ignition resistance

Does anyone know why they put resistance in the secondary when they switched to electronic ignition? They seemed to do it across the board, automotive as well as bikes. I'm well versed on this stuff but have never understood this. Ether resistor plugs or resister wires. What are the drawbacks to removing the resistance (boots in my case) from the circuit? My bike is stock 70 1000 shaft with factory ignition. when it runs its' great, but getting it started is tough, the spark is a weak orange color thanks

Have you checked the ignition coils themselves? Most are 3 ohms, some older Kawasaki's had 4 ohm coils. The 5000 ohm resistor in the sparkplug caps help control the pops and crackle heard on radios and TV's when the sparkplugs fire. How old are your ignition coils? even when new, they were marginal, add years of cooking under the tank in stop and go traffic, and now they could strand you someday.

If in doubt, replace the ignition coils,sparkplug wires(the copper conductor types are the best)and if you want, the sparkplug caps. Never use resistor plugs, along with resistive sparkplug wires(the carbon fiber type)as now you have the chance to reduce the spark energy. www.z1enterprises.com sells the Dyna resistive and non resistive sparkplug wires, along with the popular green 3 ohm ignition coils.

Thanks I figured it was EMI, but wanted some input. I have some other coils I will try. Thanks again. Love F-4s

I'd be concerned if your bike had FI, but I don't see any reason not to use sparkplug wires with no resistance in the caps. If the resistor isn't there, how can it fail, and possibly strand you someday? I don't remember when it was, but a forum member was using resistor plugs, along with the resistor sparkplug caps, and could not figure out why his spark was so weak. It took some presuation from the other members to convince him use one or the other, not both for a better spark.