Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Bringing a '76 KH500 back to life. I'm in the process of sorting the ignition. I have no spark.

New coils, good plugs. Distributor and lines to coils show good.

I have a new CDI box from Lakeside - the old one had a shorted SCR.

Ignition winding is 130 ohms vs 116 ohms spec - it puts out A/C voltage when I kick the engine over.

The ignition pickups each measure 300 ohms. When connected in parallel, they measure 150 ohms. 300 ohms is above the test value of 260 ohms.

It looks like I may have a bad ignition winding and bad pickups. That would mean hunting up a replacement stator on e-bay. Unfortunately, that's a crapshoot.

Does this seem correct?

Thanks!

Yep, should still work.

What is the ignition winding?

cliff

I doubt if both pickups are bad. 130 is not out of the question for the magneto coil. I think you're missing something. Have you done the test that's in the Kaw manual that has you ground all three coil primaries instead of connecting them to the distributor?

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

http://kawatriple.com/trbl_missing_spark__lateh1.htm
Be sure there is a ground wire between engine and frame.

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Answers are here: http://kawatriple.com/

I finally have spark. I bought a $30 oscilliscope to help test for pickup signal and the voltage from the orange/brown wires that fire the ignition. Jim at Lakeland Services sold me a replacement module (the old one tested bad) and helped me understand what I needed to do. Shout out to him.

I can't believe that it's taken me over 6 months and two ebay replacement stators to get spark. But, little by little.

"Distributor and lines to coils show good."

1976 KH500A8, DISTRIBUTOR?????? Only H1's with a 'distributor' were H1 and H1-A, 1969 thru 1969, and 1972 H1-C

The book calls the segments on the alternator rotor, along with the carbon brushes that ground the three coils, one at a time, a "distributor". I guess it actually is a sort of distributor on the primary side of the coils, allowing a single CDI unit to handle three spark plugs without "wasted spark".

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Not in the sense it is a "distributor", as the ignition system is completely different than the first series CDI, with a distributor.

Now, if it were a Chevrolet with a crank and cam sensor, and a "distributor" with no electronics inside it, that only directed spark from the coil, to each spark plug in sequence, then, I'd say it had a "distributor".

Low tension distributor which Jim is mentioning.
3 brushes? and segments on the rotor I quiver at.

Shiver me timbers, what a design.

cliff

Jim, you or someone may wanna reproduce these.

I did on the fork piston rings for my '73
c

I have spark! After buying a cheap stator and an expensive stator to go with my original stator (unknown history), getting a $30 oscilloscope and guidance and encouragement from Jim Hobbs at Lakeland, the bike is firing. I had bad coils in my original stator. The cheap one has bad coils and questionable pickups and the expensive one works but has bad brushes and is nearly half a century old.

I've sent the original one (it has good pickups) to Rex's in the UK for rewinding. Once I get it back and fix the brushes on the expensive one, I will have a fresh ignition and a spare stator.

My plan is to lay the theory and testing out in a long post once everything is up and going.