kz1000 #1 not firing please help

Ive checked/cleaned the carburetors, and ran b-12 through the fuel, which did help the idle a little..... verified that there is a spark in all the plugs and wires. I have no idea what else to try. The engine vibrates around 3k+ and progressively gets worse. the header pipe on #1 is warm enough to where you could grab and hold onto it and not get burned. It idles decent and when i give it gas and let up it dies. I know its getting fuel for sure, and if i pull the spark plug wire off cylinder one spark, nothing changes. I compression tested all the cylinders 1:100 2:120 3:115 4:120...its a little low but doesn't seem like it low enough to be doing what its doing. Does anyone have suggestion?

Have you checked the valve clearances to see if you can get those numbers up a little?

measure the coil for correct OHMs
measure the spark plug wire for continuity and proper voltage (spark plug wire caps carry a constant voltage)
do the same on the other side

-could be as simple as a bad connection on the ignition wire, bad coil, bad ground (less likely)

otherwise if you removed the carbs for cleaning and closed up the port holes to the engine you may have left a rag, paper, tape in there and now the fuel is not getting to the spark plug.

I look for simple answers before getting into the heavy book.

...just my 79 cents

What year is the bike? Although it has spark, I would redo the spark plug wire connections. Doing so solved an intermittent firing problem on my 81 650, even though I thought it had good spark (checked in a darkened garage at night). On the 70s models, the plug wires are molded into the coils, which can be problematic.

Next thing you could do is swap the coils or plug wires around to see if the problem follows.

Doing the valve clearance check is fairly straight forward. Changing shims, if necessary, is more work but should be doable.

44,000 miles...I have not checked the valve clearances but since today is the last day of summer classes i should have enough time to really get into the bike. It is an 82 kz1000p...I believe it has the J engine. Ive been in and out of the carbs several times. Nothing was left behind. I tried to swap the wires around to check if it was the wires/coils but was unable to as a couple of the wire lengths were short and would reach the plug. The think what im going to do next is swap the coils around and see what/ if that changes anything. As for the valves, if those were off, wouldnt they screw with my compression numbers? Also i know the fuel is not an issue because when i run it for awhile the gas runs to the bottom of the exhaust ( and since its crappy) it smokes/leaks out of the cracks in it.

Never mind on the valve clearance thing, I misunderstood. What should the compression be? and the gapping should be .004 correct? At least that's what it was when I did my moped

Welp, I swapped around the coils today, no luck. #1 is still not firing. One thing I havnt swapped around are the wires, I tried once before but because the length n such I was unable to. The plug is getting a spark through it though, could it still potentially be the wire??

Could actually be the plug. Did you swap plugs around? (sorry if this was covered, didn't back-read)

List of things done
-Swapped plugs back and forth
-Swapped coils
-Cleaned the jets in B12 chemtool
-Ran B12 chemtool in gas
After the chemtool it did help with idle slightly with no help to #1 though.
-Also poured b12 chemtool directly into cyclinder, when I did so and started it, the liguid came out of the exhaust, did not burn any of it.
I may try starting it with #4 wire to #1 plug and leave 4 not hooked up just to see if #1 fires. Still need to adjust the valve clearances, however thatll be one of the last things I do.

OK, thanks for this...

Have you checked compression? OK, saw this in your OP. Was your comp check run cold, warm or hot?

Got, or looking for, a FSM yet?

Garbosh wrote: List of things done
-Swapped plugs back and forth
-Swapped coils
-Cleaned the jets in B12 chemtool
-Ran B12 chemtool in gas
After the chemtool it did help with idle slightly with no help to #1 though.
-Also poured b12 chemtool directly into cyclinder, when I did so and started it, the liguid came out of the exhaust, did not burn any of it.
I may try starting it with #4 wire to #1 plug and leave 4 not hooked up just to see if #1 fires. Still need to adjust the valve clearances, however thatll be one of the last things I do.

If not already tried, could attach #1 plug wire to #4 plug and attach #4 plug wire to #1 plug, to see whether it makes any difference.

Also, if #1 cyl has insufficient compression because of a too tight valve, it won't combust regardless of perfect ignition and perfect carburetion.

Good Fortune!

My compression test was ran warm, did it as the instructions on the kit said. At WOT too. FSM? Also when I run it with the choke on, the exhaust tube gets warm/hot to the point I cant hold It with my bare hand. With the choke not on it stays cool. Also when I progressively rev it slowly....I get to about 4k and the tac then drops down to 2k and I get the engine shake/shutter vibration going on.