FOAK: Kawie Carburetor Idle Adjustment

I really, really, *really* doubt the coils are the problem.

 

I suppose your carbs are the slide valve type, not the diaphragm type
used on GPZ550's?

Yannow, some Kawasakis had a voltage reducing resistor in the wiring
harness and they used low resistance coils. It seems to me the coils
were about 1.5 ohms resistance.

Kawasakis without the resistors used a higher resistance coil of about
3 ohms, and motorcycles with high voltage capacitor discharge ignition
systems used coils with 5 ohms resistance.

If a previous owner installed the wrong resistance coils or removed
the resistor you'd have coils that got hot and stopped making sparks
at the right time or they would put out weak sparks...

 

Early model GPz550s used slide carbs, not CVs. Your call.

It's not the coils that are the problem. Unless someone has installed
non-standard coils, which is a remote possibility, to say the least.

 

OK, I'll call you an obnoxious argumentative asshole.

You wanna raise?

 

One of the two coils may have developed a fault due to old age. I
think that testing them is cheap and smart.

Will take the coils to the local motorcycle dealer for some
sophisticated evaluation.

Biker Dude

 

Yes, that's true, if *you* understand the circuit and do the testing
*yourself*.

Motorcycle dealers rarely have a mechanic who knows anything about
electrical circuits and components, they basically just prescribe
"shotgun" remedies of replacing *components* until something fixes the
problem they didn't understand in the first place.

That's why I suggested that you check out the Kawasaki ignition
resistor situation.

Some Kawasakis had it, others didn't.

And you really can't tell whether you have the right coils until you
know.

 

They certainly look like they've been on the bike for thirty years.
They must be original from the factory.

Old coils tend to fail and when they do so the sparks get weak and the
bike gets slow.

The local dealer has the tester and will bench test them for me.

Biker Dude

 

If you've got a faulty coil, the bike misfires or doesn't fire at all.
I've had a coil fail twice on an air-cooled Kawasaki four.

The bike doesn't just slow down.

OK, yours is misfiring, but you've already said it's in a hell of a poor
state. You've fiddled with the carburettors. The problem is more likely
to be carb-related than coil-related.

Other likely culprits - HT leads and plug caps.

 

Well, you do what you want, but if it was my bike I wouldn't trust the
advice of any mechanic that wasn't already over 30 years old when he
worked on KZ550's when they were current in 1982.

The mechanic would still be younger than me...

I spent several hours last summer reminiscing about old times with a
factory-trained Honda technician and he was surprised to learn that I
knew the guy who'd certified him in the 1970's.

I knew stuff about those old bikes that amazed him.

 

yeah he's correct adn YOU are a dumb ass know it all failure at life.
match.

 

can't hurt...but.

 

To clarify my previous remarks:

**** YOU, ASSHOLE!

 

Once again you lie and fantasize about things...pathetic.

 

I'm not surprised at all. What you profess to know amazes *me*.

 

I knew stuff about those old bikes that amazed him."

But not much about Kawasaki 550 carbs, evidently

 

I wonder how badly he wants to sell new ones? They were £70-odd each,
when I had to replace mine, about a decade ago.

Questions:

1. Was it running OK before you fiddled with it?
2. If not, when did it last run sweetly?
3. What happened between when it last ran sweetly and now? Was it just
parked up and left?

If the answer is, say, "About 10 years ago" to (2) and it was just
parked and left, then it is much more likely to be the carbs than the
coils. Could be the coils, yes, but it's unlikely.

 

That reminds me - they used the same coils on all the 550 fours (shaft-
drive G, GPz, basic Z) and also on the 750 fours (same applies). The
only differences were in the HT leads, which were slightly shorter on
the smaller 550cc engines, but as the HT leads were not integral with
the coils this wasn't a problem.

I discovered this when the coil went phut on my GT750 (1987 P5 model).
I never heard of any resistor in the ciorcuit, and my 750 ran
perfectly on 550 coils (with 750 HT leads), so I *strongly* suspect
you're talking nonsense here as well.

 

Just got back from the Motorcycle Stealer, I mean DEALER.

Coils, HT leads, etc. all checked out perfectly. They suggest that I
investigate the little CDI box.

At the age of this ol hoss any and all parts n pieces are suspect.

Biker Dude

 

I reckoned they would. It's the carbs. It's the carbs. It's always the
carbs.

They suggest wrong. Electronic ignition units either work or they don't
- there is no halfway house.

 

Make sure that the mechanical ignition advancer works freely.