Only one cylinder fires. GRR!!!!!

[sark]

Hi guys, I tried searching but wasn't able to find any posts similar to my problem. I have an '82 GS450. Originally I could only get the left cylinder to fire. I checked to see if I had spark from both (new) plugs and in fact I did. I also checked to see if there was gas in the right carb bowl and there was. So I cleaned the carbs and tried again. After the cleaning I am able to get the right cylinder to fire only under hard throttleing. Also, it seems as if the right cylinder fires intermittenly when the bike is at idle with the choke on. The dead cylinder is in fact getting spark and it's pumping air through it.


One more thing, the right exhaust pipe is badly rotted and I get some nasty backfiring when the right cylinder does fire. COuld this be a contributing factor? I have this theory that there could be a rust blockage in the exhaust which keeps stuff from working right unless the throttle is opened up.


Thanks for any help. This forum has been great. I wouldn't have been able to even get this far with my bike with out you guys.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinkin I may get some new plug wires and try that out.

[chef1366]

How is the compression.

[catbed]

sync your carbs.

[Nessism]

When you "cleaned the carbs" did you take them apart and dip them in carb dip? Did you replace the various o-rings in the carbs? Did you replace the intake boot O-rings?