'89 Kat 600 not starting (again)

[Skier]

My 1989 Kat 600 is giving me grief again!

I've taken off the head to fix snapped off exhaust header bolts. The head was replaced since the bolts were driven in too far by the previous owner and caused some damage that could cause problems down the road.

I took off the cylinder jugs, too, because I always wanted to and had dropped a nut inside the motor, anyways.

It's all bolted back together with new gaskets everywhere, carbs disassembled, re-cleaned with carb cleaner, reassembled. While apart, float height was double checked, all jets were checked and cleaned. Idle mixture screw was set to 2 turns out, because my shop manual doesn't have a listing for the '89 Kat 600, only '88 and '90+.

So, I bolt the carbs back up, with airbox and it doesn't catch. It'll crank all day without a problem, but not catch. I'm at my wit's end as to what's wrong. I'll start a list of things I've done to narrow down the search:

Fresh spark plugs
tested ignition coils
tried a "new" set of ignition coils
tried a new CDI box
tested pickup sensor
cleaned carbs (pulled ALL plastic and rubber out, dipped each in carb cleaner, reassembled with new hoses everywhere)
fresh gas in gas tank
new petcock for gas tank

I'm just confused, now. An engine needs compression, spark, air and fuel to run. I know I have spark, air and fuel, and am fairly sure compression is ok, as well (I don't have a tester with that tiny 10mm fitting).

This motor has been the bane of me for a long time now...

[Skier]

I double checked the cam timing and it appears my intake cam was off by a tooth, as I suspected originally. Actually I think sinfulkat was the one who suggested it. It appears the cam got off a tooth because they were installed with slack on the cam chain, where the tensioner usually is. My repair manual didn't mention taking the slack out there, so the cam got off by a tooth.

While pulling my intake cam to fix this, one of the bolts holding in a cam retainer snapped inside the head. Great.

I fail to coax it out with a screwdriver and tapping it CCW, so I start drilling. After I get a decent hole in the bolt, I hit it with an EZ-out. I promptly miss a swing onto the EZ-out and hit the cam I left lying in the head.

So not only do I have a bolt still stuck in the head, but a cam that needs to be replaced, too.

This is the worst project I've ever, ever undertaken.

[md86]

Ouch .

[The CyberPoet]

We all learn from experience... in my case, almost all my mechanical knowledge came from learning the way I just did something wasn't the right way
Thank god most of those years are behind me now

Hope it gets better from here in. Suggest you try 2-3/8ths turns on the pilot screws.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet