er-5 LHS ignition failure

[Thom]

Kawasaki ER5 2000 reg.

Im currently in the process of buying this bike, its due to go for an MOT however it wont run properly after being stood for a short time.

The carbs have been cleaned and the plugs are both good however its only running on one cylinder, the right hand side.

The left hand coil seems to have died as it wont work on the right hand side, so that says it needs a new coil, however the right hand side wont fire on the left cylinder.

So could this suggest a buggared ECU or would neither side fire if this was the case?

What else could be the problem? Any help is much appreciated as i REALLy need tog et the bike ASAP.

Cheers, Thom.

P.s i've just been told the LHS coil is recieving a constant 12volts at the connectors (I assume this is where) whereas the RHS fluctuates between 0 and 12 as it should.
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Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[finpos]

Check the coils earth properly to the frame before going out to buy anything, could just be paint/grot on the mounts or a missing/broken earth strap.

f.

[Jamie S]

The bike is mine, the constant 12 volts to the lh/s coil wires (LT side, where they connect to the coil) comes when the wires for the cdi are plugged in, when they are not connect the connects show 0 volts
Does any one know if the er5 uses a wasted spark system? as the positive leads for both the coils branch from the same wire live ?
The lh/s coils possitve wire connected to the rh/s coil negative wire produces a very good spark
I have a full colour wiring diagram which i can upload in a bit.
Jamie.

[Kickstart]

Hi

I would expect a constant 12V to each of the coils, interupted momentarily to trigger a spark.

Fairly sure the ER5 uses a wasted spark system as the ignition pickups are on the crank and no way for it to know which rotation of the crank requires a spark. However as the sparks required are not 360 degrees of the crank out it needs to coils, rather than just 2 leads from the same coil. I presume that there are 2 seperate pickups on the flywheel to trigger a spark, so one of these could be dead as well.

I would expect the 2 coils to be the same and you could swap them over (fully).

Check the resistance over the coils. With luck one will be obviously dead (no circuit), but otherwise need the real resistances for them (manual should list them).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Lukaz2205]

Hi i deal with alot of ER5's as my dads got one and i have a contract with a training school that uses them for repairs.

i see it alot that the actual HT lead comes away from the cap slightly, if your nearby you could always change it for fresh lead, i have tonnes of it here if you want any.
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1st....2nd....3rd....4th.....into 5th......6th field and stopped in a heap!

[Thom]

hi,

Jamie tried the coil from the other side so that wasnt the problem unfortunately

hoping the new CDI/coil combo will fix it!

If not it seems to be the pickup(s) and then wiring!
____________________
Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Jamie S]

I can confirm that the ER5 uses a single pickup off of the flywheel, the flywheel "lugs" are both ok so it's not them at fault , the pickup appears to be working fine as it sends the signal for the rh/s coil fine,so it's looking like a cdi fault,unless anyone has any more thoughts?.
Metal forever: the coils arrived today, just awaiting the cdi unit now mate.
Jamie.

[Thom]

For god sake I hope it works
____________________
Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Jamie S]