sounds like you made the one for use with points.
Glad it worked for you!
www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZheiModForPoints.html