82 KZ440 only sparks when ignition turned off

The sparking problem indicates more than just a dirty connection problem. It indicates a bad igniter or mis-wired ignition.

However, TexasKZ's suggestions are always a good idea as long as you're in there.

loudhvx wrote: The sparking problem indicates more than just a dirty connection problem. It indicates a bad igniter or mis-wired ignition.

However, TexasKZ's suggestions are always a good idea as long as you're in there.

True.
I should have been more specific. I was responding mostly to the Wired George bypass.

As Texas addressed, you probably have two separate issues. One is the voltage, and the other is the errant sparks.

I do have a can of electrical contact cleaner. I'll go through and see if cleaning helps with the voltage and go from there. Thanks for everyone's help.

Tim

Looks like a bad igniter. Pickup coil resistance tests at 438 Ohms which I've seen is in spec. Touching the pickup coil with a screwdriver fails to produce a spark.

Also, should the pickup coil touch the advancer or should there be a gap?

Looks like I need a new igniter. Anyone have a spare known working one?

Thanks!

vwrabbit wrote: Looks like a bad igniter. Pickup coil resistance tests at 438 Ohms which I've seen is in spec. Touching the pickup coil with a screwdriver fails to produce a spark.

Did you check for spark by shutting the ignition off, with the pickups disconnected from the igniter?

(When you do checks like that you need to make sure both plug wires can get a path to the engine, so you really are checking for both sparks at the same time. That is how it should work.)

vwrabbit wrote: Also, should the pickup coil touch the advancer or should there be a gap?

There should be a gap between the pickup and point of the rotor slug. I forget what the spec is, but I think it should be somewhere between .5 to 1.0 mm.

vwrabbit wrote: Looks like I need a new igniter. Anyone have a spare known working one?

Just so you know, in addition to making an igniter in the link above, I'm pretty sure you can also use an early 1980's igniter from a 4-cylinder Kz. You would only be using half of it.

Did not check w/pickup disconnected. I'll try that tonight. And it makes sense that a 4 cylinder would work... Same system, half as fun.

usually on a 4 these IC boxes fail on one side only ie just one pair of coils working.

I had one that failed but scrapped a long time ago.

If you get a multimeter and set it on Ohms use the two + - probes where the pickup wires plug into the IC - the millivolts from that meter will trigger your ignitor if working, (removing the pickups , plate, magnets and wiring form test), further narrowing down your problem. Most of these faults are interconnecting wiring issues.

These electronic ignitions do like a decent battery voltage, you could even try bypassing the loom and powering the coils and IC direct from a fully charged battery (use an inline fuse) .

Thanks. I didn't get a chance to check the igniter with the MM. Got busy replacing a throttle cable on my '75 CB125S2. It should be shortened at some point... That's another project. Hope to check the igniter tomorrow.

Off topic, but here's how I shorten cables:
Mikes XS has a good selection of cable ends.
s3.amazonaws.com/gpzweb/Kz550ClutchCable...tchCableShorten.html

Nice tutorial! I'll most likely use the 440 to test/hone my skills on cable shortening before trying on the 125.

No love from the igniter. Found one on fleabay fairly cheap that I should be able to return if it doesn't work. Everything else checks ok except the igniter. Hopefully that fixes the spark issue. Then it's on to the front brake master cylinder. Those screws suck!