My son has what we believe to be a 1984 KX80. He bought it recently, and the seller told him it was a 1985. But, we found that the tenth digit on the frame VIN is "E". We bought the service manual, pictured below, before knowing the VIN code, thinking it was a 1985. The manual states "June 1984".




In any case, we had no spark, and figured it was either the stator coil, the ignition coil, or the CDI box. We started by testing the stator coil using the “stator coil test using a multimeter”. The manual provides specs for two tests: 1) when making a connection between the Black/Red and Black/Yellow wires, the multimeter reading should be 432-648 ohms, and 2) when making a connection between the White/Red and Black/Yellow wires, the multimeter reading should be 7.7-11.5 ohms.



When we performed this test on the original equipment, we got an acceptable reading on Test 1, but got an open connection/non-continuity/over limit reading on Test 2, and concluded on the basis of that test that there was a fault with the stator coil. We removed the stator coil from the motor, and carefully inspected the stator coil for any physical indication of a failure, but did not find any. We decided to purchase the Stator Rebuild Kit 22-704 from Ricks Motorsport Electrics. We finished the rebuild, and following the rebuild performed the same two tests on the rebuilt stator coil. The results were nearly identical to those found on the original equipment – Test 1 resulted in an acceptable reading, but Test 2 resulted in the same open connection as before. We contacted Ricks Motorsport Electrics and promptly received the following message in reply:On a KX80 the test measurement for the smaller coil is measured across the white/green and white/red wires, not black/yellow (ground). They should be OL to ground as there is no connection in the winding for that. The spec for this coil is 4.0-6.0 ohms at room temperature (see attached JPEG).

I followed up by asking Rick's about what accounted for the discrepency between the test values in my manual and the test values they sent, and in reply they offered:I’m reading out of a later-printed one that dealt with several of the older dirtbikes. My best guess is that it was a mis-print in the old one that they corrected later. Only Kawi could answer it for sure.
The values in the manual we have appear to be wrong, and perhaps it is simply a mis-print as suggested. And, if so, I guess that's fine. But, more importantly, I still haven't been able to confirm that the manual we have is the correct manual for this bike. Would a manual published in June 1984 apply to the 1985 model year?

Any clarifications would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Al

 

Hi. I performed the same tests on an 85 model stator as per your kawasaki manual photo. (84 and 85 models have identical stators anyway). I got a test 2 PICK UP COIL reading of 13ohms. Slightly over spec. But more importantly, not the "non reading" that you received. Not sure if this is any help, but it does seem to validate the kawasaki theory. Also, if your bike has the diamond shaped steel swingarm, you have an 84. The 85 has a squared off aluminium style swingarm. Hope you are back on the road regardless. Cheers, Matt.

Ps, my August 83 manual had the identical table.

 

Thanks, Matt, for your reply and efforts. We ended up getting it running, and I think in the end we probably didn't need to replace the stator coil. The test procedure as described in our manual appears to be in error, and had we tested differently, I suspect we would have correctly concluded that the stator coil was OK. Our problem ended up being a faulty coil, I believe, which was an easy and inexpensive fix.

Happy riding!
Al