Major cam timing screw up

Yeah I went through the carbs pretty well. All new o rings and gaskets. New pilots and mains. Mains were bumped up to compensate for pods and 4-1 exhaust. Pilots were left stock. I was thinking I could just adjust the pilot mixture to compensate. But I'm starting to think that is not the case.

Good chance you will need to hit the pilot and air passages a second time..... more than a few of us have .......and go up a step to 17.5 pilots. Mine has always idled and ran near perfect off idle with pods and a 4 into 1 and one step up. Just to be sure make sure you use a fuel filter too.

That sound like my ticket. I have never been super clean on what model these carbs are. Is it VM22SS?

notalec wrote: That sound like my ticket. I have never been super clean on what model these carbs are. Is it VM22SS?

No. If they are the original carbs they will be Mikuni VM24SS carbs. The VM22SS carbs were only used on the 1978 KZ650-B2A and 1978 KZ650 D1A models. The "A" suffix in those model numbers denoted the 22mm carbs. The 1978 B and D models without the "A" suffix had the 24mm carbs as did all 1977 and 1979 KZ650 models. Ed

If you initially set the timing on the 2-3 marks this puts the timing 180 degrees out and the pistons nowhere near the valves so you have no chance of bending any valve.

If crank is 180 out then cam timing is 90 out (as crank turns twice for every cam revolution)

if lobe centre is 105 degrees, 90 out puts max valve lift at 15 ATDC and 15 BTDC ? valve bending territory potentially.
Thus the easy cranking as there was no compression due to open valves on the compression strokes. . These run quite generous clearances stock so hopefully you have dodged a bullet.

Your problem is more likely igniton or carbs.

You could use starting fluid to eliminate fueling problem and manually twist the timing plate while running (if it was disturbed from its original position) to check for ignition timing.

It is easy to goof up on the coils, carbs, throttle cable, idle setting, ht leads, coil terminals wiring , fuel lines blah blah on the reassembly -any one of these will cause above problems. You correctly rewired your coils and leads to 1 , 4 2 and 3 right?