Anyone have this happen?

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Mac,

I am interested to find out what the problem was with your losing power situation. I have just picked up a '79 KZ1000ST and seems to be doing the same. Bogs down, can't get over 80km/hr.

Thanks

David

PS Nice bike. any larger pictures? what fairing do you have?

Oops! Just worked out how this site functions and saw your last posting. Thanks

Yo !

fairing is called a "Viper " fairing and is pretty cheap ( 65 bucks) from place called Parts N More out of ontario I believe. I think it suits bike well but doesn't do shit to protect you. Just looks kind of cool. I will paint it same colour as bike if/when I ever find the "secret" kawasaki paint codes for my bike (Luminous Red). Word on street is they are locked in a vault in Siberia?

Going to full Dyna Ignition and coils was my cure.(From Z1 Enterprises). I think my pickup coil or IC ignitor was culprit and both are gone now and bike runs fine. I just need to learn how to sync my carbs and move needle a notch and I think it will be complete. Have had valves done twice now too and I think they will require adjustment quite often on these oldies to keep em running at peak levels. Maybe I'm wrong on that but I get feeling they require it. Yet another thing I need to self teach to save myself from dumping hundreds and thousands more into bike over time.
just put on new Michelins and wow what a diff new rubber makes. the olds ones (spitfires)were ancient and hard as rocks, though they did make for some good smoke

later,

macd

An interesting story about ignition coil problems:

Kawasaki Ignition coil mystery (taken from the Kawasaki.org website)

Here’s one for you to look into. Make doubly damn sure your coils are good cold as well as hot. Also, and this one eluded me for nearly a year and after spending lots of unnecessary money, I found the cause quite by accident! I replaced my factory coils with the Dyna coils she ran like a monster until she warmed up! After cleaning the plug wire terminals I realized the coil on the left side which fires 1 & 4 had a small black smudge right where the wire exited the coil terminal.

The plug wire terminal itself (the metal tang) stuck out beyond the end of the coil terminal socket! Long story short, the coil was firing right into the bottom of the tank!" The physical make-up of the Dyna coils is quite different than the factory coils and that alone is enough cause all kinds of problems. Take a look at the ground wire connections from the battery to the engine and make sure they're good and clean. Also make sure the pin connectors for the Regulator and the Igniter are clean and dry.

Mine were holding water! After cleaning and using a bit too much "dielectric" grease on the pin connectors, they held water after washing the bike! Those coils have to be grounded and grounded good on solid steel mounts that are cleanly grounded into the frame. Check the motor mounts and make sure they too are clean and providing optimum frame to motor grounds.

The bike would run great until warming up or a few miles down the road and then start getting that hollow sound like a valve hanging open and roll out of the throttle and she seemed ok, roll on the throttle and intermittent backfires and that hollow sound with little power! I put under all the tests in the shop "with the tank on the bench" and everything kept checking good! Throw the tank on and take her out, and she'd fall right on her face! I fixed the problem permanently this spring by shimming the coils 1/2" in on their mounts using stainless steel washers. And just to make sure, I added 5/16" PVC fuel line insulators to the plug wires where they exit the coils. Any uninsulated or exposed metal protruding beyond the coils plug wire socket terminal is a misfire waiting to happen!

Problems occurring after warm up and after the bike has been run can be quite difficult to nail down! IC Igniters, Regulators, coils, and the pick up coils at the Ignition Advance mechanism can all develop a hairline cracks that allow function when cool and break connection when hot! Static testing cold and hot will reveal the possibility of one of these cracks. Test the coils cold and and after warming them in an oven set at 180 degrees. Test the Igniter the same way but at lower oven temps. If you need the test specs let me know. One of the ways I found my problem was I pulled my #1 plug wire at speed and could see that it wasn’t firing. Now I’m not recommending try this! But if you do, be ready to push it right back on that plug or let that thing go and hit the kill switch! In my case, there was no fire when I knew it was firing when I left the shop.

Haven't had that problem, but good storie,good thought.

I bought these and put them on and found them useful when I was trying to figure out why bike would die when warmed up. Didn`t tell me everything but you can look at a glance to see if all cylinders are firing and or which ones are not to determine which coil is shutting off or bad wire etc.
Bonus is now that ignition problems are solved the lights look pretty cool esp at nite.

www.jcwhitney.com/flashing-spark-plug-ca...erid=d10293y1979u0j3

Bike appears to run the same with these as with my regular old NGK plug caps.
Not sure if these are resistor caps or not.
I run now with copper wires, these caps and B8ES plugs.

steve

Thanks Steve. I will get some of these. Will help to diagnose. Drove yesterday but still couldn't get over 4000rpm. Broke down when seemed to leave me with just one cylinder firing. Am about to go under the tank which is a big step for this 'teacher who does nothing practical'. I have a broken kill switch so will start there and then see if I have old school or dyna ignition. These posts have given me the courage to start but am sure I will have many questions. Thanks all for the input.

mac0239 wrote: I bought these and put them on and found them useful when I was trying to figure out why bike would die when warmed up. Didn`t tell me everything but you can look at a glance to see if all cylinders are firing and or which ones are not to determine which coil is shutting off or bad wire etc. Bonus is now that ignition problems are solved the lights look pretty cool esp at nite.
www.jcwhitney.com/flashing-spark-plug-ca...erid=d10293y1979u0j3
Bike appears to run the same with these as with my regular old NGK plug caps.
Not sure if these are resistor caps or not.
I run now with copper wires, these caps and B8ES plugs....

The flashing spark plug caps are available in blue, yellow or red, and in bends of 90°, 120°, or straight.
But the ads don't include information as to any resistance values through the cap.

Would suspect the flashing shows high intensity voltage getting to and through the cap, but doesn't assure the plug tip is sparking inside the combustion chamber (i.e., cap may be flashing while plug isn't sparking).
This would be akin to holding the plug wire away from the top of the installed plug (without a cap), and watch the spark jump the gap from the wire to the plug, although the plug may be dead as a doornail.

Would be interesting to know the resistance through the cap, measured with an ohmmeter.

It's a mystery to me why sometimes a plug seems to spark just fine until installed, and then won't fire under compression.

Good Fortune!

So kill switch not connected nor on/off lights. Just 4 wires connected to start button (2 yellow, 1 yellow/red and one black)

Checked battery next and noticed one double/splitter without a wire (left in photo). Battery is a new 20amp even though my book says 16amp needed.

Comments? Baby steps please!

While I was trying to solve my issues (with awesome help from guys like Patton, Mfolks etc) i slapped these on and sure enough when my bike would suddenly start dying I would pull over and see that Cylinders 1 & 4 were not flashing and 2 and 3 were. Could have done same test by pulling caps off and watching for spark jumping to plug. Flashers were just more convenient. I reversed my coils and next time it happened the caps stopped flashing on 1 & 4 again thus telling me it wasn't coils but my pickup or IC ignitor. Replaced pickup (which I learned from patton eliminates IC ignitor) and never had the issue re-appear.
Bike was doing similar stuff as your, when it would happen I could not rev it up or get over 30-40mph.

So the caps will help problem solve but you can save yourself $26 and just pull caps off one at time and look for spark when it happens to get same info.
( but like I said the flash caps are pretty cool in dark !!)

steve

My bike had a Dyna III ignition on it when I bought it and when it went south it did the same thing. It would randomly drop cylinders. At one point it running on 1 cylinder. I swapped the Dyna III for a Dyna S that came in the deal and problem solved.