resistor caps and points ignition horror...

About two months ago, I worked on a friends bike and came across a strange problem. It was a 1974 Kawasaki Z1. A bike I know like the back of my own hand. He had purchased a new points plate with points, a new set of condensers, etc and two new ignition coils (CHINESE COPIES) with NGK resistor caps. I serviced the bike, set up the points. Dialed in the timing and installed the coils and brand new plugs....NO SPARK. After some head scratching, I removed the spark plug caps and hit the starter button and four big sparks shot out. You could hear them,too. It seems that the resisters in the caps had too much resistance for the stock points and condensers to deal with. Funny thing is, I have the exact same setup on one of my Z1s....but it has points and ACCELL coils, wires and NGK caps. I'm wondering if the "knock off" coils are of a much lower voltage? I don't have any need for the resistors. But they are the most common replacement caps and I've been using them for decades with no problems. Any thoughts?

Standard NGK sparkplug caps should have 5000 ohm resistance. It's possible the ignition coils are made wrong(I'm suspicious of Chinese electrical parts).

The coils may be bad, but the series resistance should not be able to kill the spark even if it is many times too high. It's in series with an air gap which is essentially infinite resistance until the voltage builds up high enough to ionize the air sufficiently to spark. The coils sound suspect.

bountyhunter wrote: The coils may be bad, but the series resistance should not be able to kill the spark even if it is many times too high. It's in series with an air gap which is essentially infinite resistance until the voltage builds up high enough to ionize the air sufficiently to spark. The coils sound suspect.

I agree with bountyhunter, but here is something to consider. It may be the case that the adding 5k of series resistance makes the spark energy find a different path. That is, instead of arcing across the plug gap, the energy is instead pushed into some alternate, lower resistance, path to ground. Since you don't report any arcing along the plug wire, the arc would most likely be happening inside the coil body. If the coils windings were not made with sufficient insulation, this could certainly be an issue. So I agree that it sounds like a problem with the coils.

So, really? I have a new old stock set of NGK. I have some 7mm standard brand wire for plug wires.
I am going to sell this stuff on the ebay. Do i need to type anything specific in my ad?
4 NOS plug boots? I can't think anymore! are they resistor? thin wire also 7mm. Steel, not copper. never used though!
Any thoughts? please type, just don't read!