Won't start and backfiring through exhaust and carbs

It would be just as easy to rotate the engine so that both cam lobes on #2 are front and rear of the valve springs (Not pushing the valves down) and blow a little compressed air in the spark plug hole. Listen for air blowing out either the exhaust pipes or the air box or the spark plug holes for cylinders 1 and 3. Zero compression usually points at a substantial leak, provided the cam timing is OK. Good luck!

I came back last night and 3 of them had gas in the but #2 didn't. so I put the cams in and checked the clearance and most of them had no clearance. so I swapped some shims around and now all the intake side are good and within the range. I got to the exhaust side and all were still tight so my friend and I went to the storage unit to grabbed some shims when he realized the buckets for 750 and 650 were different. Turns out the 650 buckets have a .098" nipple on the inside and the 750 has .101" nipple. So I grabbed all those KZ650 buckets and we also found a couple shims that were .090" . I'm going to go put these buckets and shims in their proper places and hopefully all will be good.

I got her to fire!!! My battery was dead and mostly dry so I'm hoping thats why it won't run. It has about 120psi in each cylinder and should be getting fuel and spark. It fires each time I kick it but it's hard as hell and only turn over like 1 time when you kick. So after I get this battery charged tomorrow morning I will go out there and try to start it. If it doesn't start then I guess I'll check for spark and if thats good I'll clean the carbs out.

just about to mention those carbs!

ok, I bumped it down a hill 4 times so far today. It started up the 3rd time and I let it run for like a minute with the choke on then gave it gas and it seemed to be doing good but shortly after that it died. It didn't just cut out it slowly died. Then I realized that ( after the light came on ) the oil light was dim. I'm thinking that since my charging system wasn't turned on that the battery died and it's now not sparking. So it's on the charger again and I'll try her out later with the charging system turned on. It did seem to be running fine though.

you may have killed the battery, charge it and then test the cells to see if its still good

How do I test the cells?

they sell the tool at most part stores, it looks like a big eye droper,with balls inside of it, charge the battery and suck some of the acid out, it will tell you by how many balls float the condition of the cells

ok, I got the bike started up again a little bit ago and it seems to run decent but only with choke on all the way. I think maybe it's not getting the required fuel. Tomorrow I will tear down the carbs and petcock and clean everything out. I will keep you guys updated!

mine did the same thing yours did till i got a new battery, runs fine now.
Nick

I finally got the carbs and petcock apart and cleaned thoroughly. I got it all put back together and it actually fired up without having to bump it. It still runs only choked though. I rev it up to couple thousand rpm ( tach doesn't work just guessing here ) and it starts popping and will eventually die if too much throttle is given. I'm thinking there is an air leak somewhere any one else think the same?

went out today and I was planning on firing it up and letting it idle choked and then trying to find any leaks but I couldn't get it fired up. I tried it forever with it choked it just kept firing and then it would backfire out the exhaust. I then adjust the mixture screws out to 2.5 turns ( for 1.5 ) and it now won't fire choked but it will fire when not choked. it still doesn't start up though. it fires all the time but backfires out the exhaust every once in a while. This is really frustrating me.