I recently bought an 87 Kawasaki Bayou 300--not running. The guy I bought it from said it just needed a new battery & the carb cleaned-Famous Last Words, right? After buying a new battery for it and cleaning the carb, it would not start. I did a compression test-very low compression-like 12. So I tore apart the top end and replaced the piston & rings. I put it on timing, put it all back together and it still won't start! Compression was still bad, so I adjusted the intake valve. Now I have 125 compression! But it still WILL NOT START!! I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure this out! On the cam timing sprocket there is only one hole. The manual says there should be two. I lined up the timing mark and the hole is on the right side, horizontal with the block. Am I doing something wrong here? I bought a carb rebuild kit on line, but I didn't get it yet. I am skeptical that the carb is the problem because I sprayed starter fluid in the carb and the spark plug hole and the darn thing still won't fire! It's a CV carb, btw. The plug looks good and I am getting spark with the tester. I would appreciate any help cause I'm out of ideas.
Thanks!
Sid

 

Hopefully this might help.
how do i set timing on klf300 - JustAnswer

 

Thank you for the reply. I have the timing set correctly. It turns out it was the plug. It looked fine, but I replaced it with an NGK Platinum. I heard from a buddy that the new ethanol gas needs a hotter spark to fire.

 

I'm lucky that the gas station down the road still sells ethanol-free gas, and it's accessible from the trails.

 

You are lucky. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone who sells the ethanol-free gas around here anymore. This is why the newer cars use the iridium spark plugs-they are hotter.