Cranks but not starting

I just finished replacing a blown head gasket and picking out stuff that fell down the timing chain into the oil pan. Got the cams back in and timed correctly, new rubber bumpers in the cam chain tensioner and replaced all the gaskets I had to remove. Got everything on and torqued to spec, put the tank on, put in some 20w50, dumped in a couple of gallons of gas and turned the key. The starter motor spun and spun, I had a spark at #1 cylinder and the end of the crankshaft by the timing mark was rotating. Any idea what might be causing it not to start? Before replacing the gasket, it always started without any problems. I could use useful suggestions. thanks

Did you check the valve clearances after installing the cams? Did you time the motor? Does it have spark on the other plugs? What model bike is it?

Did you get ignition coils mixed up, so the spark is 180 out? This will fire the 2-3 coil when supposed to fire the 1-4.
Does it fire at all? Backfire?
When the head was off, did you remove the lifter buckets/ tappets? Maybe mix up where they were? That would cause the valve clearances to be out.
Have you checked compression?

KZ1000E1 shaft, 1979

On the larger 4's (Kz/GPz 1000/1100's) the LEFT ignition coil sparkplug wires will go to #1 and #4, with the RIGHT ignition coil going to #2 and #3. The RED or RED/Yellow primary wires will go to both of the ignition coils.


For the RIGHT ignition coil, the primary wires, are two wires, RED and GREEN, with the secondary going to #2 and #3.

The LEFT ignition coil primary wiring colors are RED, and BLACK, with again, the secondaries going to #1 and #4

The RED wire gets it’s voltage from the run/stop switch on the right handlebar switch pod. Your primary wiring may have a different color.

The BLACK and GREEN wires connect to the IC Igniter(if the bike has the Kawasaki supplied electronic ignition) it actually gives the coils their grounds to fire the sparkplugs. The RED wire is common to both ignition coils.

Switching coil feeds is a good thing to check. I would also check compression.