AW82-TR1 Coil Mod for the KZ1300

AW82-TR1 coils

As a general note- AW82 coils can be found in many places including EBay, Amazon to name a few but you need to be very diligent on the source since the market has been flooded with aftermarket products claiming to be AW82 coils that meet the original spec. MANY DO NOT!! If you find original AW82-TR1 Coils that are stamped with that info, they likely are original Honda coils and should resistance check on the primary winding at 2.4Ω This is not to say the others can’t be used but we must respect the primary resistance minimum of 2.7Ω and if you did get a clone coil with lower resistance, then a ballast resistor must be used. Coil resistance +plus the ballast resistance must be greater than 2.7 Ω to stay on the safe side for loading the igniter transistors. You could match a ballast resistor to clone coils and meet the 2.4 Ω minimum resistance that would be similar to running the AW82-TR1 coils without the resistor. Just remember that you’re pushing the safe limit of the igniter transistors at a level that has been proven to not burn out an igniter.

AW82-TR1 mod for the KZ1300          

First, I’d like to give Strate6 (Pete) a shout out for forging ahead 12 years ago and doing this mod and creating a Directive on how to do the mod found here www.kz1300.com/forum/electrical-ignition...z1300-how-to?start=0   This is the foundation for this section with some clean up and newer relevant information. The AW82-TR1 coils are physically the same size and will bolt in place with no mods to the mount. This mod has been successfully done by a few members and the ballast resistor was removed as deemed “no longer required” That being said, the primary resistance of the coil being 2.4Ω is lower by .3Ω than the conservative spec of 2.7Ω as spec’d out in the Service Manual. We know that 2.7Ω will load the Darlington transistor to 5.44 amps, and doing the calculation for 2.4Ω we find that the load on the Darlington’s would now be 6.125 amps, so know that doing this mod without resistors will be pushing the conservative envelope of load on the transistors but history has shown that this mod hasn’t failed an igniter.

Equipment list to carry out this upgrade.
3 x Good AW82-TR1 Coils. Should be tested & show around 2.4 ohms.
6 Feet of good quality copper core 7mm wide HT (high tension) spark plug wire.
6 x FEMALE spade terminals (crimp are fine but solder even better!).
2 Feet of 16 gauge yellow electrical wire.
1 x Foot of each GREEN & BLACK & BLUE electrical wire 16 gauge.
3 x Bullet connectors to extend each color wire above to reach the AW82 coils. (optional)

Steps to perform
1.     Remove the old coils from the bike and transfer the mounting bolts to the new coils.
2.     Disconnect the yellow 12-volt feed wire coming from the engine stop switch at the ballast resistor.
3.     Disconnect and discard the 3 pink wires from the ballast resistor.
4.     Remove the ballast resistor ( no longer required)
5.     Splice 3 new yellow wires on to the 12-volt yellow feed wire coming from the engine stop switch.  These wires need to be long enough to connect to the 3 new ignition coils primary + positive terminals.
6.     The Black, Green and Blue control wires that came from the ignition coils and ran to the igniter are likely too short and will need to be lengthened, so either splice (soldering and heat shrink wrap preferred) extensions on to the wires, or if you prefer, using bullet connectors, create extensions for those 3 wires and connect.
The black wire will connect to the – negative terminal of the upper 1-6 coil
The blue wire will connect to the – negative terminal of the lower left 3-4 coil    
The green wire will connect to the – negative terminal of the lower right 2-5 coil
7.     Cut and install new secondary wires (spark plug wires) in to the 3 new coils noting the lengths of the secondary wires of the old coils.
8.     Mount the new coils in to their respective positions.
9.     Cut each of the 3 yellow wires to length and install spade connectors on the ends of the 3 yellow wires.
10.  Connect the 3 yellow wires to the + positive terminals of the 3 new coils
11.   Cut the black wire to length and install a spade connector to the end of the wire and install the black wire on to the – negative terminal of the upper coil 1-6
12.  Cut the blue wire to length and install a spade terminal on to the end. Install the blue wire spade on to the – negative terminal of the lower left 3-4 coil
13.  Cut the green wire to length and install a spade terminal on to the end. Install the blue wire spade on to the – negative terminal of the lower right 2-5 coil.
14.  Cut the lower left coil 3-4 secondary wires to length and install the spark plug caps. Install the spark plug caps on to the 3-4 spark plugs
15.  Cut the lower right coil 2-5 secondary wires to length and install the spark plug caps. Install the spark plug caps on to the 2-5 spark plugs.
16.  Cut the upper coil 1-6 secondary wires to length and install spark plug caps. Install the spark plug caps on to the 1-6 spark plugs.