HEI Conversion question

Hey everyone,

I've been through the entire ignition system, and the ignitor tested bad for my 81 kz1000. I decided to try Lou's HEI conversion, and I don't think I did it properly.

Pardon my super crude paint drawing. This is the exact way I wired it. Would this work correctly the way I joined the wires together? I attached Lou's drawing for reference. I just want to verify.

I am getting power to the coils with the key on, just no spark on the plugs. I have brand new dyna 3.0 ohm coils, brand new wires, and stock electronic ignition.

On your drawing, you don't show the silver stripes on the diodes. That is critical. They need to be on the end I show in the drawing.

Hi Lou,
Sorry I did not put the detail in my drawing. I matched the way your diodes and resistor looked in your sketch. I'll take apart my wire cover tomorrow and double check it. If it was reversed, would that not give me the proper signals to spark at all? I have 12 volts at the coils, just no signal coming to them.

Each coil has two wires, is there 12v on both wires? Or 12v on one wire and around 1v on the other wire. Do the coils get hot?
If the coils start to get warm at all, do not leave the ignition turned on for more than a few seconds. That can cook the coils very quickly.

If the one or both diodes are reversed, the above mentioned condition, of the coils cooking, can happen. Reversing a diode forces the dwell to be on all the time, and thus there is never a spark.

On my site, there are some drawings of how to check the igniters and coils for spark, without the pickups, by using switches instead. The test will confirm the igniters and coils are good if it sparks.

... and just to be sure, how are you checking for spark? If you are laying the spark plug on the head, make sure the other plug from the same coil is hooked up. Both must spark at the same time. If you disconnect the path for the spark, it can damage the coil or the igniter in just one spark attempt.

Now this replaces the igniter right?
And not the reg/rec.

I have a kz1000 stock ignitor, advancer, pulse pickup unit. Shipping and fair price if ya want it. R

So i peeled back the wiring on the diodes and resistor, and I did wire them in correctly. I also measured for voltage on each coil and each coil is getting 12V. I checked the coils to see if they were getting warm, and they were not, everything seems to be ambient temperature, with nothing overheating. And yes, I was checking spark with one plug against the head, with the other plug wires hooked up to their plugs installed into the head.

I know its probably pretty obvious, but I can't follow exactly how to do the test procedure on your website. Do I find a way to create a 1/4" gap between the two high tension leads and hit the starter button? Or take it completely off the bike and create a test circuit completely separate from it?

It's meant to be tested off of the bike to eliminate the bike wiring as a variable.

How are you measuring 12v on the coil? And are you saying there is 12v on both of the coil wires?

On the igniter:
What is the voltage on the B terminal? What is the voltage on the C terminal? What is the voltage on the G terminal?

Use the battery's negative terminal as the ground point for the volt meter's black lead.

I measured coil voltage at the terminal that receives the 12 volt signal at each coil. So the terminal where the red wire connects to each coil and got consistent 12 volts on each.

Voltage on B terminal = 12 volts with key turned on, on both units
Voltage on C Terminal = 12 volts with key turned on, on both units
Voltage on G Terminal = went to .01 volts when key was turned on, same on both units

That G terminal voltage is way off. It should be about 1.35 to 1.4 v. That voltage comes from the resistor/diodes circuit.

If the G terminal was unconnected, it would be about 1.2 v. Confirm that by pulling the wire off of the G terminal.

So something is dragging down the voltage on G. Follow the wires coming from the G terminal. They should go to the pickups, and nowhere else (ie no junctions etc.).

What is the voltage on junction between resistor and the diode?

When I pull the wire off the G terminal, the wire that goes to the black pick up wire, and the wire that goes to the yellow pick up wire, both read 1.05-1.07 volts. The reading on the G terminal post of the HEI when the wire is disconnected, is the same .01 volts from before.

On the top unit, the G terminal goes straight to the black wire to the pick up coil.
On the bottom unit, the G terminal goes straight to the yellow wire to the pick up coil.

They are straight shots with no interruptions.

I measured the voltage where the resistor and the diodes meet, and I got 1.41 Volts.

The junction of the resistor and diode voltage is correct, so you have that part correct. That junction should also be where the blue and red pickup wires connect to the diode/resistor circuit, correct?
If so, then the voltage on the disconnected black and yellow wires should also be about 1.4v. Yours measures lower, (1.05 to 1.07 v). This indicates there is possibly something connected or shorted to the pickup wires. You may want to re-measure the un-connected black and yellow pickup wires.

The voltage on the G terminal, however is a problem for sure.
Disconnect the C terminal.
Keep B connected.
Confirm 12v on B.
Confirm W terminal is unconnected.
Re-measure G terminal.

(All with using the battery's negative post as the ground for the meter's black test probe.)

If G is truly at .01v it indicates the HEI module is defective, or is not grounded properly.

The problem is, even if the HEI is dead, the G terminal should not have been .01v with the pickups connected. So there will still need to be more tests to rule out the pickup wiring.

Can you post a photo of the igniter setup? Show the mounting plate etc.