Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): Ignitors, ground signal, optimum power

Question
Paul,

what does the ignitor do on the kawasaki's ? I realize their is still a coil, which produces the voltage for spark, but I do not understand what the ignitor does and how to check it. I have a small engine repair as a side business and have read about these but havent seen or dealt with one yet.    thank you for the info.  

Answer
The ignitor is what seperates a Kawasaki from the rest of the engine crowd.

It's mostly acts as a set of points, it senses the collapse of the primary feild and sends a ground signal back to the coil to dump the high voltage out of the secondary winding.  It also advances or retards the ignition as needed to provide optimum power.

If you have a small engine shop you need to purchase an ignitor for test purposes.  The only way to tesy the ignitor is to replace it with a known good unit.  I won't say that the coil never fails, but, we stock 6 ignitors and 0 coils.