bad coil? whats next?

so ive been having trouble with bike ever sense i got. which has been about a month. i got the carbs dialed in pretty good and got the bike to run alright. atleast rideable till the end of the summer. but now i have another problem! last night i went to start the bike and it felt odd. like it was only running on one cylinder. well come to find out i started the bike again and let it idle.took the plug wire off on the cylinder i thought wasent firing and there was no change in in idle. so that means im not getting spark correct? im not sure what my next step would be after this on how to fix the problem. any help is appreciated!

Maybe take a volt meter to the coils and see if they're getting 12v? Change plugs for sure; bike could always use new plugs.

Swap the plug on the bad cylinder with one from a good cylinder. That'll tell you if it's the plug.

Also test the resistance on your spark plug wire caps. Remove the cap from the end of the plug wire, set your multi-meter up to measure ohms and put one probe inside the cap (where the spark plug was) and the other probe where the plug wire used to be, you should get about 5k ohms resistance. If not you've got a bad plug cap. I guess you could also just swap the caps around like I suggested for the plug, but it's easy enough to measure the resistance.

If neither the plug itself or the plug cap is the problem then I'd test your coils.

will do..thanks for the help..also are just the plug wires changeable? i have a 79kz750 twin. i found that some are changeable and some arnt but not sure.

That's my ride as well! My plug wires are fixed to the coil, they can't be swapped. But if the coil has been replaced anytime in the last 32 years, you may have something different.

I've heard of kits that let you cut the wires close to the coil (leaving a little nub) and then attach new wires. So long as you don't have a short in that nub, seems like it could work.

Given your description, I don't think you're having a coil problem. I suspect either the plug, plug cap or wire (but I'm still a noob myself, so what do I know?)

I know you tested by pulling the wire off one plug, but have you visually checked for spark?

Here's how I'd approach this:
Visibly verify spark (or lack thereof) on both plugs. Assuming spark on left cylinder and not the right, swap the plugs and test again. If you now have spark on the right and not the left, you've got a bad plug. Replace both.

If nothing changes when you swap the plugs, do the same thing with the plug wire end caps.

If there's still no change, get out your multimeter and test the coils for resistance and voltage (the procedure is the manual).

will do. i cant get to till wed though( my weekend is tuesdays and wednesdays) . i deff will do what u said though. makes perfect sense. i really do appreciate the help.

also one more thing. say it is just the cap. i cant find the caps online any where! on the resistor kinda which isnt good! so then what?

I use these when checking the spark output:
Ignition Systems Testers
www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?pr...ivision=1&category=8
www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?pr...ivision=1&category=8

Try here for sparkplug caps:
www.z1enterprises.com/searchresult.aspx?All=True&KeyWords=ngk

Most Kawasaki's came from the factory with copper sparkplug wires(High Tension Leads for some people)with a resistor in the sparkplug cap for electrical noise supression(the pop and snap heard on radio's and T.V.'s)when the sparkplug fired.

Dyna and others provide either a copper sparkplug wire(leads)or supression wires to reduce the noise. If you go this route, do not run sparkplugs with an "R" in the number like B8RES as this is a resistor sparkplug, so combined with supression sparkplug wires/leads, you may have reduced sparkplug energy.

the plugs i have in right now r ngk b6es so thoes plug caps wouldnt work correct?

Topper wrote: ...(but I'm still a noob myself, so what do I know?)

Yeah! What do you know?!?!

Eeerrr... listen to him - good info! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Peace and good luck.

NGK B6ES sparkplugs are a lot hotter plug than B8ES's are. Most NGK plugs have a removable "Nut" so the sparkplug caps can fit on the "Nut" threads.

The Dyna and Accel sparkplug wires/leads are designed to fit over the "Nut" when it's tightened down on the sparkplug. These do not have any resistors for electrical noise reduction/supression like what came with the bike.

If you luck out and find your ignition coils have replaceable sparkplug wires,the 7mm ones from the local hot rod/speedshop should fit. All you have to do is cut them to the right length as the sparkplug end is molded on the wire/lead.

if im reading what u wrote right then the plugs wires or coil have been replaced because i had to take the nut off the spark plug to fit my plug wires over it