Start up day

Well I finally made it to the day when I actually start it up this for the very first time since I purchased it a couple of years ago. Every thing has been gone through meaning carbs, valves etc. The aftermarket Dyna ignition and coils installed as prescribed by the manufacture. Well I hit the starter button and I cranked endlessly but she didn't want to start. This particular bike has been sitting idle since the early eighties.I stopped to gather my thoughts. I checked the compression and have good pressure(130 – 150 psi). There is spark and the timing is correct. The carbs were restored by a pro? I finally got her to start around midnight but she smoked a lot and ran like crap meaning backfiring and definitely sounded like it was not firing on all cylinders. Any help or suggestions to point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

could be running far too rich, pull you air screws on the top of the carbs out about five turns and have another go.

I adjusted the air/fuel screw 1 3/4 turns as recommended by the Kawasaki manual. I checked the plugs again and 3 and 4 were sooted up. Cleaned them rechecked compression and all good there, re checked for spark and all six have.I do see some stray arcing from a couple of plug wires. I will be replacing in the future.The wires came with the coils and Dyna 2000 module that I purchased used on ebay.I didn't attempt to start it because it was late so will attempt later today.BTW the idle screw how many turns? I didn't touch that yet.

if you do a bit of research you will find that the book is wrong.
screw the air screws to the bottom then out maybe 4 full turns then use a color tune for the fine adjustment.
sort the stray sparks as well as it will cause a missfire and contribute to poor starting and running

Ian

Thanks Ian! You are correct every thing is pointing me toward the carbs. I did adjust the screw but that only helped some what.I feel the needle needs to be adjusted. It's a 79 so the needle is adjustable. But it's held in there with a retaining clip and my removal tool is too short to reach it(DOH!) and I don't want to use a scribe to remove and possibly gouge the metal.So I ordered one and now I just have to wait and just do other things on the bike until I get it.After I get thing running right I need to address the gasket leaks.This thing leaks oil like the Exxon Valdez!

Just a question, are you running the new coils via the ballast resistor ?, pretty sure you don't have to with what you have, if u are then it might be the reason for the troubles, also I have a '79, my main needles have the clip on the middle groove, found it was ok, never touched it, balance your carbies, can cause heaps of problems, and they have to be on the bike and it running to do a proper job, first start on mine when I did the re-build was bad, I stuffed up with the cork gasket on the output shaft, so she filled the tail shaft tube with oil and it leaked out everywhere, but the 4 turns out for the idle jets is a good starting place, make sure u have the accelerator cables not too tight. Make sure your timing advancer isn't stuck and opens and returns easy, that will make sure your spark is right at idle and higher revs, timing light will tell you if it's advancing ok, sometimes they get a tad stuck or the springs are weak, good luck