'76 900 LTD carb issues?

I am a proud new owner of a KZ900 LTD, bought it from the widow so didn't have any info about the bike from the owner/rider, hadn't been ridden since 2007. I got it running and was excited to ride it, but it had some issues. I have put new kits in the carbs and bench synched them (without any special tool, just a wire that mic'd at .027). The baffles were rusted and coming out of the original 4 into 2 exhaust, so I gutted them and I am running straight pipes until I can afford a new 4 into 1 header. I was getting frustrated with the stock air box so I put on new K&N pods. I installed new points, set them and the timing.
When I started it up it didn't want to run very good, wouldn't go over 5000 RPM and back fired some. The exhaust looked like it was starting to turn blue. I assumed it was running too lean because of the combination of new pods and lack of back pressure with the straight pies. I pulled the jets which were 115's, and installed the 118's that also came with the rebuild kits. It ran better and I took it for a test ride, it died and had no power at all. I pulled the plugs and they are the BR7ES and the outside plugs were black and sooty. So I am about to put new plugs in and see what happens.
I just received the Dyna ignition and will be getting that in so I can hopefully scratch any point issues off my list.
Any input on the jetting? Any insights are greatly appreciated.

Plugs should be B8ES. Jets should be around 20/120 with the needle in the third slot.

Check the voltage to the coils. You need 12 volts. Those coils are very old. A set of green Dyna coils would help a lot.

Do the voltage check first. Clean all the connectors and get some plugs.


The stock plug wires caps have resistors in them. As I Said, They are old.

If not already done, would also assure ignition timing is correct, and that the timing advancer isn't frozen in the idle position.

If needed, there's a a down-loadable Factory Service Manual for the standard model 900's in KZr's FILEBASE that covers much information also applicable to the LTD model.

Click here > Z1-KZ900 FSM

Good Fortune!