Rainy dayz

Hey everyone. I have a 1980 KZ 750 LTD stock 4 cyl. My bike runs great until it starts raining. After about 10 mins in steady rain it feels and sounds like I'm losing multiple cylinders. I was thinking its the original coils grounding out. Anything I can to cover them or waterproof them? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong part of ignition and it's something else. When bike dries it runs perfect. Thanks for any help

My Goldwing does that when I wash it with a hose I relocated my coils when I did the single carb conversion.

to find out what the culprit is I would use a hose and systematically spray water on it until you can duplicate the problem. it that may tell you where it is grounding or what you may have to shield'

I replaced a plate I removed when I remounted the coils and mine doesnt do it riding in the rain now, only when I spray directly on them.

It really does sound like wet electrics. I rode motorcycles 12 months a year when I lived in Ireland and it rains all the time in Ireland. Make sure your plug caps are a good fit and have the rubber collars at both ends and make sure your connectors under the tank are good. You can spray WD40 over wet coils and plug wires and caps and it will disperse the water. We used to use a spray that would put a coating over the ignition components and seal everything from the elements but ig only lasted a few weeks. I saw a similar spray in an autoparts store recently but cant remember what it was called. WD40 should be worth a try.

Another thing to check is the gasket around the electronic ignition cover and see if water can get in there.

If you have a short front mudguard it will throw water up underneath the tank on the coils. You did say "stock" so I'm assuming you have an airbox but just in case not.... when I had pods I had a really bad day when I got caught in bad rain one day and the bike coughed and spluttered for 50km.

Good luck

Troubleshooting A Wet Motorcycle (Won’t Start/Run)

1. When motorcycles get wet, many things can happen to prevent normal starting and running.

2. Ignition coils, due to their mounting location under the gas tank, can overheat if sufficient air flow is not provided, causing minute cracks for moisture to get in shorting the coil.

3. Sparkplugs wires and caps need to be replaced as the heat from the engine makes the wires(High Tension Leads) get brittle causing the insulation to fail. The caps contain a resistor to limit the RFI(the snap and pop heard on radio’s) that will fail, again from heat/age. They can be checked with a multimeter ,and will test at 5000 ohms.

4. Most Japanese motorcycle electrical connectors are open at the rear, letting in moisture that will collect on the male and female pins/sockets, causing a short, blowing a fuse or creating corrosion limiting current flow.

5.Check the right handlebar switch pod for signs of corrosion or broken wires on the run/stop switch. Some older Kawasaki’s are experiencing broken/crumbled solder joints in switches.

6. I recommend buying a spray can of “De-oxit” electrical contact cleaner/preservative available at Radio Shack Stores in the U.S. or any other electronic supply store. www.deoxit.com is their website.

7. I’d advise not using WD-40 on any electrical connection/fuse clips as it over time becomes a non conductor(more like an insulator).

8. If the popular “Pods” type air filter is used and gets wet, it will act like having the choke on causing a very rich condition. The only repair for wet pods is to remove them and either using an oven set at 250 F, a wet/dry shop vac to vacuum the moisture from the filters, or a air nozzle at low pressure to blow the water away.

9. Use caution when using an air nozzle as at high pressure, the fabric of the filter medium may tear making the filter unusable.

thanks guys. i pulled bike out and started spraying water on componenets. everything looks good except when i sprayed the ignition coils. than bike started missing and shut off. so i pulled tank and looked at coils. they look like they were cracked at one point and a previous owner put some sort off glue on them. apparintly it didnt work. so for now i just try not to ride in rain. bike runs great otherwise so maybe new factory style coils.

My1stKZ750 wrote: ..........so maybe new factory style coils.

Original coils from Kawasaki are expensive. Take a look at Dyna coils from Z1Enterprises.

i checked out Z1 ent. the coils are cheaper than like bike bandit. but they look like they mount different. they look like they mount sideways with the secondary wires facing out. is there room to mount these under the tank. or would i have to make new brackets.?

I am a DYNA fan personally you cant go wrong. they are 130.00 at Z1 E. habve seen used ones sell for nearly that on ebay

My1stKZ750 wrote: i checked out Z1 ent. the coils are cheaper than like bike bandit. but they look like they mount different. they look like they mount sideways with the secondary wires facing out. is there room to mount these under the tank. or would i have to make new brackets.?

Here's an illustration of a typical fitment on Kawasaki large fours with Dyna green coils attached to the stock coil mounting tabs (pic is courtesy of OMR).



The small wires that attach to the two coil primary terminals are held by screws.
The heads of the screws are often very close to the coil mounting spacers, and may short against the spacer.
It's important to insulate the screw head from the spacer, and to assure that the screw head doesn't short against the spacer or anything else.

I have tie wraps serving as insulation around the spacers on KZ900 LTD.




Good Fortune!

Looks great. What about using black liquid tape to insulate? I'm gonna go with Z1 coils.

My1stKZ750 wrote: Looks great. What about using black liquid tape to insulate? I'm gonna go with Z1 coils.

Anything that works to provide sufficient insulation should be fine.

Might also consider replacing the metal coil mounting spacers with nylon spacers or hard plastic spacers.

It isn't necessary for the coil to itself be grounded.
The coil would function as usual hanging in mid-air without being affixed to the bike.

Good Fortune!

:whistle: :evil:
Ok so i pulled the coils off 3 days ago. the one coil had a crack running across the back side where it would mount. So i took some black silicone and sealed up crack. and some others here and there on both coils. than i started up bike and sprayed heavily with water from hose. no troubles. I rode bike to and from work last couple of days in the rain and no more ignition problems. cheap easy fix for now.