i did turn it off and restart it. However, at this point I had none of the airboxes back on, and the tank was sitting over where the seat would be but backwards because I don't have anything fancier to supply fuel while working on it. Basically, I'm not ready to say I've figured it out 100% yet, but I
think I may have it working.
Here's the scoop: I got the bike up on the table originally to troubleshoot the RHcover leak since I rebuilt the whole engine. I also had a starter issue caused by my forgetting
part 21 in this diagram
Upon buttoning everything up, I first noticed it wouldn't crank over. It's never done that before. It was acting like either the battery had totally died, or I'd forgotten to remove the corks I put in the exhaust ports to keep valves clean while I had the pipes off.
I thought: battery. Got a new battery (AGM type). cranked a little better but wouldn't fire, and I still couldn't kick it either. Then, while kicking it, dumped the whole damn thing over into my wife's bike, slicing my seat with her license plate. righted it. walked away.
I thought it might be flooding because plugs were wet. First checked for spark which was there, although seemed weak (but I don't know if I'm a good judge of that). Got new plugs, still wouldn't start. Did get a few backfires. Took off carbs (although I'd done that in the spring and they were clean then). They looked fine, but I still shot carb clean through all the bowl channels and choke parts. Got new gaskets for the bowls and new bowl plugs because one was leaking. Still same symptom.
Replaced coil with the black one from Mikes. Now would fire every few tries, but just sounds like it's still having trouble turning over. Took off RH cover to try and find out why it's leaking oil. Found it to have slightly not flat lower lip so it wasn't sitting flush with the engine and gasket. walked away.
I did notice that I could BARELY turn the tach gear. Actually, tach gear was probably ok, but the worm drive (rod that turns the tach cable) was really really stiff (and not the good kind). I had another known-to-be-good RH cover that I put on instead with a new gasket.
Now it turns over easier, occasionally backfires, and rarely really fires. Walked away.
Mind you, I have the trickle charger on all the time I'm not there and I come back to a green light on it.
Today I took off the LH cover to check the pick up coil wires as suggested above. Wires appeared ok, and I had good ohms when I checked the wires at the plastic attachment at the end of the wires. But while I was there, I wiggled everything. I looked for the TCI and noticed it seems to be nearly inaccessible without pulling the whole battery box apparatus. So, I just really wiggled everything with a connection and made sure there were no loose wires anywhere.
Then, I put the new HF charger on the battery until it said it was charged (although it only measured 12.6v and I see that it's supposed to say 13 somthing). It was trying to fire. I kicked it and it started. It stalled when I gave it gas. Tried a few more times w/ electric start and got it for a sec but then it'd stall when I gave it gas. Then, I got lucky (not the good kind) and kicked it into running. Ran and ran and ran until I was in a growing cloud of exhaust (a little more than I remember it spitting forth, but it's usually running down the street, not sitting still in my garage). Turned choke off, watched it idle. vroomed it a few times. That's when I noticed the right pipe was loose at the cylinder.
So, that's that. Right now I've got everything buttoned back up except that I can't get the hose to stop leaking where it hooks into the right petcock for some reason... even with a new piece of hose. I'll get a little hose clamp tomorrow after work and will see if it wants to start up.