Thinking I know everything comes naturally to me and every time I start trying to fix something I have to re-learn my lessons all over again. Working on my 1981KZ 440 LTD with a misfiring engine.
Spoiler - A couple of days ago I had put a new vacuum line on to the fuel valve from the right side carburetter and I originally used a zip tie which worked fine. Ruling that out since I recently fixed it I proceeded to tear down both carbs twice and then to systematically tear apart the electrical to no avail. So after ordering a new coil and a battery I went to sleep with this problem on the brain. I woke up at four in the morning not feeling well and decided to go out to the shed and tear the carburetters down again. The real lesson here is that while tearing down the carburetter I noticed that the brand new hose I had put on for a vacuum line had a brand new crack in it caused by the metal clamps that I used to attach it. Occam‘s razor tells me that this is an obvious culprit and then I’ve been running down all the wrong avenues because I didn’t bother to go over the basics.I was blinded to a simple vacuum leak because I thought I had already repaired it it couldn’t possibly be that. The lesson here is if you have backfiring sputtering always check for vacuum leaks thoroughly. I had even sprayed WD-40 in around the carburetters but this did not cause it to rev apparently the vacuum break was intermittent based on the pipe shaking. So I put the entire thing back together with the hose repaired turn the key and it purrs like a kitten. Unfortunately I didn’t follow the basics but fortunately I got many lessons and much hands-on time wrenching in learning more about my motorcycle. If you’re going to level motorcycles it’s going to be a hands-on experience.