1980 kz 1000-e2-shaft

[charles]

i have had this particular machine since jan 1987 and have kept it in decent conditon since then

i have not driven it in two years since it would not start, I have found that the ballast resistor is defective.

i am not awre of what the stock ohm values are for the primary circuit and as the the dealer wants 100.00 u s dollars for a replacement i am looking to run 2- 1 ohm resistors in series and see if this will work
I cant seem to locate the specs on it.
I a have the clymer manual and cant find it any where. can any one give me ideas on nhow to fix this issue.
should the machine still run anyway

[elr658]

Ballast resistor? New one to me.


Describe the problem, I'll try to help. That bike needs to stay on the road.

[cudaosix]

I'll guess the resistor your talking about is the one that works with the coils on the early elec. ignition? If so, what I did was swap the coils for two Dyna 3 ohm coils and bypassed the resistor.

[Jeff.saunders]

Under the tank is a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor on these bikes (approximately 6" x 1" x 1"). It allowed Kawasaki to use low resistance coils (around 1.5 ohm).

Usually these are easy to find as many folks remove them when replacing the coils with 3 ohm coils

[charles]

I Found a 2 ohm 20 watt power resistor at a local electronics shop.
and i adapted it to fit.and repaired the off switch and The fix works, but i wonder if the .5 ohm difference will be an issue,next i will put the carbs and tank and all the windjammer back on and see how it turns out i havent gone two years without riding this machine since i have had it and i am feeling a little impatient. i will try to upgrade to better components when i can set aside the money. getting it to work at stock will have to do for now
I appreciate all the advice and will reply when time permits,kids family work and school etc.

[charles]

tested the 2 ohm conv and it works will work on other issues later in week thanks for all help