My 1986 Kawasaki ZX600 ninja appears to have an ignition issue?

[Kevin]

I have a 1986 ZX600 Ninja. Two of the cylinders intermittently fire. Twice the bike temporarily stranded me. The first time I was riding down the road and the ignition just quit. I pulled off the road and tried starting it 10 times with no luck. I let the bike sit for 10 minutes and tried starting it again and it lit and I was able to drive 8 miles home with no problem. The other time I got temporarily stranded was when I road the bike for 25 minutes and parked it and did some shopping at the men’s mall. I came out a 1/2 hour later and the bike wouldn’t start. So I started pushing the bike to the nearest Kawasaki dealer and after 15 minutes of pushing I tried to start it, and it started right up. And again I was able to drive the bike 25 miles home with no problem. Oh, one other time it wouldn’t start is when I took it to a used motorcycle dealer to get the carbs cleaned. Two days later when the carb cleaning was done, I went to pick it up, and it wouldn't start. I told the guy at this used cycle dealer that the bike wouldn’t start and he said he'd have the mechanic look at it the next day. I went to pick it up the next day and it started right up. There were about 5 other instances when I wanted to take the bike for a ride and it wouldn’t even start in my garage. Therefore, the bike didn't even have a chance to stand me on those days.
I don't remember which two cylinder don't fire, but they are the two that the right (as you are sitting on the bike) coil gives spark to. I don't think it's the coil because one of the times when the bike wouldn’t start in my garage I took one of the coils (which looks the same as the Ninja coil) off my 1985 Kawasaki LTD1100 Measured the ohms in the LTD coil and compared it to Ninja coil and they were the same. I know the Ninja coil ohms were ok because they matched the ohms specified in the Clymer shop manual. I installed the LTD coil and the bike still wouldn’t start. I also did a visual inspection on the stator and rotor. Visually they looked OK, although I didn’t have the special tool to take off the rotor so I didn’t get a detailed look at the stator. And what the heck is an igniter box. Is this a fancy name for a glorified CDI box? The manual mentioned this igniter box but it said to take bike to shop if the igniter box is problem. Isn't this why we buy shop manuals?, so we don't have to take our bikes to the shop at rate of $200.00 an hour.
I don't think this is a fuel supply problem because the first time this happened I played with the choke and if I had the throttle in just the right spot, the bike started but ran idled poorly and sounded like a diesel engine. I ran it at idle for 2 minutes and just cracked the throttle and the bike died. I then felt the four exhaust pipes and the two that the right coil gives spark to were cold the other two were hot. No wonder it sounded like a diesel engine, only two cylinders were firing. Anyway, if anyone has a clue to what might be wrong with my Ninja or have even heard of this problem with Ninjas, please give me your input

Thanks,
KP

 

[bikinkawboy]

I'd almost bet money it's the pulsing coil (or magnetic pickup, Hall Effect sensor, crankshaft sensor, all the same thing) that I assume is on the end of the crankshaft. They are the little guys that take the place of the old style points. You'll have two of them, one for each coil. Sometimes the insulation on the internal winding breaks down and they short out. That means they don't send a tiny electrical pulse to the igniter. The igniter is nothing more than an electronic switch and it uses the pulse signal to tell it when to turn the ignition coils on or off to create a spark.

I've had a pickup that would conk out intermittently like yours and some that pooped out only after getting throughly hot. In those cases, when it quits you can take a can of compressed air (for cleaning computers), hold it upside down and spray the cold liquid onto one of the pickups. If it then starts, you know that's the one that's bad.

To check to see if the pickups are working when it quits, remove the cover, pull a plug wire from one of the coils and stick a spark plug into it and lay it on top of the engine. Turn the ignition switch on and use something like a metal flat screwdriver and momentarily touch the tiny bit of metal protruding from pickup coil. Every time you touch and remove the screwdriver, the spark plug should fire assuming you are touching the right pickup. If you try both pickups, you should figure out which one fires which ignition coil and which one is bad.

Those pickups are expensive and you may want to consider buying a used breaker plate from a salvage yard. If you do, you'll always have an extra pickup should the other one conk out.

Oh, a CDI box is different than an "igniter" (Kawasaki's name for their ignition control unit). A CDI box has capacitors inside that act like a tiny battery. They temporarily store a bit of juice and at the appropriate time, drain the capacitor, sending a sudden burst of energy to the ignition coil. An ordinary "igniter" simply turns the current to the ignition coil on or off. Manufacturers can say what they want, but knowing how they work, I say a CDI is a way to encourage an otherwise weak ignition coil to produce a healthy spark. A decently powerful coil can deliver the same spark simply by the igniter turning the juice on an off.