Z1300 Nology Coil Install

Z1300, KZ1300, ZG1300 and ZN1300

Nology Coil Install

kz1300.com/techarticles/nology-coils.html

Last Update 2/2/10

Regarding the issue of the ballast resistor that comes on a KZ1300.  There's only 2 instances where you'll keep the original ballast resistor on your bike. 

#1:  If you have the original coils still in place or have replaced them with OEM or NOS coils that are exactly like the stock coils (same ohm reading).  Our stock coils have 1.5 ohm primary resistance.  This applies to ALL KZ1300's.  I can't speak for the guys overseas that have Z1300's or newer ZG1300's since these bikes were never imported to the USA.  I suspect that all Z1300's are like KZ1300's, and have 1.5 ohm coils, and the European ZG1300's probably have the same coil our ZN1300 had which was a 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coil.

#2:  If you replace your original coils with any other 1.5 ohm, or less than 1.5 ohm coil, then you need to keep the ballast resistor.  I don't care where these replacement coils came from, whether they're off another Kawasaki, a Honda, a boat, a car or an airplane.  If they measure 1.0 - 1.5 ohms or less on the primary side then you need to keep your ballast resistor in the circuit.  In either of these situations you need the ballast to bump the resistance back up to approximately 2.7 - 3.0 ohms which is what your igniter needs to see on the coil side to work properly.  If you use car coils that are less than 1.0 ohm, then you might even have to buy a different resistor to bump the resistance up to the correct 2.7 - 3.0 ohm reading.

The reason for this is explained in detail on both the Accel page and the FAQ page on this site but I'll make it simple.  ALL the igniters for ALL year KZ1300 and ZN1300's (I'm sure this includes Z1300's and ZG1300's also) were made to work with 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coils or within that 2.7 - 3.0 ohm range.  However, when the 1300 first came out and for whatever reason, Kawasaki used a 1.5 ohm coil on the bike.  To get the proper 2.7 - 3.0 ohm resistance that they designed the igniter to see on the coil side they simply added a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor in the coil circuit.  Adding a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor to a 1.5 ohm coil gives you 3.0 ohms total resistance, and this is basically what all the igniters were designed to 'see'.

Why they used 1.5 ohm coils and added a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor I don't know.  I didn't design the bike so I can only speculate.  It appears they intended to use a 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coil from the beginning, but maybe there was a supply issue, and they couldn't get 2.7 ohm coils at that time.  Maybe all they could get their hands on at the time were 1.5 ohm coils, so they figured it was simple enough to add a ballast resistor to the circuit and correct the issue.  Either way, this is why the KZ1300's have a ballast resistor and the ZN1300's don't.  When they started making the ZN1300 they put 2.7 ohm coils on the bikes from the beginning, so they didn't need the ballast.  

The issue today is that most of the KZ1300's out there have either had the original coils replaced, or need them replaced now.  So what do you do today to get good coils?  However you want to look at it, using a ballast resistor in the coil circuit is a bad idea because it causes a voltage drop.  Granted, when these bikes were brand new this setup probably worked just fine; for awhile anyway.  After a few 1000 miles though, people started having hard start issues.  I've seen the stock coils split wide open at only 7000 original miles!!  It's obvious the stock coils didn't stand up to the heat very well.  OK, so that was 1979, and now it's 30 years later.

Today we can take advantage of current technology, and get a much better coil on our bike that will cure any hard start issues related to weak spark, and drastically improve the way our bike runs with improved gas mileage to boot.  If you're one of those guys that wants to keep everything original, then check your stock coils regularly, and keep your ballast resistor in the circuit.  Keep in mind that should the ballast resistor fail, and short circuit rather than fail with an open circuit where no voltage passes, your igniter will be getting too much current through it, and it will burn up rather fast.  If it gets an open circuit the bike will just quit running but it shouldn't damage the igniter.  I don't want to speculate on how many times either one of these situations has happened, but I've seen quite a few burned up igniters where the insulation over the wires going into the igniter was just fried.  So you tell me what happened.

Yes, it might be cheaper to mount up a Buick automotive coil pack like a few members have done.  Since they appear to be under 1 ohm coil packs though, you'll have to keep the ballast resistor in the circuit to bump the total resistance up to 2.7 - 3.0 ohms.  This may be a cheap way to keep the bike running, and I don't have a problem with saving money.  But is this setup just as good as having Nology or Dyna coils on your bike?  I don't think so, because I think our bike NEEDS the hottest coil we can get for performance reasons, and to get the best gas mileage.  An automotive coil pack with a resistor in the circuit just doesn't provide the hottest spark.  But it is a cheap way to get new coils on your bike.

IF there was a automotive 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coil pack available where we could drop the ballast out of the circuit, IF these coils put out even 35k volts, IF they hold up good long term, and IF they were reasonably priced new or used; then they might be good enough that there would be no need in my mind to look for something better.  I don't know of any that fit these specifications at this time.  I don't want to keep the ballast in the circuit, because I don't think you're getting enough voltage to those coils with that setup.  If you lower the primary voltage you lower the secondary voltage, and we need the hottest spark we can get.  

Replacing your original coils with stock coils is an OK way to keep riding.  Replacing your original coils with a Buick coil pack is an OK way to keep riding, and these may actually work a lot better than the stock coils, so you should see some noticeable improvement.  If you want to use a 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coil off a Honda or a Yamaha or Suzuki or any other bike, you might find a good deal on a set you can use on your KZ, and that's an OK way to keep riding.  The only issue is how many ohms they measure.  If you're replacing bad coils with one of these solutions, then you should at least notice that the bike starts easier, and runs better with some mileage improvement.

If you want to know what other bikes use 2.7 - 3.0 ohm coils so you can bolt them on and throw away the ballast, I'm not sure except that ALL ZN1300's used a 2.7 ohm coil and I've been told that a lot of Kawasaki's and Honda's use 2.7 ohm coils probably from about 1983 on.  The Kawasaki coil should bolt right on just like the original coil and as a bonus, you can replace the spark plug wires.  The original KZ1300 coils were made in such a way that the wires were molded to the coils, and you couldn't remove the wires from the coil.  If you want the best coil you can get on your bike, then you'll probably want to try something else.

I've rejected the Accel coils because of the recent problems that have manifested with those as I state on the Accel page and below.  Between the Dyna and Nology coils it's your choice, but I think the Nology's may have a better technology especially with their Hotwires, and the silver electrode spark plugs.  They're smaller, lighter, easier to mount in the stock locations, and Nology's are usually the cheaper of the two brands.

I have found another coil that MIGHT work on our bike also.  It appears some model Harley's use a 2.5 ohm coil, and I bought a set of Screamin Eagle coils off ebay to fit a Harley Davidson, and have tried to mount these on a KZ and a ZN.  I think these may actually work just fine on our bikes, and they're supposed to put out over 30k volts, but the problem with these is that they're just physically too large compared to our stockers, and you can't get them mounted in there anywhere!  There's just no room for these things unless maybe you have a fairing on your bike, and you want to mount them up inside the fairing.  They're at least twice the size of the Nology coils, and more than twice as heavy.  I think I'll pass on these.

So to sum up, the original ballast resistor on our KZ1300's SHOULD NEVER BE USED when replacing coils UNLESS you're replacing them with another <2.7 ohm set of coils.  That would include an original style OEM Kawasaki 1300 coil, the Buick coil pack, any other coil pack regardless of what it came off as long as it measures 2.7 ohms or less, and any other motorcycle coil that measures 2.7 ohms or less.  So you would use a ballast to increase the ohm rating to get the 'low' ohm rated coil up to what is required for our bike.  If you want to know how to measure the primary resistance of a coil, refer to your service manual and use the same technique to measure any other coil you're looking at using.  david@kz1300.com

Since so many people have asked, the image above is a picture of the much talked about OEM ballast Resistor shown in it's original location on the left side of the upper coil.  You would NOT use this with the Accel coils as shown in the picture!  I simply stuck it back on the bike after putting the new coils on so I could get a picture to show people the original mounting location.  The yellow wire is the 12 volt positive feed which splits out into 3 pink wires, one to each coil.  Use this yellow wire to feed your new coils.

Over the last couple of years I've noticed high ohm readings on a few 140403 Accel coils.  The 140403 coil is to my knowledge, the only coil Accel makes that will work on our bike.  The do make a 140404 coil that's also a 3.0 ohm coil, but it's for older style points type ignition, and won't work on our electronic ignition.  Apparently there are still a lot of these 140403 coils for sale by various companies that sell Accel products, so you may be able to find some without too much trouble.  However, some of the recent Accel coils I've purchased as of 2005 and later, seem to measure more like 3.5 - 4.5 ohms on the primary side, instead of the 3.0 ohms they're rated at.  This high of an ohm reading is unacceptable for our ignition.  So I suggest if you have a set of these, you measure the primary side of your Accel's, and see what the reading is.  You can measure them just like it shows in the service manual for measuring the stock KZ coil.  If they measure right at 3.0 ohms, I would guess that they'll work just fine, but if they're much higher than that, you may have a weak spark or no spark at all.  

You can check to see how good your plugs are firing by pulling the 3 plug wires off one side of the engine - one wire at a time.  Put a spare spark plug back in the plug wire, ground the spark plug on your valve cover, and start your engine.  If it looks like you have a weak spark on any of these 3 wires then you should check the resistance readings on your coils.  If they read too high, consider replacing them with the newer Nology coils shown below.

Here's what the Nology website says - http://www.nology.com/hot.html

"Nology HotWires are the most technologically advanced ignition wires available.  HotWires create the most powerful spark possible.  HotWires are engineered with a special built-in capacitor, exclusive only to HotWires.  This revolutionary design allows energy from the ignition coil to accumulate in the capacitor until the voltage at the spark plug electrodes reaches the ionization point.  At that split second point the entire power of the stored spark is discharged at once, creating a spark 300 times more powerful.  The result is faster, more complete combustion, and most importantly, MORE HORSEPOWER that's 100%. Smog Legal.  US Patent #: 6,559,376.  Hotwires are available in Red, Black, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Purple & Silver.  Motorcycle - 2 Cylinder from $72, 4 Cylinder from $144".

They sell a 3.0 ohm dual tower 'ProFire' coil - part number: PFC-30D, that is a good replacement for our original coils and they claim a spark voltage in excess of 45,000 volts!  They provide you all the information about their products in a pdf file including their Hotwires and silver electrode spark plugs.  A sales guy at Nology said that this coil will measure 2.4 - 2.7 ohms when you test it with a meter, but it can be used on bikes that call for a 3.0 ohm coil.  Our bike actually calls for a 2.7 ohm coil, so this is a perfect fit for us and probably for the 6-cylinder Honda CBX too as I understand those guys were using the same coil we were.

The correct coil for our bike is # PFC-30D which also fits the following bikes as listed on their application page:

98-92, Honda-CBR600 F2/F3
97-92, Honda-CBR900RR
98-97, Kawasaki 800B
97-90, Kawasaki ZX6, ZX7, ZX9, ZX11
00-96, Kawasaki Vulcan, Classic, Nomad, & Drifter
99-98, Kawasaki 1500A
97-92, Suzuki GSXR750W, GSXR1100W

Shown in the pictures below is a 'S7' Nology Silverstone spark plug which they state: 

"The large diameter silver center electrode of Silverstone spark plugs increases spark carrying ability and spark power by as much as 137%."  

They have a cross reference which shows the S7 plug to be the best selection for our bike.  Update!  Their part numbers have changed!  Based on their Spark Plug Specification Chart And Cross Reference chart, it looks like the new plug # will be a "L4YS".  I was also informed that some resellers are having a problem getting this coil.  If that's the case, you can still buy these direct from Nology from what I understand.

I originally bought my Nology coils on the web at PerformanceDepot.com because they were willing to accept payment via PayPal for the purchase.  You can also buy these coils direct from Nology if you want, but the ebay seller I show below is much cheaper.  I paid approximately $79 each for the coils back in 2006, $7 each for the plugs, and $220 for 6 wires from PerformanceDepot.com.

PerformanceDepot.com Inc.
318 N. Carson Street, Suite 208
Carson City, NV 89701
M-F 8:00am to 5:00pm PST
805.857.4910

This is a better deal!  Here's an ebay seller out of Miami, Florida - ihavethebestpriceperformance - that auctions these PFC-30D coils for $60 each as of 8/2008.  He has perfect feedback, and accepts PayPal for payment, or Credit Cards through PayPal.  His ebay store is - ihavethebestpriceperformance69.

UPDATE 2/10!!!

Lately a few people have tried to buy the 3 ohm Nology PFC-30D coil that's recommended for our bike only to find that it's out of stock everywhere you look.  There's a couple of ebay sellers with auctions on these coils, but guess what... they don't actually have them in stock.  They're waiting on delivery, but they're selling them anyway.

I needed some myself and checked every source I could find, ebay & otherwise and found this to be the case.  Called Nology and they're qouting a 2 month delivery date if they were ordered today.  However, some sellers will get theirs before then.  As shipments come in they go to the sellers that have been waiting the longest.

Bottom line is, if you want them, you'll have to order them from someone and wait.  So I went looking over at Dyna and guess what they just came out with?  A mini-coil that looks a lot like Nology's coil we've been buying.  The mounting is slightly different, but the coil size and output looks comparable.

They sell them in single coils and in pairs, and it appears they're actually available.  So now we have more options.  Here's a pair on ebay right now part # DC1-3 for $124 and free shipping.  You'd still have to buy a single since we need 3 coils, but it looks like they sell cheaper in pairs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120420239810

Looks like this is a 3 ohm coil, but I see they sell a 3 ohm and 0.5 ohm version, with single or twin outputs.  So if someone buys these, make sure you get the right ones.  Let us know how they work and send some good pictures of your install and I'll add it to my site.  david@kz1300.com

Z1300 or KZ1300 Nology Coil Install

At least 45 members have reported back with success and they've racked up no telling how many miles.  I have over 15,000 miles now on a set that were mounted in the stock location with no problems after 3.5 years.  More members are trying them every day so we'll know more as time goes by, but so far no problems have been reported relative to heat degradation or other issues after a year to 3.5 years of use (as of 2/2010) by myself and others.  I think most guys are mounting them in the stock location as I am.   david@kz1300.com

   A simple way I found to install these coils is to get a piece of aluminum angle iron from the hardware and cut 3 pieces to use as mounting brackets.  The coils don't have to be mounted the same way I show here, but it seemed expedient to do it this way.  The aluminum could simply be drilled and tapped with a thread to eliminate using nuts on the back side like I did and this might look better, but what I've got here works good and I've since painted the brackets black so they're not so noticeable.  

These are mounted on a KZ1300.  The one right side lower coil I used a longer bracket to move the coil farther back to keep it from interfering with the radiator hose.  This also gives a better wire placement for the spark plug wires.

Just to be clear, assuming you're mounting these on a KZ that originally had a ballast resistor, the ballast will be eliminated, and the  power side of all 3 coils will be fed by the yellow power wire that originally fed 12 volts to the ballast.  So you'll have to fashion a power connection that ties the 3 feeds from the coils into the one yellow wire that provides the power for the coils which I believe comes from the ignition switch.  On the Voyager I seem to remember that there was 3 separate power wires coming out of the harness, and they had the correct spade type ends on them, so the coils literally just plug in as I recall.

ZN1300 Voyager Nology Install

   Adding the tie-wrap seemed to be a good idea to keep a neat run on the wires.

   I had to notch out my bracket to take advantage of the hole where I could run the bottom two sets of wires through.

   Silverstone spark plugs 'S7'

There is one issue on running these plug wires if you go with the Nology Hotwires.  Hotwires are a minimum 20" in length and don't come in any shorter length's than this.  In the pictures shown here with the Accel wires I have some plug wire runs shorter than 20", but when I get the Hotwires on I'll have to redo this setup accordingly.  The upper coil that was originally the 1&6 coil I'll probably make the 3&4 coil because those wires should come out about 20" and so forth.  I'll do some experimentation with which coil will go to which set of cylinders when I sit down to actually do the install.

To be clear, you don't have to use Nology spark plug wires on Nology coils unless you just want to and you don't mind spending $220 on a set of wires!  That's a lot of money, but they do claim that using their wires with their coils will dramatically increase the spark energy.  We have a couple of members that have sprung the extra bucks for their wires and nobody's complaining, but most have opted for using regular high performance spiral wound spark plug wires.  You can buy high performance spiral wound spark plug wire sets at your local speed shop anywhere in the world.

I would use the premium spiral wound spark plug wires over the cheaper types, and get a set that has 90 degree spark plug ends.  It's very tight under the hood of this thing, and the 90 degree wire sets allow you to make it look good.

Also take note of the fact that these coils are marked + & - , so polarity must be observed.  Of course, your power feed wires from the battery go to the + positive side of the coil, and the wires running back to the igniter are the - negative side.   david@kz1300.com 

Nology Spark Plug Wire Install on a Z1300

Courtesy of Mike Bosman in Australia.

NOTE: On these newer browsers I've noticed that they don't always display my large images in full size when you open an image from the thumbnails.  Once you click the thumbnail and open the larger image, if you 'mouse over' the image you should see a " + " symbol or some other indicator like a box with arrows usually on the bottom right edge of the image.  If you click on the indicator, then the image will expand to it's full size which displays full screen on computers that use a 800 x 600 resolution setting for the monitor.  If you click the indicator again it will go back to the smaller image. Some people use a resolution setting of 1024 x 768 or higher on their monitors and for those users the images will appear smaller than full screen in size.  You can change your monitor settings easily enough if you desire.  Also, the indicator I've noticed is slow to appear even after the image appears to of completely loaded.  The indicator in Netscape seems to be a lot faster to display than the one in Internet Explorer. 

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