1982 KZ650 cranks but won't start

those pods on that carb are going to run terrible the rubber on the inner diamater is to thick and it blocks the air ports will not allow full throttle if i were you id stay with the air box for now and fix one thing at a time if not your just going to be beating your head against the wall while your waiting on the cable pull that carb compleatly apart and get some fine wire brushes and some thin wire i use guitar string and fishing string and a couple cans of carb cleaner make sure you clean and rod out every port with the string and brushes and on these carbs i have seen the needle valve jet clog pull it and wire it all out and lube all rods and if you insist on keeping the pods invest in the k&n pods seems to be the only ones that i ever got to run right you will need to rejet and the bike still wont run any better than the stock box and hurt your milage to me its just not worth it but thats just my opinion and to save you some time and money if your planing to change your exhust that will requre jetting changes also so if your going to do it do it all at once b34 stock jets should be 45 pilot and 115 main

You switched from the stock airbox to pods before even getting the bike running? You have increased the number of variables and complexity you now need to deal with. Good luck.

chamge all 4 plugs out then spray a little ether in the carbs to see if she fires.
sounds to me like your plugs are fuel soaked and not firing.
if there black and wet, there soaked. it is possible to flood these engines.

I know I need to take them off and just get it running first, but I got excited! I got the carbs soaking now, I;m gonna leave them in the drink for a few days and see how "purty" they come out. Maybe I'll have my throttle cable by then. I have a TON of new Harley jets from jet kits that I've done, and they thread right in to these carbs, and I mean EASILY thread all the way down by hand. Does anyone know of a chart that can compare Keihin jet numbers to Mikuni jet numbers in terms of size? I can pretty much get a free jet kit that way, lol.