weak spark

I finally got my fuel seals and fuel lines are ran. i put a battery in and i have no spark. I sprayed a little starter fluid just to make sure. I changed the points and condenser and still nothing but there was spark at the points contacts. The ground that runs from the battery into the main harness got hot as did the main fuse. The ground wire that splits from the tail light ground started smoking while cranking with the starter button. The coil looks brand new is there a way to test it? I took the fuel tank back off and will be the wire from the points to the coil. Any ideas? or a direction to look in?

I started tracing some wires started with the one the got cooked last night. the previous owner had the ground lead hooked up right above the battery on the rubber grommet and then i replaced the cooked wire no more smoking wires. I switched the blade connectors on the coil just for shits and it started right up then died. it did this a few times then i got it to run for about 10 minutes and it sounded pretty good and ran pretty smooth. Now i can't get it to run and i checked for spark and it looks pretty weak to me. i also set the gap on the points to .013

www.wgcarbs.com/index.php/using-joomla/e...-categories/89-coils
Read this article my bike had weak soark too.

yea i did see this and was planning on doing the mod shortly. But i guess i can't physically understand why it would lose simply voltage trough the old wiring. and did it start up just because and when the plugs fouled up a little it died and wouldn't start running again. I wasn't sure if there was something i should look at on the bike first may bad grounds or not enough grounds. If any one else has seen this without doing the coil power supply mod any info would help as id rather fix instead of putting a bandaid on it.

Do this for increased electrical reliability:

Cleaning Motorcycle Electrics

Get some of the De-Oxit electrical contact cleaner and figure on spending a good day going from the front of the bike to the back. It’s a plastic safe cleaner/preservative. www.deoxit.com is their website.

On the older Kawasaki's, a majority of electrical connectors are inside the headlight housing requiring removal of the headlight, then the fun begins.

Do one set of electrical connectors at a time to avoid mixing up what connects to where. Usually disconnecting, spraying with De-Oxit and reconnecting is about all you'll need.

However, when encountering the green crud of corrosion, a brass wire brush may be needed on the pins you can reach.
Some 400-600 grit wet and dry sandpaper strips rolled into a tube should reach the male and female pins in the more difficult to clean connectors.

Smoker’s pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and wooden toothpicks work as cleaning aids.

Really small electrical connectors may require the use of a welders tip cleaning tool assortment.

Most pins in the connectors are coated with a thin plating of tin, and others may be nothing more than copper or brass.

If moisture is added, the resulting corrosion lowers the voltage/current being carried causing dim lights, slow engine cranking, slow turn signal response and lower input voltage to the ignition coils resulting in weak spark.

The left and right handlebar switch pods will need attention too as they have circuit functions like turn, horn, run/stop, and start.

Usually a spritz or two with actuation of the switch is about all needed for these switches unless corrosion is detected and then careful disassembly is required.

The ignition switch may or may be not sealed to allow spraying the internal contacts. I urge caution if attempting to open this up as springs, and ball bearings may fly out never to be seen again!

If your bike has the older style glass tubed fuses, I suggest replacing them as vibration can cause internal failure. AGX is the type used, and most auto parts stores can get them for you.

Clean the fuse holder clips, looking for signs of overheating(discolored insulation, signs of melting).
I use metal polish on a cotton swab, followed by spraying another clean swab with the De-Oxit and then rubbing the inside of the fuse clip.

All battery cables must be clean and tight for maximum current transfer. Check the cables going from the Negative(-) battery terminal/post to the engine mounting bolt

Also the one going from the Positive(+) terminal to the starter solenoid and from there to the starter motor.

If any battery cable feels ”Crunchy” when flexed, replace it as possible corrosion is inside the insulation.

Each "Bullet Connector" will have to be sprayed to ensure good connectivity, especially the ones going to the energizing coil of the starter solenoid.

The alternator output “Bullet Connectors” are usually behind the engine sprocket cover and will need inspecting and cleaning too.

The turn signal light sockets will benefit from a spritz from the contact cleaner along with the tail light/brake light socket.

Some brake light switches can be sprayed on the actuating rod, with the spray running down inside to the electrical contacts, others may be sealed requiring replacement if the switch is intermittent in operation.

Some people put the Di-Electric Grease on cleaned terminations/connectors, I don’t, as I’ve read/heard it can cause problems when it gets hot, actually insulating the connections, so the choice is yours to use or not.

Using WD-40?
Bad idea! WD40 is a bad thing to use on wires, contacts, etc.! More than one person on this site has suffered the effects of using it that way. Use Deoxit or some other contact cleaner to clean that WD40 off anything electrical before that WD40 crap sets up and becomes an insulator.


As a matter of fact dielectric grease isn't a great idea either. Dielectric is essentially an insulator for the purposes of conducting electricity. I've spent many hours cleaning dielectric grease out of connections. It heats up, liquefies, then gets wicked into contacts. The contact area that actually carries current then is reduced and heats up more.

Just got done replacing headlight connectors on a Civic. They were full of grease (that looked cooked), and the bulbs were dim. Only chopping off the connectors and replacing them got the bulbs back to full brightness

I think I've covered about all of the electrical systems on the bike.........


“I spent a weekend going through every electrical connection and switch on the bike with a little scotchbrite pad and DeOxit - what a difference! Everything was brighter, gauge backlights, indicator lights, turn signals, I was getting a nicer spark, it fired up quicker, etc. Well worth my time. WELL worth it! “
From a forum member at www.kzrider.com


Re: Cleaning the many and various Motorcycle electrics.
I used the De-oxit D-5 spray on all the electrical connections of my 78 Kz1000 that had sat for twenty years .

When I parked the bike in 92 I was starting to have troubles with some of the electrical system, but after pulling everything apart and giving it a spray , reconnecting the connectors and working them back and forth a few times, then gave them another shot of spray to wash them off before the final reconnection.

Everything still works perfectly and has for over 7000 miles this year.

I am extremely happy with the results , a lot of the connectors were green when I started and after the cleaning they looked new ( shiny gold )

I found the Deoxit D-series, D-5 spray in a 4 oz can at a big electronics store called Frys in Illinois, don't get the small cans at Radio Shack , they are different and meant for computer type stuff.

store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.188/.f

thank you i will look around for some of the cleaner locally. I went out to the garage today and the bike fired up but only ran for about a minute and then died it did this a few times. iv worked on carbonated engine before and the only thing i could think of is maybe its not getting fuel. i have mikuni vm 32's on it right now i haven't checked the float level yet but i guess right now I'm just trying to brainstorm some possible causes

now i have no spark again and points are not sparking either. i have power to the points and condenser power to the coil on both spade connectors. I put a new agm battery in. when i connect my test light and hit the starter i can see that it is opening and closing so i know there is power and its getting triggered. I am leaning towards the coil being bad. are the points supposed to spark when it brakes contact?

If the points spark while running, it's weak condensers. You'll get weak sparks too. Your ground problem may have damaged them and your coils.
Steve

good to know, i may be ordering a coil then and starting from there. points aren't sparking now but as you said the condenser might be toast now along with the coil. thank you

i just got back from a few weeks away at work and started getting back into the bike tonight. so the condenser is holding power and the points are clean. i check resistance on the coil and i got 4.1 with the key off so its within spec but i still don't have spark. is there an ignition relay. I am using the starter button to turn the bike over so i know its getting main power from the fuse. Is there anything else that could cause this? I have a dyna 3 ohm coil, plug wires, and a points and condenser package in my cart on the z1 site but i don't want to spend 100+ and not fix this. any other thoughts?

oreis wrote: i check resistance on the coil and i got 4.1

I have a dyna 3 ohm coil

How can you get 4.1 Ohm from a 3 Ohm coil? I think this is part of your problem. A 3 Ohm coil is generally used with an electronic ignition and not points. Please check your Service Manual for the correct resistance at the coils with a points set up.

3 Ohms is actually a stronger coil because you are measuring resistance and not voltage. Furthermore a stronger coil than the motorcycle is engineered for will most likely damage your points and condensers.

What year and model is your motorcycle?

you miss understood i don't have the dyna coil on the bike. the 3 ohm coil was in the shopping car on the z1 website. i almost ordered it.