Congratulations on your progress. The first couple of times you run the bike you might have some dark smoke coming from the exhaust. This might just be oil that has trickled down into the cylinders and is pooled around the rings. This should burn off after a couple of minutes of running the engine. This could explain the wet plugs but it is more likely that you have one or more carbs gummed up and your pumping too much liquid gas into the cylinders. You may want to give the carbs a good going over and install an inline gas filter.
The fact that the bike starts after a few kicks and runs smoothly with no backfiring suggests that the timing is not too bad.
Keep working the issues as they come up, and keep asking questions--these guys will help you a lot.
best of luck,
Grant.
1981 KZ1000 CSR
1983 KZ750 Project Bike
1990 550 Zephyr
1994 KZ1000 P
