TOPIC:

Hey guys, need some help as I'm broken down right now and can't get the bike running . My brother and I are on a cross country road trip and my bike broke down as we rolled into Vegas. Stopped at a subway and when I went to fire it back up when we were done eating, it fired up for a second and then died. Now it's not getting spark. We pushed it to the nearest motel and that is where we are at now.

The bike is a 1981 kz650h1 csr with stock electronic ignition (mechanical timing advancer, pickups, and ic igniter)

we started by checking the fusebox and nothing is blown out.
We checked the battery terminals and they are both tight.
We pulled the gas tank and found one of the coils was a little loose so we tightened that down and still no spark.
We've checked over the wiring and so far haven't found any shorts or exposed wires.
We checked the ic igniter and it ohmed out all wrong with multiple wires having no resistance and the two wires that we did get a resistance reading being way too high (checked via the manual specs).
We made a new igniter out of gm hei 4 pin connectors and still no spark (double checked to make sure our wiring of these were correct).
At this point we checked for voltage at both coils and found no voltage with the ignition on. Also checked for voltage at the pickups and found zero volts there, although the pickups ohmed out right at manual spec.
Checked the kill switch and nothing seems wrong there, although we didn't actually test the wires with a multimeter.
Battery directly reads 12.6 volts.
The starter button turns the bike over just fine, albeit with no spark.
With the key on, all lights are working.

My only guess left is the ignition switch may have died, just at the ignition terminals? We're about to go check that now with a multimeter, but if that doesn't work, I am at a loss at the problem. Could the rectifier be causing this problem? Maybe the starter solenoid could be sending power wrong? Is there a neutral safety switch that could be broken and causing a no spark situation?

Any help is appreciated, and I'll be back in the next hour or two to report back if the ignition switch is the culprit. Thanks guys

Troubleshooting this sort of problem isn't in my forte, but I would focus on the lack of voltage at the coils.
Check the yellow wire at the ignition switch or the right handlebar control switch.
The yellow wire from the ignition switch provides power to the run-stop switch & the coils (red-yellow & red).
I would back-probe the RH handlebar switch electrical connector. yellow wire, red-yellow & red.
From the wiring diagram there should be a splice in the handlebar control switch for the coils.

1981 KZ650-H1 wiring diagram.
Assuming you have access to a computer, open the image in a new window, then click again to enlarge it. It's big.

Like martin said focus on no power to coils.

Two possibilities come to mind and you will need a multimeter or bulb and wire to check for voltage.
Refer to martins wiring diagram
Kill switch . Check for 12 volts. Problem could be as simple as a bug smeared across kill switch contacts. In my case the bug was an earwig.
Edit: if you have power at starter button its unlikely the problem is at kill switch unless PO did some creative wiring.

Follow the yellow red wire from the kill switch to the connector checking for 12 V at the connector. It will likely be in the black sleeve which goes from RH switch gear under right side of gastank. Your bike similar but maybe not identical to mine. In my case the plastic connector became brittle and crumbled losing power to ignition circuit.
Follow red wire from connector into the main harness undrr the tank to where it is connected /soldered to red for coils , pickup coils and ignitor. You may have to open harness a little.
Good luck

So we thought we located the problem, but are having new ones now.

Tested the ignition switch and got 12 volts.
Kill switch tested 12 volts.
We found the wire from the power wire from the igniter to the coils broke internally so we replaced that and now had power to the coils. We push started it (low battery from all the testing) and it ran without a gas tank for about 20 seconds until it died presumably from gas starvation. It even seemed to run smoother with the hei ignition mod than before.

Since we originally thought the problem was the igniter (ohm tests on it we're all wrong), we made the hei 4 pin ignition as per loudhvx, and it worked for the 20 seconds it ran earlier. After getting it to run with everything hanging loosely, we properly mounted the new hei igniters and now we're no longer getting 12 volts to the C prong off either module, we're getting 0 volts, so no power to the coils again.

We took it off again and checked to see if we messed up the wiring when mounting it and nothing seems to have shorted or gotten crossed up. Any ideas? Anyone have a spare igniter in the Vegas area? I think at this point even though the igniter we have is testing bad, we're going to rewire it back in and see if that works. Maybe we somehow burned out the 4 pin module(s)? At least the motels here in Vegas aren't super expensive...

Flat/ dead battery? Charge battery and try again.

Check again red/yellow and red wires in the ignition circuit (top centre area in diagram martin posted) for continuity (ohms) and voltage and you shouldcat least be able to isolate where problem is..

I don't think it's the igniter(s) as you now have two separate igniters. Plus if the igniters were shorted such that the C terminals had no voltage (and everything else was good) the igniters would be getting super hot. Are they?

The ohm tests can be meaningless on igniters, especially if you are not using the Kawasaki factory meter.

When you disconnect the wire from the C terminal, does the wire have 12v on it? If it does not, then it's the wiring again. Or there is a remote possibility that both coils now have open primaries, but that is unlikely to happen to both coils simultaneously.


To bypass most of the bad wiring, you will need to run three or four wires. They are pretty easy to install as most of the connections are easy to get at.

Run new wires to each coil's negative terminals to the C terminals if you go with the HEI's.
1) The 1-4 coil goes to the igniter that has the black & blue pickup wires.
2) The 2-3 coil goes to the igniter that has the yellow & red pickup wires.

or
If running the stock igniter, Run new wires from each coil's negative terminal to the big black, and big green wires on the igniter.
1) The 1-4 coil goes to the big black igniter wire.
2) The 2-3 coil goes to the big green igniter wire.

3) Run a power wire from the battery to positive terminals of the coils (and remove the original wires). This is to bypass all wiring for the coils. This can be left this way if everything else is working properly. But if you will be stopped for a long time, you may want to pull this wire off the battery "just in case". The bike will still shutoff normally when the igniter is turned off through the ignition/kill switch.

Make sure the igniter has 12v on it's power wire (red or red/yellow or yellow/red).
4) If the wiring from either ignition or kill switch is bad, this will be an issue. The coils and igniter get their power from the same source, so if you losing power to the coils, you may also be losing power to the igniter. For this, you will want to run a power wire from the battery to the igniter(s). But this wire will need to be pulled to stop the motor, and needs to be left off when you are parked. This wire is basically the kill/ignition switch. But you will also need to use the ignition switch as normal to make sure other parts of the bike get power. This is very important for the regulator. If the regulator loses switched power, it won't regulate... leading to over-voltage.

Make sure the igniter ground is good. If questionable, run a wire to the battery's negative terminal.

I sent you a PM.