Testing Coils

Owned over 10 Z1300s myself over last 20 years.
All fitted with AW82 coils over the last 15 years.
All still running 100% with no starting or ignition probs.
Fitted them to at least 6 other owners bikes............all still running 100%.

If that aint enough evidense I give up.

AW82 COILS ARE PERFECT FOR A Z1300.

Pete F
UK

I own 2 z1300s and both bikes are fitted with AW82 coils.
One of the bikes was fitted with these coils about 10 years ago.
I have done a lot of miles on both bikes with no problems at all.
Pete F is correct they are perfect for the z1300 and don't cost much.

Dave
UK

Dave and Pete, there's an old saying I must submit to here; "You can't argue with success!". As I said, I have no hands on experience with the Honda coils, nor the aftermarket "hotter" coils, but have read some not-so-successfull stories about some of the so-called super coils burning out the ignitor outputs. I tend to approach things from a learn-about-it-first approach before changing anything, and my background tells me that ignition systems are quite complex. So, the experiences you two have had do prove that the AW82 coils are close enough to work well without damage to the ignitor. And, I thank you for sharing that experience since now I will go buy a set and do a series of tests on them using an O'scope to see the differences between them and a good set of stock coils.

strate6 wrote: Owned over 10 Z1300s myself over last 20 years.
All fitted with AW82 coils over the last 15 years.
All still running 100% with no starting or ignition probs.
Fitted them to at least 6 other owners bikes............all still running 100%.

If that aint enough evidense I give up.

AW82 COILS ARE PERFECT FOR A Z1300.

Pete F
UK

DITO what Pete says, i put AW82 coils on my A4 and it runs lovely, i will also be doing the same upgrade to my other 2 DFI motors

I have worked on Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda and BMW bikes in a profesional capacity over the years and I will say this that Kawasaki Engineers did not do a very good job of designing the ignition system on the Z1300s. It is far more likely than not that they used a bag full of old parts till they got some form of spark and the creature ran. They are by far one of the worst ignition systems that ever came out of Japan. The coils are of very poor quality.
I bought my Z1300 in 1979 when they were first released in Australia and up to Sept 1982 I had replaced most of the ignition components at least once. When I started working for Honda Australia I got a set of coils for a CB900 4 and put them on my Z1300 and have never had to do anything except replace the spark plugs at each service right up to 2002 when it came off the road because of bad primary chains. It still runs and starts well whenever I try

Rick,
Glad you agree and the coils, its a perfect mod and 99% of CB900 coils are actually AW82 coils, as are the CB750F and CBX1000.

Trike,
Make sure when you do your tests that you include the BALLAST RESISTOR in the equasion when you test the original (crap) coils as if not you wont you get the full picture.

The AW82 coils are not "HOT" coils at all, they are just pretty regular everyday twin coil 12V ignition coils which were used on many Hon / KAW / YAM bikes across the 80's, but as Rick said, are far better then old "parts bucket" coils that Kawasaki fitted to the Z1300 from launching it. The reason they fitted the BALLAST RESISTOR was to allow them to use existing crap coils they had access too instead of designing proper coils for the job, which in effect would have been the AW82, but cost more to make at the time.

On my CDI comment in my earlier post............I used the terminology of "CDI" in my description so many others here can relate to it to being the ignition control system, rather than using the exact, correct terminology and perhaps confusing people as I actually aim to HELP people on this site rather than try to prove how much I know, use technical terms they dont understand and maybe put them off or even confuse them.
Its and IC Igniter..............OK ?

Pete F
UK