Silly spark plug lead questions

I am going to buy a new set of spark plug leads for my 79 kz 650 - I have two questions...
1. Should I just go for the regular suppressed leads?
2. The existing leads appear to all connect to a sealed unit under the tank....er, excuse the stupid question here but how do you change them out? Pull them out?
If there were a problem with the coils on this bike could that be the cause of an uneven idle and occasional misfire/stutter when at low speed pulling away?

Lee

Hey Britcheflee. Welcome to Kzr. You will learn very quickly that there are no such things as stupid questions. We've all had to learn from scratch at one point or another as nobody is born with experience.

Now if I read your post correctly, I believe you are referring to the twin coils that are mounted under the tank. These are solid state units and for the most part are unserviceable. If they are pooched then they are destined for the trash can. You can change the plug caps but that is pretty much all you can do.

The two coils each fire two cyliners. 1 and 4 are off the same coil and the other coil provides ignition to cylinders 2 and 3. Follow the wires and you will see which is which.

Ignition problems will cause erratic misfiring, this is probably what you are describing. Here is what I would do to pin down the problem.

Put in a new set of spark plugs. Make sure that the caps are put on properly and snugly on the plug.

Start the bike and let it warm up.

Once the bike is warmed up spray a fine mist of water on each of the individual exhaust pipes coming from the top front of the engine. If the water evaporates from the heat, you have spark and combustion. If the water spray doesn't burn off you probably have ignition problems in that or those cylinders.

Coils are very expensive from Kawasaki. You might want to look at a bike salvage yard or if you plan on keeping the bike for any lenght of time, get in touch with Jeff@Z1enterprises.com

Jeff is a kzrider.com member and has Dyna coils and electronic ignition packages that will eliminate any future electrical issues.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

del

Thanks,
I will have a close look at the coils but it appears that the wires are part of them - so, if you have a problem with a plug lead then you have to change the whole thing out unless you find some kind of splicer?
I will check the website.

Lee