kawasaki zr400f an gpz550 spark issues *help*

i recently purchesed an 83-84 not quiet sure kawasaki zr400f not in the best conditions but hey for £75 quid you cant complain a few weeks later i bought a gpz550 that had been sat outside for like 10 years both in quiet bad state but i rebuild bikes in my own time as hobby an have done so for many years

problem:
both bikes seem to be sparking on one coil pack only and the other is nonexistant ive been told by a few people could be the ic igniter/cdi unit or could be the pulser coils down the right side of the bike is this a common issue with the kwackers? how would i test them to see if its faulty and i wanted to know

the electrics on the zr400f bike have been slightly butcherd and have started to corrode inside the block connectors making bad connection and also causing the cable to come out of there holes within the block connector for example if both bikes run on the same principle couldnt i change the zr400f wiring loom out for the gpz550 wiring loom cause parts for the zr400f are like non existant

please help cheers dave

Luckily, with inline-4's, you can swap the coils and/or pickup wires to rule things out, as long as one side is sparking.

oh you mean cause ones sparking on both bikes you mean to say i could take the good pulser coil off one bike an put it on the other bike and it should hyperthetically work as in spark on all 4 cylinders cause i wass under the presumption that if the cdi unit had gone or thr ignoter it wouldnt spark full stop

No, I mean swap wires on one bike to effectively swap parts on the one bike by itself.

I don't really have any info on the ZR400f since they were never here in the States. Also, I'm not sure which gpz550 you have. There is a dual rear shock which is the KZ550D1, then there is the model with a steel rear swingarm and mono-shock which is the KZ550H1 and H2. Then there are the ones with aluminum swingarm and mono-shock, which is the ZX550A1, A2, A3 etc.

It would be best to put the exact models and years for your bike in your signature.

But generally speaking, if you swap the small black wire on the 1-4 coil with the small green wire on the 2-3 coil, you have effectively swapped the coils on one bike. If the spark moves then both coils are good. That means it's the igniter or the pickups. To test which, you swap the black pickup wire with the yellow pickup wire, and the blue pickup wire with the red pickup wire, then you have effectively swapped pickup coils. If the spark moves after doing that, then igniter is good, and one pickup is bad (or associated wiring is bad).

Here's the ohm specs for the lager 4's, but it should apply to the smaller 4's too:


Trace back from where the pick up coils are mounted,(under a right side CD sized cover) locate and disconnect a small 4 pin connector. Using a multi-meter set on OHMS and range of X 100 check between the BLUE and BLACK wires(#2 and #3 sparkplug wires) for between 360- 540 OHMS.

For #1 and #4 sparkplugs the wire colors will be YELLOW and RED, again 360-540 OHMS.

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.

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.