[Court93kat]

Oh.. I misunderstood. You broke the nipple and not the cap. Sorry bout that.

Ok... ignition... when I first got my bike, I had a problem with the spark too. Here is one thing you can try. Unscrew the plastic boot from the plug wire, cut about 1/4 inch off the wire and screw the plastic boots back on. This will give you a fresh connection at the boot. After all these years you may not be getting a good connection there. If that does not help, you might be looking at your coils getting weak, or a problem with the stator plate. Cutting the wires is the easiest and cheapest to start with.

I agree that everything is not carb related. But it is hard to diagnose a bike without being there. The Katana does have sensitive carbs, and even a little trash in there will mess stuff up.

No problem with giving the help. That is why we are all here. BTW..... that is a lot of nice work you have done to restore your Kat. Nice body work.

[fatmanboogie]

i took the bike for ride today, it was running like crap but i wanted to take it for a spin and see how it acted under a load.

goopd thing i didn't wander more than a few blocks from my house because it died once and took a while to get started again.

it sputtered and sounded like it was only running on one or two cylinders. every now and then it would get a burst but only for a quick second.

cold the bike started right up, the idle was still funky but it ran.

remembering back, the spark was yellow and weak. i took the coils in to autozone and they testaed at 2.9 and 3 ohm on the primarys.

from what i've read this is possibly normal maybe a little low though.

from what i can tell there maybe some type of ingnition issue going on. i do not have a manual so i am not sure what the signal generator, coils, or wires should test out as.

[TheKlic]

Ok, do what I did
I unplugged the plug wires and unscrewed the wire from the boot. then I cut off about 1/4-1/2 an inch and rescrewed it back in. it helped my spark alot
I was having similar problmes, bad connection

[Court93kat]

+1 on the wires. Give it a shot and let us know.

[fatmanboogie]

I cut back the plug wires about 1/2 inch the other day thinking it might help...no better

as far as the coils go, what is the best way to test them with an ohm meter? using the primarys it shows 2.9-3 ohm. if i test at the plug cap i get nothing, if i remove the plug wires and test from primary to wire connection i get nothing.

am i doing this wrong?

wires themselves test out as:

10.10 Ohm on the short

9.65 Ohm on the long

so at least they are showing something.

unfortunately i don't know anyone with a pre-98 suzuki so i can't "borrow" a coil.

not really looking forward to dropping $150 on coils if i don't need to.

[Court93kat]

It doesn't have to be a pre-98 to use the coils.

If you want to buy some on E-bay, you can get any year Katana coils. Or if you have a buddy with a newer Katana, they will work also. Just to try to find the problem.

[fatmanboogie]

i took my coils into a local bike shop and had them re-tested. i was told the secondaries on both coils are bad.

the suzuki dealership here wants $145 + tax for new ones and they will take 7-10 to ship.

if there is anyone local to the Spokane area and has a pair of coils for sale i sure could use them.

[Court93kat]

I think I spoke to someone on here that said they were going to send you a PM. I know they said they had a set they were not going to use.

Now, to remember who it was......