1981 kz750e coil replacement

Howdy! I just picked up a 1981 kawasaki kz750e motorcycle and one of the coils is bad and i need to replace it. A shop down the road has a universal one for $50. I was just wondering if there is a certain type of coil that is best for these bikes and if i should replace them both at the same time? Also would having a bad coil cause the bike to not want to idle? And one more question if the kill switch is left on "run" instead of off could that drain the battery? Sorry for all these questions on my first post this looks like a great site and i would appreciate any input. Thanks.

as long as the ignition switch is off, the kill switch should not have any effect at all on draining the battery.

COILS: the 750 twins ran a points ignition and a four ohm coil with no ballast resistor. I think your 750E is the four cylinder. If it has the electronic ignition, it used a lower resistance coil like three ohm ballpark give or take a little.

You could drop in a four ohm universal coil with very little (if any) negative effect on performance. Z1 Enterprises sells them for about $36, it's the EMGO coil. I have been running one for about two years, works fine.

If you have one bad coil I would replace them both. They do not age well and cause all kind of various miseries like misfires and rough running.

The dwell is shorter on the electronic ignition models, so I don't think 4 ohms would be a great match for it. It may work, but a 2.2 ohm grey dyna would be a better match. The stock coils is more like 2.3 ohms originally. 3 ohms works ok if it's mostly stock and not a high compression motor.

Using the higher resistance coils will usually have problems at the higher RPMs.

hey i have an '83 kz750 n2 spectre. what coils are good for me? I wanna ramp up performance a bit.

thanks a ton

purls wrote:

hey i have an '83 kz750 n2 spectre. what coils are good for me? I wanna ramp up performance a bit.

thanks a ton

With stock ignition, the gray Dyna 2.2 ohm coils are best suited.

If you are going to increase the compression quite a bit or go turbo, then you may want an MSD CDI system.

Thanks for the info!. Yes my bike is the 4 cylinder and im guessing electronic ignition as well as it doesnt have a kickstart but i probly dont know what im talkn about. So i guess the 2.2 ohm grey dyna coil would be my best choice? Any other options? I just want to make sure i get the right ones as i dont want to buy them twice and im sure things like that can make a big difference in performance. Also where is the best place to buy those coils?

Hi falaker, Did you check the coils out and see if they spark or not? One coil is for the 1 and 4 cyl and one is for the 2 and 3 cyl. Get the manual and do the test they show. Also clean all the connections from the pickups to the coils and batt to the coils. A factory manual is really necessary for these bikes. They are not very expensive, considering the valuable info they contain. Good luck, Bob

Z1 enterprises would be my first choice to get the coils.
www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=1306

But before you get them, make sure you have the stock ignition. The igniter looks like this:

.

Since there are a few threads going I just want to be clear.

For the stock electronic ignition, Dyna 2.2 ohm gray coils.

For Dyna S ignition, Dyna 3-ohm green coils.

You can get away with 3 ohm coils with the stock ignition, but it won't be as ideal of a match as the 2.2 ohm coils.

The Dyna S ignition is not recommended for use with the 2.2 ohm coils. Damage may occur.

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