KZ650 Engine start troubleshooting

Hello, I spend the winter reviving an 80 KZ650 that was not started for a couple of years. With the help of experts of this forum, I rebuild the carbs, changes a bunch of parts and got the motorcycle running and driving smoothly. 
the only thing is that I could never start it cold without spraying starter fluide onto the air filter. 
I cleaned the bike 3 weeks ago after riding it for 45 min with no problems. 
Except that now that the weather is nice, the bike won’t start anymore!
it cranks and clean fuel is passing through the petcock but it seems it’s not igniting. 

is there a good troubleshooting method that I should follow?

When you rebuilt the carbs, did you verify the choke passages were open?

Yes I completely took the carbs out this winter, replaced all the rubber and brass parts. Cleaned it all in ultrasonic cleaner. 
the bike was running fine for several months. Until now. 
 I also tried the kick start and found that it was surprisingly easy to rotate. Shouldn’t the kick be hard?

I continued the troubleshooting tonight and checked if I had sparks. I removed a spark plug. Although the plugs are new, they were pretty black (running rich??). I put the cap back on a let the plug touch the fins of the cylinder head. I had no spark when kicking or when using the starter. 

I put in a brand new spark plug and redid the test. Still no spark!

Is it possible that I damaged the ignition coils or something else when I washed the bike? It was the last time it was running… I didn’t use pressure and didn’t put cold water on super warm engine. But I can see any explanation on how I would lose the sparks with the bike just sitting for a few days. 

Any idea? 

Rideallyear wrote:

I continued the troubleshooting tonight and checked if I had sparks. I removed a spark plug. Although the plugs are new, they were pretty black (running rich??). I put the cap back on a let the plug touch the fins of the cylinder head. I had no spark when kicking or when using the starter. 

I put in a brand new spark plug and redid the test. Still no spark!

Is it possible that I damaged the ignition coils or something else when I washed the bike? It was the last time it was running… I didn’t use pressure and didn’t put cold water on super warm engine. But I can see any explanation on how I would lose the sparks with the bike just sitting for a few days. 

Any idea? 

What ignition system are you running ?
 

As far as I can tell, the ignition system is stock coils and points. 

Will post some checks in the morning (it’s 1:00am here in the UK)

How did you clean your bike???
Be specific.
Did you remove the gas tank?
Did you use a spray nozzle?
What areas did you clean?

Do you know if your spark plugs were black before these issues?

Assuming everything has dried out now, connect a voltmeter red lead to battery positive black leal to the power supply side of the coil (leave the wires connected to the coil) ignition on, kill switch to "run" you should see no more than 0.5v - rotate the engine until the points are closed, move the black lead to the switched side of the coil (normally green or black) with the points closed the meter should read approximately battery voltage - open the points with a screwdriver etc, when the points are open the voltage reading should drop to 0v. Do this for both coils and let me know how you get on

I had already manually brushed the cylinder head and engine block with brass brushes. But after a 10 min ride, I hosed the entire motorcycle with super low pressure water, being careful not to splash the engine, which i kept idling. I then blow-dried the bike with a leaf blower, wiped what i could and rode down the street before parking the bike in the garage.

Oh, and the spark plugs are practically new (20 miles).

Wookie58 wrote:

Assuming everything has dried out now, connect a voltmeter red lead to battery positive black leal to the power supply side of the coil (leave the wires connected to the coil) ignition on, kill switch to "run" you should see no more than 0.5v - rotate the engine until the points are closed, move the black lead to the switched side of the coil (normally green or black) with the points closed the meter should read approximately battery voltage - open the points with a screwdriver etc, when the points are open the voltage reading should drop to 0v. Do this for both coils and let me know how you get on

I sure hope everything has dried in 3 weeks! 
If I understand well, you want to test that the electricity flows through the coil when the points are closed. It makes sense. I'll do the test as soon as I'm off work today.
This morning, I was curious about the points. I know the seal of the breaker points is not super tight so I thought that perhaps, water got into it. The points look decent (no trace when sliding clean paper in-between). When the starter turns the engine, I can see small sparks on the points. So I believe it tells me that the current is flowing through the coil primary winding. I then re-did the test of the spark plug left on the cylinder head. I noticed a small spark (with new plug), but it's intermittent , only 1 time out of 10 at best.

Thanks for the help. I'll report back the results tonight.
 

I can't remember if points are supposed to spark. 
It may be a sign of a bad points condensor.