electronic ignition module for older Kawi's

Hi 2 years ago I decided to try a 4 pole GM HEI ignition module the kind you find in 70's- 80's GM cars and trucks that was located in the distributor .Well it works great in my 76 Kz 750 twin that I've converted to electronic ignition .These module's fire everything I've tried with a magnetic pickup or also called pulsar coil .They have no advance built in so they can only be used with a mechanical advance set up like the early Kawi's .To wire them up is simple
the W & G poles are hooked to your 2 wires coming from your pickup (note here if it doesn't start swap these to wires around)the B pole is 12v from switch or best here is to use a good 4 pole relay actuated by the ing. switch this you can get the module a full 12v from the Batt .The C pole goes to the coil The best 4 pole relay to use is a Hella 40amp from early VW water cooled cars you can pick a whole hand full 5 bucks at a junk yard .
There 2 things very important with the module or you could toast them .
Cut off the plastic locating tits on the back of the module so that metal will make good contact with the aluminum plate your going to mount it on for a heat sink .You HAVE to use heat sink paste like what you use to mount the CPU to it's heat sink in a PC .DO NOT USE DIELECTRIC GREASE . Use 2 stainless screws and self locking nuts also a ground wire must go under the screw hole that has the metal ring in the module , you should use soldered wire ends on all connections for electronic ignition .
Now on my twin I used a GM 4.3 V6 HEI coil it is a dual output coil rated a 50,000 v for a 4cyl bike you would 2 of these coils a 2 modules .You'll see on the pic there 3 of these coils on a car.
Your going have to modified a couple of male spade terminals to fit into the coil ,after I carefully ground down the width of the terminal I added a bit of solder to make them a bit thicker .Of course you can hack up a coil pack mounting bracket from a car to work also .
Now I have had my twin to red line with this set up and with no misfire , I have never tried this on a 4cyl bike but it's the same set up as my twin so in theory it should work just as well. A few nice things to note would be 1 is cost most of these things you can get online form amazon , rock auto US & UK ,in the US if you go to your local auto parts store you get a life time warrantee .Also there is a ton of different coil wires to fit these coils you do need to go to resistor plugs if you do away with the stock screw on spark plug caps .resistor plugs are 5k just like your cap and you do need to run a resistor. I went to NGK iridium .
Oh I mounted my coil and module under my right side cove with no problems .
If you have any questions but it may take a few days for me to get back to you .
Hope this helps some one out .
Paul N.


1 is 12v+ 2 is minus

A big pic of the ignition module
www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chevrolet,19...Fcatalog%2Fchevrolet

Very interesting! Is there a common Hall effect sensor that can be used on an old Kz 900?

The GM 4-pin modules are now being made differently by different manufacturers. Even the same brand will have modules that behave differently. I've been using the Wells DR100 for years, but it requires some extra parts to get the dwell just right for stock coils.

Recently the manufacturers have started to move away from the MC3334 control chip on the HEI 4-pin module. Most likely they are using a microcontroller, which means they run firmware, which appears to be different for each brand I've tested.

Since the modules cannot be counted on to be the same, I've abandoned trying to use them. The upside is that it usually ends up cheaper to use discrete parts anyway. The downside is they are harder to get.

After I get a good design for the inductive pickups, I was going to start working on looking for a Hall-effect substitute. The inductive pickups will eventually get difficult to find, and generic inductive pickups tend to be really expensive (compared to Hall sensors).

Thanks for the info. I also have a 750 twin that I plan to install HEI electronic ignition. From reading other posts I've seen that the pulsar/hall effect sensors from other kz twins will work. I believe the hall sensor from nearly any car that uses one with electronic ignition will function. The problem I was having was finding the inducer/ timing rotor. On ebay I found many for the clockwise rotating 4 cylinder KZ's but none for the counterclockwise rotating twins. I bought a KZ550 timing rotor from ebay,( it was cheep) and checked to see if it worked on the twins advance mechanism, it did. I suspect all Kawasaki's timing rotors will interchange. I made some bushings removed the clockwise rotating rotor slug, flipped it over and pushed it back on and now have a counter rotating timing rotor. Since my bike is running fine with points ignition, I'm slow to convert, however when I do I'll post back on the results. I've included some pictures of my bushing tool to flip the rotor slug. It is crude, made with hand tools but functional. Today looking on ebay is saw that the KZ1300 also uses a counterclockwise timing rotor.

Yes the rotors interchange. The mechanical advance unit, obviously, is only meant to spin one way.

You can also fine tune the advance by altering the iron slug position, instead of filing the timing plate's holes longer.

This link shows how to test the modules to see what type you have.
gpzweb.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.co...ules/HeiModules.html

Great information, Thanks!