1982 Kawasaki GPZ1100 Revival - Day 4

[@iFunktion]

Lovely vid my good man. I was going to ask why you don't just rewire it from scratch as it's a custom. So basically, you have a wire goes from the battery to the ignition switch then from there to the push button switch, then from the push button goes all the way down to your solenoid. This is the live side of the circuit and the switches are just interrupts effectively along the way, the solenoid itself is the load within the circuit, the bit that uses the electricity. from there the will be a black wire that then goes to ground or earth (usually the frame and there will be an earth strap from the frame to the negative of the battery). The solenoid is just an electro magnet that connects a heavier voltage cable for the starting bit, of which you will have a thick cable from the battery and a thick cable to that terminal on the starter. The starter of course is now the load and is itself earthed out usually by the actual bolts that bolt the starter to the engine which as we know is connected to the frame which we also know is directly earthed to the negative of the battery. That's it. Now for the ignition circuit. Goes from the battery up to the ignition switch and then to the handlebar cluster and runstop switch (but not the push button start) then goes from there to the coil and the cdi unit, the live feed will be split, unlike with points where it goes from coil to the points and to earth with a condensor to take up the ungrounded power as an extra boost when the points break, the cdi has to be fed with a feed to activate it. So in the cdi, there will be a power feed, and a common earth, then there will be a signal wire from the crank and then possibly another feed from the coils. This is what was there on my fireblade cdi unit. But that's it basically, a wiring diagram can help, but when you understand both of these circuits, then suddenly it's a lot less frightening. So you can actually create your own temporary loom externally to make sure that actual components are working as they should. Following the wiring after is fairly straight forward. One last thing, with CDI units, then need something like 9.2V for them to ignite, and as it's a digital system 9.1V means no spark, and 9.2 and above means a spark. The actual rating you can find online for the ignition system you have, but it's worth knowing, I've seen lots of people try to start a bike with a dead battery and all it needs is some corroded wires to drop the voltage below the threshold for a spark fro the CDI unit. Hope that helps with some understanding and troubleshooting.

[@neilhamill318]

A Haynes workshop manual is a great investment for any older motorcycle owner. Progress is a great motivator.

[@barneyhughes]

Good man dee, surely your mechanicing days in desmonds should come in handy here 😜 look forward to seeing her chooch

[@DeeDoherty77]

Cheers Brian - I just want to hear it run!

[@williamdevitt7866]

check the saftey switch on the clutch lever you pull in the clutch and push the starter button should roll over at that point both are tied together clutch switch and starter switch

[@malcolmgreig5193]

I had a 1981 KZ 1000J. I don't know if there is a mechanical ignition advance behind the pickup coil plate on the 1100. If it has one, make sure it's its not stuck.

[@DeeDoherty77]

I have watched about 15 KZbin videos showing an installation of the Dyna Ignition system - and every one of them uses a mechanical advancer - so I thought - that's my problem - I don't have a rotor that turns by hand, it must be stuck or missing or broken - then after some more googling I found out that this engine doesn't have a mechanical advancer!

[@peterhoulis1184]

Ive had 6 zeds and my is a z1000a madmax bike