KZ1000 restore issues

Hello all! I am currently fixing up my father's old 1977 KZ1000LTD. It's only been about a month since I started. Within a week it was running fine and I was out riding it. It wasn't sitting very long so a simple oil change did the trick. I did notice it took a while for the idle to set when I started it, but I just put that towards the bike being older.

However last week I was riding and I started getting random power loss, where I would be holding the throttle at a steady cruising speed, then the RPM's would drop a couple thousand RPM and I would start slowing down, without moving the throttle at all. I would increase throttle, like twisting it quite a bit, and nothing would happen. then after 1-2 seconds of holding the throttle like that the power would come back out of nowhere and I would jump back up to speed. The bike then started chugging so I thought that maybe I was low on fuel so I pulled over to grab gas, as I did so it lost power again and it died as I was trying to go over a bump, luckily it just glided to the pump. Then after filling up it took me a while it get to start, and set the idle.

I decided to take it home since obviously something wasn't right, and on the way back it lost power again as I was coming up to an intersection and the light changed. I had to gear down rather quickly and the bike stalled. I was able to restart it again rather easily. But then I just took it home and its been sitting since.

Now about a week later I noticed there was a small pool of what seemed like oil under the bike, I'm not sure if it's related or not.

I thought maybe my idling jets were dirty, causing the unsteady idle, but I'm not sure.

Any input is more than welcome since this bike is close to 20 years older than myself lol.

Pics of plugs?
Steve

Did you install a new battery?

Plugs as requested

Could be old gas that was in the tank, do you have an inline fuel filter * is it clean ? if you don't have one , get one at any motorcycle shop, could also be a dirty petcock
Pete

Yes brand new battery

Better view of the plugs? Oil on them is normal for a bad running engine.
Steve

You have to take pics. of the plug ends that are inserted into the cylinder head
Like this
i50.photobucket.com/albums/f329/ethelkil...rk%20Plugs/Plugs.jpg
Pete

did it backfire?
have enough gas?
plugged filter?
if you unhook the fuel line, turn i t to prime, does gas come pouring out? or just kind of drip?

Sorry for the late reply.

I just replaced the plugs, and it seemed to fix the power loss issue, however the idle is still rough and I feel like it's not getting enough air/gas. I will be running Seafoam through it tonight, and am looking for a new oil/air/fuel filter as we speak

Additives won't take the place of physically cleaning the carbs. Snake oil. :dry:
Steve

I agree and I am already looking at taking the carbs off and cleaning them in the near future, I just thought to try this in the mean time.