Author Topic: Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple  (Read 573 times)

coops

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Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple
« on: March 25, 2017, 02:41:25 AM »
Hi, new to this forum. Nice forum.
I am building a Kawasaki 500 (1971 3 cylinder 2 stroke) race bike and the engine I bought had absolutely no electrix at all, so I decided to build a total loss 12v battery system with 12v DC CDIs from kymco dink 50. I bought 3 CDI units and bought 3 Bando #1831 Coils.
I did have in my boxes of spare Kawasaki bits a set of pickups and pickup rotor (flying magnet) Hoping they would be compatable. But they don't seem to trigger the CDI.
My question is, what sort of pickups do I need? and I want to mount some sort of flying magnet directly on the end of the crank.
I could possibly mount a kymco flywheel on there but its a  bit big not ideal. I could fabricate some sort of aluminium rotor with a magnet embedded, but have no idea what sort of magnet to get.
Bit of a tricky question Eh.
Thanks for any help in advance.
Steve.

CROSSBOLT

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Re: Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2017, 02:16:35 PM »
Yow! What a project! I recall the triple 2-strokes, late 60s early 70s. Bridgestone seemed the first but Kawasaki was the killer and they ALL had electronic ignition which solved most of the 2t problems. I think most of the Kymco systems use the "pulsar" pickup which is, I suspect, a Hall effect transistor excited by a small, strong magnet. I am sure you are already aware of all this so it has been little help. How many wires from the pickups do you have? How many wires to the CDI are there? Same number of wires then which ones go together? This would keep anyone awake for a month!

Karl
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ole two wheels

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Re: Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2017, 05:00:40 PM »
Hi coops, welcome to the forum, one of the best. My brother owned a Kawasaki dealership in Greenville Ms. and when the new 900 Kaws , a 3 cylinder, 2 stroke, if memory serves, he invited me to take a test ride. It was very fast off the line, but when that power curve kicked in, wow!! That was one quick bike. Why not find a wiring diagram for your 500 and wire it up right? Just a thought. Good luck, I wouldn't want to do it.



Mac
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coops

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Re: Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2017, 08:22:20 PM »
Hi the pickups I have, have two wires but one of them goes straight to ground.
Many reasons not to replace original ignition. One being weight, the windings and stator rotor probably weighs 10 pound. Other is ground clearance. I can remove nearly 3 inches from the side of the engine! Also it would cost thousands to buy all the bits to take it back to original.
Ive seen original NOS CDIs on ebay they are usually around $250usd. I need three of them. They are AC. Then I would need the ignitor unit, regulator....
Thousands. The build is going to cost around 10K already.
There are other aftermarket systems available, but they come in at around $700usd.
I bought 4 Kymco CDIs and 4 coils (1 spare of each) for around $200. All I need is three pickups and a magnet.
The pickups are easy I suppose. I can google search them.
Its the rotor/magnet which poses the problem. I can fabricate a rotor, but what magnet do I use. Maybe I need to get hold of a Kymco flywheel.

coops

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Re: Kymco ignition on a kawasaki triple
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2017, 07:44:00 AM »
OK then. Simple question........
Which type of pickup do the DC CDI bikes use? One wire or two wire pickup?
Thanks.

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