I have a 1980 KZ1000 E2. The bikes been sitting garaged for the last 12 years and I've begun getting it road worthy again. Ran well before it got moth-balled due to kids. Cleaned carbs, tank, etc.
No / limited spark when I went to fire it up. Checked the IC Ignitor according to the manual and it appears to be bad. After much searching on the net, it looks like this part is VERY hard to find.
What are my options in:
1) Down grading / switching to mechanical ignition?
or
2) Upgrading to a newer ignition system?

I love the bike, but with it being a switchover year, parts are hard to find.
Your thoughts?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
-->Rick

 

hi Rixb im not much help but you could try posting this in the general tech section also might speed up the answers. welcome to KF

 

There's about 15 different ones available on Ebay starting at 65 bucks. Put in kz1000 ignitor in the ebay search box, and there's quite a few in ebay stores. If you want a brand new one $250+ bucks, try www.bikebandit.com or ron ayers.

 

The easy way would be to buy the ignitor from E-bay but it might be bad too. If you have the money replace the pick up coils,the ic ignitor with a Dyna S from Dynatek www.dynaonline.com

There is a relay modification that other KZ owners are doing at two other websites www.kzrider.com and www.kawasakimotorcycle.org/forum that makes the bike more dependable and an easy starter. The man that designed the relay mod runs a carb refurbish business out of Texas www.wgcarbs.com The website shows how to do the modification bypassing the current dropping aged wiring in the older bikes.

 

A fellow who is on the www.kzrider.com website has created a IC Igniter replacement using General Motors ignition modules. his website is at http://www.geocities.com/loudgpz. the website lists parts and wiring diagrams .