Howdy from Texas

New member here from the Gulf Coast. Been around bikes riding and wrenching for over 50 years. Back in February I picked up a 1980 1300 (also a Z1 Classic fuel injected from same guy). I always thought the 1300 was a neat bike. Bike was pretty complete, only missing a few small items and titled. That's the good, the bad list is a lot longer. Had not ran in 25 years, no real history on it. Cleaned carbs, It started Yay ! But not running real good. Not firing on all 6. I'm thinking that may be why it sat up. Been doing a lot of reading on this forum. Decided to look at the coils, here's what I found - 1&6 stock coil with a big crack in the topside. 3&4 and 2&5, not original. They look oem from another type of bike as they have spade connectors, instead of wire leads. those 2 coils read 3.8 ohms, the 1&6 coil was 1.4. The resistor was connected. It read 1.9 ohms.
Good spark 1-6, intermittent on 2-5 and 3-4. I read about the AW82 coil swap and have some of those coming. Is that the way to go ? I read conflicting info on here about the resistance values. 
Also tested the igniter. It passes the in bike tests, but the out of circuit tests not so much. I get open on all except the yellow/re to black/yellow tests. no reading at all on the others ???
Sorry for long post. Any tips appreciated.

Thanks, Don

Welcome to the forum, You'll find lots of info, help and advice here hope you get the problems sorted out quickly.
 

First off - Welcome to the site. A wealth of info here and a really good bunch of guys hanging around looking forward to discussing things with all members.

To your question on the coils / ballast resistor. the testing is covered on page 240 and 241 in the Factory Service Manual. If you don't have a copy, now that you are a member, you can access an electronic version from the "Forum" tab at the top left of the page and the "Index" tab within the forum.

The resistance of the ballast resistor needs to be within 1.5 - 1.9  Ω 
The resistance of the primary side of the coils needs to be  between 1.2 - 1.9 Ω 

That being said the less resistance in a circuit, the more amps that are alloweed to flow and the more amps flowing the hotter the spark.
So, if the ballast resistor was 1.5 Ω and the primary coil windings were 1.2 Ω you would have the least resistance and the highest amps that Kawasaki limits in the circuit.

The reason for this is to limit the current in the circuit because the Darlington transistors in the igniter are the switches that turn on / off the primary circuit to generate the spark and like all switches they are designed to carry a certain amount of current. If you over power the "switch" you will burn out the switch and then no spark.

The ignition circuit is a simple series circuit so determining the total resistance is as simple as adding up all the resistance in the circuit. Assuming that all the leads and "other switches " in the circuit have no resistance, then the only items in the circuit that need to be account for are the ballast resistor and the primary windings, so 1.5 Ω for the ballast resistor + 1.2 Ω for the primary windings in the coil = 2.7 Ω total resistance allowed in the primary ignition circuit. Anything less than that and you take a chance of burning out your igniter.

That being said, some guys have run coils as low as 2.0 Ω total resistance  (no ballast resistor)and got away with it, but that may be because there was "other" resistance in the circuit like the Master switch or the ignition switch or the run /stop / run  (kill switch) switch or resistance in all of the wiring connections which were not accounted for.

Ideally, if you manage to find a coil / ballast combination in the 2.7 - 3.0 Ω range that would be ideal. The AW82 coils have been used very successfully but be aware, there are a lot "imitations" out there, so understand what I've written here and why you need to make a selection as suggested and you'll be fine.

We are always here to help and there are "no stupid questions" Better to ask before blowing something up like an igniter. There are aftermarket units on or about 400 Euros (ouch).

Cheers,
KB