Grrrrr I hate electrics

Hi all, I'm Peter from sunny Somerset,uk. I have just picked up a kz750h2 ltd, 1981' 4 cylinder. The last owner said it was running fine before being stored. Anyway just cleaned the carbs,plugs etc,fitted a new battery and tried starting. It had a bit of firing but not enough to run so I started checking through it. I have a spark on 1 & 4, but nothing on 2 & 3. Swapping the low tension cables over on the coils gave sparks on 2 & 3 with nothing on 1 & 4 so I know the coils and plug leads and caps are good. Going down to the pick ups I turned the engine with a spanner and ignition on and again only got the sparks from 1 coil.
Confused now as it could be the pick up or the cdi, igniter which can be pricey if I'm wrong.
Anyone here had similar issues? Love to get this running and back on the road.
Cheers
Pete

I see two potential problems: 1. The pick up(kawasaki calls them pulsing coils) are bad for one side of the engine, or 2.The IC Igniter is acting up.

Here's a test for the pick up coils, and a test for the igniter:

Ohm Checking Pickup(Pulsing) Coils

The pickup(Pulsing) coils on the Kawasaki’s with the factory supplied electronic ignition can sometimes fail or become intermittent due to heat and vibration.

1.Trace back from where the pick up coils are mounted,(BEHIND A RIGHT SIDE, CD SIZED COVER) locate and disconnect a small 4 pin connector. Using a multi-meter set on OHMS and range of 2K, check between the BLUE and BLACK wires(#1 and #4 sparkplug wires) for between 360- 540 OHMS.

2.For #2 and #3 sparkplugs the wire colors will be YELLOW and RED, again 360-540 OHMS. The 550’s,650’s & 750’s may be backwards to the Z1’s,Kz900’s,Kz1000’s & Kz1100’s.

3.If the pickup coils are suspect of failing due to heat, they can be stressed using a hair dryer without the need of the engine running.

4.A replacement set of pickup coils might be obtained from a dealer who serviced the police Kawasaki’s.

5. If replacement pickup coils are not available, your next choice would be to order a Dyna “S” electronic ignition system from www.z1enterprises.com It replaces the IC igniter with a smaller module located where the mechanical ignition advancer was mounted.

6. Checking with Kawasaki.com website has determined that the Pick up(pulsing) coils are available . The pulsing coil # is 59026-1133 and replaces the older # 1002, 1012 which were used from the MKII motors until the 2005 P24.

7.Check the small 4 pin connector that the pickup coils connect to for corrosion/loose pins too.

Troubleshooting IC Igniter & Pickup(Pulsing) Coils

On a 4 cylinder, you can use the swapping method to identify exactly what part is bad.

Try swapping the plug wires and the coil wires. And see if the problem stays with the green coil wire? Or did it move to the black coil wire?

(I assume you are using the tach to determine which coil wire (green or black) is firing intermittently.)

If it is always the green coil wire, then it's the green 2/3 circuit in the igniter, or it's the yellow/red pickup.

To determine which, you would have to make some jumpers and jumper the pickup wires to the igniter. Black pickup wire jumps to yellow igniter wire, and yellow pickup wire jumps to black igniter wire. Blue pickup wire jumps to red igniter wire, and red pickup wire jumps to blue igniter wire.

Then, you have to pull off the timing plate, and remove the timing rotor. You do this by advancing it, then pulling it off (after you remove the small bolt holding it on). Don't try to turn the big nut. It's actually not a nut, but is just keyed to the advancer hub to turn the crank. Be careful with the bolts on the advancer, they have a history of getting messed up.

Re-install the advancer pointer 180 degrees out from where it started. (Normally, originally, the pointer pointed toward the "TEC" logo.) You do this by holding the advancer arms open, then slide the pointer sleeve over the advancer hub. (Just the opposite of what you did to remove it.) (Hope you have 3 hands. )

Now, if the problem of the flakey tach stays on the green coil wire, it is the igniter that is bad. If it is on the black coil wire, the problem is the red/yellow pickup.



A forum member here named "Loudhvx" has made a suitable replacement using off the shelf GM electronic modules:http://home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/Ignition/GPZgmHEImod.html He's used this for a number of years on his Gpz 550 with no problems.

GM HEI Ignition Modules (4 Pin) Cross Index


AC DELCO

---

DM1906 or D1906

WELLS

---

DR 100

ACCEL

---

ACC 35361/ACC 35367

PERTRONIX

---

D2000

CAR QUEST

---

21040

NAPA ECHLIN

---

ECH TP45

NIEHOFF

---

DR 400

BORG WARNER

---

Select CBE4/CBE22

GM

---

10482820

Mallory

---

607

Jegs

---

555-40600

Moroso

---

97857


It's not that difficult to construct, you'll need the modules, a piece of Aluminum for a heatsink,wire of the various colors,resistors, diodes and a place to mount them, along with wire terminal ends, and a crimping tool for the terminals.

Ig you don't feel comforatable in doing the work, ask some of your friends to do it for you,or maybe somebody at a local electronics club, or electronic supply store knows who can.

Wow, good concise reply, I will start testing this weekend....maybe it's just corrosion but we will see. Cheers.

Thanks mfolks, followed the guide. We had no resistance on the pulse coil for 2&3 so I got the hair dryer and warmed it up. 5 mins later we had resistance over 700 so span it over and good sparks to all plugs. Bit of fuel and now we are running. Probably need new pick up but at least it's going now.
Cheers.

Yep, time for new pick ups. They become intermittent due to heat and vibration, and can possibly strand you someday. The alternate to the Kawasaki ignition system would be a Dyna "S", but it's a power hog, using far more electrical energy than the Kawasaki system does.