KZ700 power delivery is intermittant

On aluminum, either is likely to do just fine. I've not drilled out my
plugs, but I have drilled aluminum and brass with a hand-drill and bit
without difficulty. Mild steel is a bit harder to do by hand, and
stainless is hopeless. ;-)

--
Later,
John



'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.

 

It would be better to have an engine 'scope to check the voltage and
look for misfires, but my general assumption is that newbies have
almost nothing to work with, so I offer
simple tests.

Be$ide$, if the newbie take$ hi$ machine down to the $tealer$hip where
the mechanic doe$ ju$t happen to have a '$cope, he'$ ju$t going to tell
the newbie that replacing the coil *might* be the $olution. The money
for the replacement coil i$n't coming out of the $hop mechanic'$
pocket, he may even be getting a comi$$ion on part$.

It is true that the high voltage can puncture the insulation inside the
coil if one tries to check for ultimate voltage like Boris Karlov in
Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory with all of the Jacob's ladders and Tesla
coils.

When it comes to abusive testing of an ignition coil, I would say that
it is fairly safe to
check for voltages around 12,000 volts by looking for a 1/4 inch long
spark. When testing for ultimate voltages of 50,000 volts from a high
energy ignition system, trying to jump the spark an inch or more just
might "high pot" the insulation inside the coil, puncturing it.

That reminds me of a training instructor at work who had been a bit of
a boy genius and had made his own Tesla coil for a high school science
fair. He brought some of his toys to works and demonstrated them. Like
he had a laser before the public could buy laser pointers and laser
levels. It said "Hughes Aircraft Company" on the side, so it was the
Real McCoy.

When he demonstrated his Tesla coil he managed to set off the fire
detectors (from ionation and smoke, or from electromagnetic pulse, I
dunno). That annoyed the official
plant safety representative who told Tom Swift Boy Genius to cease his
experimentation in the refinery where hazardous flammable gasses might
be present anywhere.

I have made some sparks three feet long with 230,000 volts in the
Department of Water and Power switching yards while cranking
disconnects open. The disconnects weren't carrying any current, the
contacts of the giant oil-filled circuit breakers that most people
think are transformers were open.

But a 230,000 volt spark that's three feet long makes quite a crackling
sound as the circuit breaker is de-energized...

 

Yes. The aluminum EPA anti-tamper plugs used by Mikuni were so thin, I
didn't even have to remove the carburetors to drill them out. The EPA
plugs are on top of many Mikuni carburetor, but are underneath just as
many.

Home mechanics don't realize just how thin and soft those plugs are.
They use a power drill and push too hard and they hit the slotted end
of the idle mixture screw and leave a drill mark on it.

Nobody's ever gonna know that, but it's annoying to think about any
damage you inadvertently do to your machinery.

I just taped a small diameter drill with masking tape so I could twist
it by rolling it between my fingers! Then I used a slightly larger size
drill, again rolling it between my fingers, to enlargen the hole so I
could thread a small sheet metal screw into the hole and pulled the
screw and plug out with a pair of pliers.

When I drilled out the *brass* EPA anti-tamper plugs on my Yamaha, I
found that the brass was a lot thicker and harder to drill.

I just use a pair of small needle nose pliers. You could also use a
hemostat (the surgical clamping pliers potheads use for roach clips),
or tweezers.

 

Besides the coil, I understood there could perhaps be damage
to the control unit.

As a general rule, I wouldn't run the bike without having the
leads either attached to the plugs or grounded. Connected
to something with a 1/4" gap also sounds OK. Not connected
to anything doesn't sound like such a good idea for a bunch
of reasons.

For my own testing, I usually use 1/8 aluminum spacers
tapped to 4mm with a hunk of 4mm bolt protruding for
the spark lead. Screw one end onto the plug, attach the
spark lead to the other end, short to the head with an
insulated screwdriver to test individual cylinders.

 

I'll test the ignition probably next weekend...after finals

Thanks for the advice though. I really hope I won't have to dig back
into the carbs.