Now 1-4 are not firing. I am so confused. I thought I had it.
Here is a short recap of everything.
1. Engine was bogging down when I got to 5000 RPMs under load (driving down the road). I am not sure if all 4 cylinders were firing, but they may HAVE been.
2. Gunked up carb was the first thought.
3. Manual says to do points and plugs first. So I changed the points and plugs. I ran the bike and it was not firing 2-3 cylinders.
4. Lots of troubleshooting; I moved the timing some during troubleshooting (which could alter point gap, etc). I swapped 2-3 Condensor from parts bike and got 2-3 firing; thus all 4 cylinders were firing. All 4 cylinders were firing with timing set to where I thought it was, and 2-3 timing plate set to where I thought it was.
5. I took it out for a ride and it ran so much better. Once the engine was warm I made to hard acceleration runs. Not like the motorcycle magazines that, to paraphrase, "ran the tach to 10,000 and dropped the clutch". I just started out normal and quickly opened the thorttle all the way and waited for redline to shift. The engine went all the way to 9,000 RPMs and it had a slight hesitation around 6,000 and 7,000 RPMs but the engine went though those RPM ranges and kept moving. I assumed the problem was because I tinkered with the timing a little.
6. The engine quickly (after 5-10 miles) went back to normal. So I got a timing light from a friend.
7. I moved the circular plate (adjusts 1-4 timing) to around the middle of adjustment. I did the same thing for the smaller plate that screws onto the circular plate (adjusts 2-3 timing). I reset point gap. I skipped the static timing because I cannot seem to understand how (or get it too) that works. The timing light (and feeling the exhaust) revealed 1-4 were not firing. The bike has a 2-3 condensor from the parts bike that just allowed the bike to run on all 4 cylinders.
8. Okay WTF, could the 1-4 condensor have failed within 24 hours of the 2-3 condensor? I put the 1-4 condensor from the parts bike onto my bike. The timing light did not go into strobe mode when connected to the No. 1 or No. 4 plug wire. BUT, the exhaust for 1 and 4 were definately hotter than they were before swapping the 1-4 condensor, but not as hot as 2-3. Should condensors cost $14 or $24 a piece? There are two listed in the parts manual and they both cost more than the points. Just seems odd from my car experience.
9. Since the bike runs, we checked the timing on 2-3. We hooked the timing light to the battery. Hooked the plug wire thing to plug wire number 2, and shined the strobe into the little hole hoping to see the line next to "T2-3" line up with the stationary mark. Not the case at all. We could not even see the "T2-3" in the tiny circle window. We even looked into the window at an angle both ways and could not see and of the "T2-3" markings, but the bike was running.
10. Arggg
Side Note: When I was turning the "special nut" It seemed like my 2-3 points just twisted. It cause the two point pucks not to line up. The same thing happened to the 2-3 points that I took off the bike during my initial points swap. The pucks were far enough off that they would never function again. $12 down the toilet. Luckily I had another set in the bag ready to go. I assumed there was not enough lube on the cam, but it sure seems weird because both sets of 2-3 points were really deformed. I knew right away when this happened and swapped the points as soon as I saw it. The cam lobe may not have had ANY grease on it. I could not tell if I got grease or dirt after a finger swipe. I greased it up with a tiny bit of water proof grease as per the manual, being careful not to use too much.
