Cylinder #2 not firing...I'm stumped

I just bought my 79 KZ1000 LTD a few weeks ago, and it had been sitting for 2 years. It wouldnt run when I bought it, so I took the carbs off and cleaned them 3 times before I got it to run decent. Ive been riding it around for a while, and noticed that cylinder #2 hasnt been getting hot. Im assuming that it has been running on 3 cylinders the whole time Ive had it, because it doesnt seem to be as powerful as I expected. It runs pretty good on just 3 cylinders after the bike has warmed up, so I didnt really notice it being a 1st time 4 cylinder bike owner.
Anyway, the bike has had some wiring issues, mostly involving dummy lights and the such. Ive fixed all of these as Ive come across them (broken wires, corroded connectors), and I dont think its related to the wiring.
Today I was going to unplug the #2 spark plug just to see if it would change how the bike was running. As soon as i touched the boot I got zapped. All of the other plug wire boots wouldnt shock me, so I thought I had found the problem. I checked out my spark plug wires and realized someone had half ass spliced new wires on.... they twisted the wires together and put silicone around it and that was it. I went ahead and cut off the corroded exposed wiring, and soldered the wires together, sealed them in silicone and finished it off with heat shrink tubing. I thought for sure I had fixed the problem. Got it all assembled again just to find out that it still wasnt running on #2. I switched the #2 and #3 plug wires around and still nothing. Ive switched the plugs around as well and still no fire. Did a compression test today.. 150lbs on #1 and #4, 120lbs on #2 and #3. I thought that maybe the carb was clogged up again, so I removed it and cleaned out the jets with carb cleaner... still nothing. Ive sprayed ether and wd40 both into the #2 cylinder and it didnt fire while the bike was running. After the bike runs for a bit, the plug is black, implying that its running rich. I dont know if the accelerator pump is flooding the carb or what(the #2 carb has the accel pump built on it), but I cant figure out why this cylinder has never fired. The 3 times I cleaned the carbs I never removed the accelerator pump diaphrams, so I went ahead and took them out tonight. The black coating is peeling off of the triangular shaped one, but I dont think this would fill my #2 carb up with gas and cause it to not run.
So far, I have checked the compression, its good, it has good spark, so its not the coils or plugs, and it must be getting gas, because spraying ether in the carb does nothing. I am stumped and hope that maybe one of you guys have an idea. I would love to get this thing running on all 4 cylinders! Thanks for any help in advance.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the exhaust smokes quite a bit and smells gassy. I think #2 is running too rich and cant find out why. I just checked my float level on #1 and #2. #1 was at 25mm, whereas #2 was around 22mm. I dont think that would have made it so rich that it wouldnt run though.

Post edited by: toadson, at: 2007/07/20 02:10

Have you tried installing a fresh set of plugs and then seeing if #2 fires at least for the first few minutes till it gets fouled?

Sorry but I don't know a bunch about carbs with accelerator pumps.

I'll move this thread to the carb forum. Maybe you'll get a bit more help there.

KZCSI

You might have a bad coil. I know that the coil fires two cylinders at once but what if it is only firing one.
Do you still have the resister caps on the wires? If so check them for correct resistance. I would get new wire at a boat shop, they have solid core wire on a spool for .99 a foot. Its cheap and works good.

You seem to have done the things you need to do to rule out compression or ignition. I would still check valve clearances. See our website for the article on valve clearances under "wg's Tech Stuff Index"...

As far as your method of checking fuel level, your method is a major waste of time. It would have worked fine if those 30 year old carbs were new but folks have bent the floats up over the years and they have lost their orientation. A 3mm float level difference is a MAJOR difference in the amount of gas in the bowl.

Your problem can be coming from a number of places. What kind of air filter are you using? If a pod is dirty or restricts airflow, this will foul plugs.

Next issue could be the float level. If you have too much gas in the bowl, the carb will cause rich operation and foul plugs.

If you have clogged air jets for either the pilot or main jet circuits OR the mixture screw is mis-adjusted, you will have a rich running cylinder.

If you have a vacuum petcock and gas is leaking in via the vacuum hose (petcock diaphragms are bad), the carb will run rich with too much gas in it.

Last point... the accelerator pump diaphragm won't make a difference. If the diaphragm is bad, I don't think the pump will cause rich operation... The carbs won't perform well but you won't get rich symptoms near as I can think.

The bike is pretty much all stock, no pod filters. Something I forgot to mention is that the #2 carb doesnt act like it wants to pull any air into itself. Im wondering if there could be a vacuum leak somewhere. We put a vacuum gauge on it and sealed off the inlet for the carb, cranked over the engine and it would build up vacuum, but would leak down pretty fast compared to the other cylinders. Just looking at the valves and comparing them to the other cylinders, nothing is majorly out of whack. Wiredgeorge, I have read that you like to do the wet test to check the float levels, so I may go ahead and try that idea just to rule out the floats. Maybe they are the problem because this cylinder seems to be getting way too much gas. I will let you know if anything changes.

I had a problem like this but only the #1 wasn't firing. my problem was a bad ciol. it turned out that it was diverting its power to only one cylender and was causing it to miss with the #1. That is what stumped me was knowing that the coils fire 1 and 4, 2 and 3. So I thought that if the coil was bad it should show it being bad in #4 as well but the only thng that gave it away was a low spark in #4 but still enough spark to fire it. check you coil with a Ohm meater. good luck.

I think I may have found the problem. The diaphragm under the triangular shaped cover is bad, and when you put vacuum on the port leading to it, it pumps gas all the time into the carb. The diaphragm should be able to shut the gas off, but since the coating has cracked it seaps past. I ordered an accelerator pump rebuild kit off ebay for 27 bucks shipped, because the Kawasaki dealer wanted 60 bucks just for one diaphragm! I will let you guys know if this fixes my problem. Thanks for all your replies!

The cylinder fires! I JB Welded the vacuum port hole shut, so now the accelerator pump works even with the engine off. I didn't have the patience to wait a week for my parts to get here, but my bike is now running on all 4 cylinders and it runs much, much better. The only bad thing is that I will have to pull the carbs off once again to fix the problem right.... unless I can manage to do it while the carbs are on. Anyway, thanks for all of your help!!!

Are you talking about a deacceleration valve on the carb was bad?

Good catch. By the way, the accelerator pump only squirts gas once when you first open the throttle. You should test this by removing the carbs with them still filled with gas and twisting the throttle and watching the intake side opening where you can see the accelerator pump spigots located in the venturi. Pump a few times to prime the thing... you will notice #2 pumps first, then 1 and 3 and last the 4th carb will squirt gas into the venturi. If you can pump away and don't see squirting on one of more of the carbs, you have some more work to do.