Ltd 550 half engine working

Running engine fires up brand new wire harness spark on all all electrical seems rights . One things only piston 1 and 2 are burning the mufflers like normal but other side piston 3 I can touch pipe not hot at all I can even cover the pipe for that piston and nothing at all I also have for piston 4 no fire seems to be working thumping air out of pipe but no fire piston three has oil in the pipe . What can it be what's wrong what should I do what should be checked . !! Help so close to getting it on the road .

ignition fires inner two pots of the same coil, and outer two pots off the other coil. If you had the two middle or two outer pots not firing then it would be easy to trace to a bad coil or coil feed/ignition box issue.

On this I'd eliminate fueling issues first by briefly running it on spray solvent instead of petrol, like carb cleaner sprayed into the airbox. If it fires on all four you will hear the difference instantly and then it will be a carb fuelling problem.

Don't try this if flooded, you should undo the drain plugs the bottom of the carb float bowlsto empty the carbs first ...also probably some water and sediment will come out. Good maintenance anyway.

If no joy then probably ignition, replace the HT wire with new 7mm silicon and new plug caps (non resistor) and see if that fixes it.
Even bad compressoin or other gremlins it should start.

Problems like this you need to narrow it down, eliminating one variable at a time if you can.

Stick with it, the kawi 550's are my all time favourite !






(pot = piston and cylinder... :whistle: )

Is this a new to you bike? first thing I'd do is confirm spark on all 4 cylinders. Then pull the plugs and run a compression test. More of a sanity check than anything else. Don't forget to run your compression check with the throttle wide open for most accurate results.

Pretty sure you have a fuel delivery problem and draining the bowls will at least confirm that you have gas in all 4 carbs. If you can capture the fuel, one carb at a time, you can measure it to see if all are close to the same amount of fuel in each.

If compression is good, spark is good then the only thing left is fuel.

Once you get it running correctly I think you'll like the bike. My 83 LTD will keep up with 750's! It's a little rocket ship....

What is needed to get compression check...? Will I need new pistons or rings if c oppression is wrong it fires up on piston one and 2 perfect ready to go but piston 34 are not. But when I pull plugs it's got spart. But car plugs the originals were bad .

Gjason89 wrote: What is needed to get compression check...? Will I need new pistons or rings if c oppression is wrong it fires up on piston one and 2 perfect ready to go but piston 34 are not. But when I pull plugs it's got spart. But car plugs the originals were bad .

What do you mean you got car plugs ??
you need NGK 12mm D8EA spark plugs for your 1982 550
Pete

What I mean is I changed the spark plugs to new same as you said ngk . I replaced the sparkplug cables had car ones in hand so cut and made fit to coils plugs in to original spark plug with the little screw tip on spark plug.

Any update to this problem?
Did you confirm you have fuel in all 4 carb bowls?

confirm you have spark on all 4?

Gjason89 wrote: What I mean is I changed the spark plugs to new same as you said ngk . I replaced the sparkplug cables had car ones in hand so cut and made fit to coils plugs in to original spark plug with the little screw tip on spark plug.

Hope you are using the car type spark plug caps. The OEM caps have resistors built in and you should not use them along with suppression type automotive wires. The original wires are copper core, non resistor type.

Did you check the valve clearances and clean the carbs properly? Remove the pilot jets and hold them up to the light to be sure they are open?