Cylinder Problems (still)

[Little Loris]

I'm still having problems getting cylinders 1 & 4 firing and its really pissing me off.

So far, I've tried switching the coils over, switching HT leads over with the coils, changing a coil with a second hand one, electrically testing the resistance in the primary and secondary windings (all ok) and testing that there is resistance in the wires leading up to the CDI box. All wires seem to be working fine.

I took the spark plugs out recently, having replaced 2 with new ones (still no joy) and the plugs in 1 & 4 seem to be a bit oily as opposed to lightly covered in carbon. Nothing major (I hope). Anyway, I gave them a clean, checked the spacing, put them back in and still nothing in 1 & 4.

CDI boxes for H model ZXR 400's are about £50 new and rare as rocking horse poo on eBay. If it is the CDI, how do I know/test if its faulty before I buy one?

Anyone got any ideas as to what the problem might be and how I can sort it?

[Ernie456]

Hi, mate.
give this a try, i had a problem with the coil not earthing in 1& 4 and it ran like a sack of toad.
Where the two bolts that hold the coil in place bolt in to the frame thay are on two rubber mounts, mine were rusted and i done away with them. I put a nut and bolt in each end with wire connecting them both and then bolted it to the frame or a good earth and this sorted it for me.

But another thing to try, as long as you're sure there is a spark getting to the plug. Try pulling the plug out and connecting it to the HT lead with the tip of the plug touching the rocker cover and run the bike. if its sparking then have a look at the pipes under your carbs there are two, one between 2 & 3 and 1 & 4 I done everything, changed the lot and found one of the pipes had come off, put it back on and FOOOMMM FOOOOMMMM smilie faces around


Hope this helps, mines in bits at the mo with head gasket gone and should be back on the road by the weekend.

[RedexRobB]

There is a test table in the manual where you test the resistance between different terminals. Its says you need the kawasaki test meter tho, you should be ok with a good quality multimeter i would have thought.

[Little Loris]

Ok, something dropped down to the left hand side of the engine when I took the rocker cover off. See pictures below, if anyone knows what the washer type thing is, please let me know!





It has a rubber seal on the inside of the washer, so it doesn't appear like its sheared off from anything.

[Northern ANdy]

it holds the rocker cover down.

[Little Loris]

D'oh! Cheers mate!