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hi everyone
i just wanted to share my kz1300 story with you guys it started when i was 18 yrs old i had been working at the bike shop for about a year .
we had a customer that would come in from time to time with his z1300 i would stop work and always go out to have a look at it .
One day i was down by the beach at the carpark on my z750 and the guy rolled up on his z1300 we got chatting and out of the blue he gave me the keys and said take it for a spin .
Of course i jumped at the chance so that was me on it and gone i was hooked but it was to be many years later before i could afford to buy one .
So when the time came i had to start looking off island for one as there aren't many here i found one for sale in one of the mags it was a kz1300a4 duel alternator model .I phoned the guy he was based on the south coast he had a collection of 80s jap bikes we did a deal i arranged to go over and pick the bike up .
I arranged to go over with some biker mates they were going to a rally so the idea was go pick the bike up then on to the rally .
Turned up saw the bike all cool took it for a road test for an hour bike ran great no issues so handed cash over and off i went with my mates was having a great time .
So here it comes charging along into a roundabout out the roundabout open throttle splutter then nothing coasted to a stop no spark checked what i could could not find anything wrong but had limited tools .
Had to wait at the side of the road for six hours for my mates to get where they were going get a van drive down and pick me up got the bike to the club house of the club that was having the party .
They had tools so i checked everything traced it to the cdi went on the hunt for one nothing nowhere had to get the bike taken back to poole to get the ferry home .
Bike back in workshop no cdi anywhere checked usa europe south africa uk everywhere nothing no one was fixing them or making them back then .
I started looking at other kz1300 cdi's i noticed the injected kz1300 cdi was close but it had a vacuum box for advance so i got one and modified one to fit but couldn't get the vacuum box to work right so i bust it open and worked out if a grounded one of the wires it would let the bike rev but chewed up the starter clutch in the end i got so fed up i sold it to a mate cheap .
Fast forward a few years I'm bored so start looking at z1300s and start seeing people are making cdi's and bingo carmo make one for a a4 a5 woooooohoooooo awesome phoned my mate he left the bike in the garage covered up he said i could have it back very happy man .
SO i call carmo to place my order and here comes the but yes we make one he says but it has issues he says he needs a running bike to sort the issue so now my bubble
has now burst so can anyone help they are in the Netherlands there is a deal on the table for anyone that can help spoke to them today great guys they just want to sort this out they are really close .
So thats my z story sorry its so long but i thought the back story might help so i will say thank you now to anyone who takes the time to read this and a bottle of JD to anyone that can help lol lol

I have an A5 (single alternator) and I sent my cdi to Carmo late last year for testing (I live in Australia). Now, I am pretty sure they didn't offer a replacement for the A4/A5 model back then, so maybe they were able to do some reverse engineering on mine. Curious!!

Hey yaegunp
Thanks for the reply yes i think you are right they are real close with one its just some small issue they really need a whole bike to sort it out its such a great thing to know that there are people out there trying to keep these bikes running and improve them carmo said once the unit is finished the bike will run much better than it ever did

I would ditch that system. Did that on a fuel injection model. Converted it back to carburettors and the bike now runs better than ever before. Look into something like the 79/80 ignition system and using your pick up coils it's actually pretty simple to convert and works really well. Should save you a couple of wasted dollars.

Hey rob
I only used the cdi and pick ups from an injected bike kept the carbs would i not need the barrels from an a1 a2 bike ???to fit the pick ups and advance unit so i can run the early cdi ??????

Hi Rickster
From the cable on your existing pick up coils take the end plug and plug it into the older version cdi.
If i recall when you strip out the existing cdi that you have there may be one wire that you might have to join.
Basically 12v supply to cdi and then connection(plug in) existing pick up coil plug.
You do not need the barrels and rear pick set as you describe. Wether the pick ups are behind the barrels or on the end of the crank is irrelevant as they both perform the same function.
I hope that this helps