Refuses to fire

Malcolm wrote: A teaching moment for others to benefit from. snip.. 180 degrees out. Won't run. At all. Pipe fills with gas and will only fart. Like me. Probably fifty hours of labor and half way to a divorce. I will begin balancing the carbs now.[/qe]

Half way to divorce? lol Definitelly a learning moment. It's a good thing you weren't messing with the carbs while you were hunting this demon, or you might have caused yourself more problems to solve.

There is a small hash mark on the fire lobe, on my bike. This is indicating that it should indexed to the "Tec" marking on the advancer plate, if this is similar to the Kz1000 setup. An easy mistake to make. I found the hash mark by sitting there glancing through my entire service manual file one evening soaking up all I could. All the little things in that book can be amazing at times, and easily overlooked. As they say, sometimes we can't see the forest because the trees are in the way.

For anyone reading this thread........

The pointy part of the reluctor on the electronic-ignition rotors, likewise, should point to the side with the TEC logo.

loudhvx wrote: The pointy part of the reluctor on the electronic-ignition rotors, likewise, should point to the side with the TEC logo.

I fixed it.

I hadn't noticed any errors. I was just posting the photo to add to what Ed said, so anyone searching would see the arrangement on points and electronic ignition advancers.

They both point toward the "TEC" logo, but the interesting thing is that the 1-4 timing marks are in totally different positions on the two advancers. This doesn't change anything... just making an observation.

This difference means that if someone converts a points advancer to be used with an electronic ignition, and follows the rule of pointing toward the TEC logo, the timing will be 180 out in addition to the timing being off by several degrees. This explains some of the questions in this old thread:
kzrider.com/forum/2-engine/599036-kz750-...ight?start=40#690953

Notice the two advancers in the single photo shows one pointing to the TEC logo, but the other points away. That is because the one pointing away was originally a points advancer and was converted to electronic ignition. Note the timing marks are also a bit off from each other. This can be fixed because you can press off the pointer on the electronic rotor and press it back on in the proper place.

Another giveaway is that points advancers have two full sets of timing marks. The electronic ignition advancer only has a TDC mark for cylinders 2 and 3.

I had mistakenly stated that the hash mark was opposite the high point on the advancer, when it seems they put it in several spots, depending on the model of the bike. Lets not forget this counterclockwise turning 2 cylinder Kz750 points advancer if this is to become "advancer 101" thread.

This is the one I was mistakenly thinking of:


I saved this pic off of a thread when the OP was asking what best oil to use to unstick a stuck ring.. that progressed into another "refuses to fire" thread. (post #787170, July 18, 2018) It was another "everything electrical is new and and ALL voltages are right, but it won't run" and "it's gotta be the carbs" type thread. The OP thought the reason it wouldn't run was because it only had 120 psi on one hole. It turned out to be a internally corroded wire feeding the ignition setup, I have no idea where.

At least once he had his >eurica!< moment he came back stating what the problem really was, and was very grateful / thankful. (sarcasm) It makes all of the second hand guessing and tech advice worth while.

loudhvx wrote: Another giveaway is that points advancers have two full sets of timing marks. The electronic ignition advancer only has a TDC mark for cylinders 2 and 3.

Although both timing marks sets really should be there to check 2-3 timing also, the points timing would change with the condition of the points on that set, if this makes any sense. I ass-u-me that Kawasaki didn't feel the need for the second set of timing marks on the electronic ignition, because the pickup coils do not wear / change / pit like points do.

When the points wear the timing / dwell would also change>

The crazy high compression can indicate that the valve timing is off. Just because this engine is knows to not jump a timing chain does not mean that the last people working on it did not pull the cam and not get the timing right on reassembly.