Spark Plugs and Wires

Saki: I plan on putting a Dyna S system on the bike and redo the wiring but that project has to wait for a little while. The wires are an easy, cheap job that may help out a tiny bit.

One of the caps does not match the other three. I'm really not sure how old the cables are or what they have been put through. Mostly just changing them to remove them from equation.

Most of the available plug caps come with some resistor in then. I try to find the lowest resistor value and I get the plain B8ES plugs and have been doing that for years. No problem

Further question. I have seen Spark plug wire crimpers. From my experience on my bike, any connections were just twist on. Can someone explain what these crimpers are for and if I have been doing something wrong on my bike?

kz750saskatoon wrote:

Further question. I have seen Spark plug wire crimpers. From my experience on my bike, any connections were just twist on. Can someone explain what these crimpers are for and if I have been doing something wrong on my bike?

For some info, click > www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=2068

Good Fortune!

The resistor can be in one of 3 places like Otakar mentioned (cap or plug or wire). But I don't think it reduces the RF enough to justify using two or more of the three.

The RF generated won't likely affect any of the stock electronics on the bike, but they can affect modern digital electronics. This can be a problem during maintenance. It can make voltmeters go haywire and may affect digital tachometers and even timing lights. (And of course radios
as Steell mentioned.)

My friend with an RD400 has no resistors, and we can only use an analog voltmeter on his bike. His bike made my Fluke meter essentially shut down. Funny, the $4.99 Chinese analog meter saved the day (but it sucks for everything else).

I like the cell jammer idea. I would love an EMP device I could focus at cell phones in cars.

Patton wrote:

kz750saskatoon wrote:

Further question. I have seen Spark plug wire crimpers. From my experience on my bike, any connections were just twist on. Can someone explain what these crimpers are for and if I have been doing something wrong on my bike?

For some info, click > www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=2068

Good Fortune!

Right, I had seen things very similar on various sites. I guess my question was do the wires need to be crimped on these bikes. As I mentioned I believe they were just "screwed" on. By that I mean the boots had a little screw looking thing in them. I'll check my bike again to make sure. Obviously crimping is the better way to do it? A short walkthrough (on a V8 car engine) had him crimping only on the distributor cap side. Should the boots be crimped as well?

kz750saskatoon wrote:

...question was do the wires need to be crimped on these bikes. As I mentioned I believe they were just "screwed" on. By that I mean the boots had a little screw looking thing in them...Should the boots be crimped as well?

The screw-on caps thread into the plug wire core without any crimping needed.

Where end of the plug wire has become frayed and frazzled, it's okay to snip it back a bit to get a fresh end to screw the cap into for a better and tighten connection.

Before snipping, assure that the plug wire is long enough to continue affording necessary reach to the spark plug.

Many oem Kawasaki coils have the plug wires permanently built into the coil, whereby only the spark plug end is involved with a connection, being where the plug wire attaches to the plug cap.

On aftermarket coils such as Dyna, a fitting is attached to end of the plug wire that pushes into the coil. See image below. These type fittings are often crimped onto the plug wire. The attachment may often be satisfactorily accomplished without needing the crimping tool.

Good Fortune!

Like you said, the factory ones have a spike in the caps that sort of screw into the wires.

When you get modern wires, you'll need the crimpers, most likely. Modern setups will use resistor wire and simple metal ends that crimped on and rubber boots which slide over the crimps.

Ouch! I'm a spammer who got caught, zapped, and site-banned.