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That's not really a multimeter, it's what's called an engine analyzer (as it says on the front). It's more specialized for working on cars (and bikes). One of those leads is meant to go to the negative side of one ignition coil. That may be the yellow lead.

Usually "amps" uses the red and black leads the same as "volts". Measuring amps can short things out if you are not careful. If you are a novice, you should avoid using the "amps" position unless you are sure you are not going to short something out. The "volts" position is harmless.

Since it is probably designed for cars with distributors, your readings will have to be adjusted accordingly.

Since you will be getting your RPM reading from 1 coil only, you need to multiply the 8-cyl RPM reading by 4.

Since dwell is typically measured in camshaft degrees for cars, you need to multiply the 8cyl dwell reading by 8 to get crankshaft degrees for your KZ.

For example, your 1977 KZ650 should have about 180 degrees of crankshaft dwell. Thefore, meter will read about 22.5 degrees.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2006/04/30 13:33

thanks i thought it looked funny!
ill go buy a new mulit-meter (real one)
and give this back to the owner.
thanks for the info

buy a digital one if you can get one,much easier to use!

Okay, I'm looking on eBay and there is one the seller says has a dwell range of 20 to 90 degrees. I assume this will be sufficient for a 650? Having never used a dwell meter before, I'm a bit unsure of what I should get. Anything specific or will just about anything do?

- Nate >>

Are you asking about an engine analyzer or the just a dwell meter.

You really don't need a dwell meter for KZ's. You can't alter the dwell by much on the electronic ignitions (Not at all on the small Dyna ignitions), and the point's dwell can be measured by eyeball with a testlight or voltmeter/ohmeter. The points bikes are 180 degrees (crank degrees) if I recall. The elctronic ignitions start at around 100 or 110 and move to 120 (crank degrees) as the rpms increase.

The dwell angle reading needs a correction factor since you don't have a distributor.

Most dwell meters I've come across measure distributor degrees, which is camshaft degrees, which is 1/2 of the crank degrees. So you multiply the reading by 2 to get crank degrees.

Since you will only measure one coil at a time, you are only getting 1/2 of the signals for a 4-cyl. So you multiply the reading by 2 again.

Most meters will have a scale pertaining to a V-8, they will tell you to multiply that reading by two for a 4cyl.

So, in all, on some of these dwell meters, you end up multiplying the reading by a total of 8 to get the right numbers. I'm just saying this so you are not shocked when the meter says 22 degrees when it should be a 180 degree dwell.

Just realized I put this same post up months ago, earlier in this thread.

NonB, if the meter only goes down to 20 degrees, there is a chance it won't measure the angle on electronic-ignition KZ's. They are as low as 100 crank degrees. As per above, the reading would be around 12 degrees on a v-8 dwell meter. I think I've seen new ones for around $20 that go from 0 degrees.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2006/08/19 12:51

I'm mostly curious about improving on the static timing as the factory manual seems to prefer the dwell meter and timing light test. Plus, these units double as tachs which seems to be a good thing to use when doing the lean-drop idle mixture settings. I've seen several older Snap-On units on eBay that look like exactly what I'm looking for--tach and dwell meter functions and 4, 6, and 8 cyl settings. BTW, I do have V-8 powered truck I want to use it for as well.

Thanks for the info, Lou.

- Nate >>

Just realized I put this same post up months ago, earlier in this thread.

It's called "Deja Vu" (or something like that) I think

Harbor Freight digital multimeters are relatively accurate and cost less than $5 when on sale. The only drawback is that they don't have a 1x Ohms function which I like for use on bikes but the 10x Ohms functions works fine. If you run over one with a bike or otherwise break it, it doesn't feel that bad.