One thing to note on the plug caps.

Sounds like they are original. BUT, the condition they are in can and does destroy the coils. If original a good idea to replace them as they are damaged if loose fitting or used without the bobbins. The description of the inside of the cap eaten away confirms they got used without the bobbins. This is going to cause issues on sparking to needs to be fixed before going too far into other areas. Us of carb cleaner can verify if you do actually have any leaks.

The bobbins are needed for most of the NGK plugs if they show screw threads on the top of the plug, if not fitted you get arcing [ticking sound] and that's got bad consequences for the plug caps and the coils.

BSK Speedworks at Leighton Buzzard can send you HT leads.

Also, if you go checking valve clearances, be very very very careful. The bolts on the cam/valve cover are meant to be very little more than hand tight. Your K has been sitting out so the 'rubber' seats are very likely hardened. Not cheap but replacement of the rubbers is recommended because new ones are soft. One of these bolts goes into a camshaft bearing cap and is very easily stripped with disastrous consequences. New soft washers and little more than hand tightening should mean no problems.

Laitch wrote:

robmack wrote:By bobbins, I think Olaaf might be referring to the rubber caps . . .

Those parts certainly fall into the bobbinhood category. 

No, the bobbins are the little metal bobbins that you need to screw on to NGK D7EA and NGK D8EA plugs. The HT leads need them. Bosch plugs dont.

NGK's terminology for the bobbin is "terminal nut".

Ah, that's what they are.  I call them nipples !

Bosch plugs have them built in which is really annoying, you can't screw them off for the new plugs.

All new plugs used to have them in the box but someone must have realised they could screw another half a cent out of us by not putting them in. I just bought a pack of 5 since I'm sick of hunting around the box of old plugs to find a spare nipple.

I got the brake fixed , so I should get a road test tomorrow.

OK I've misunderstood again, I thought this was a well ridden bike of yours that was sat for a while due to the virus lockdown (bikes were banned here at least, in the first lockdown)  Now it's looking like a new to you bike. I'm thinking it wants a full service and then see what issues are left.

bikes were banned here at least

How can you ban bikes?  Doesn't anyone rely on them as primary means of transport?

I thought about that in bed last night and thought, that has to be Australia.  I see that it's worse than that. It's Victoria.

I'm very sorry about what has happened to your country. It used to be one of the best places in the world. ( Apart from Melbourne of course. )

I hope you manage to get rid of that tin-pot dictator Dan Jung Un but I don't know how that will happen.

Today we went into our seventh lockdown, for two weeks (at the moment) I'd rather a hard one for six weeks than a weak one for three months, but this one came from New South Wales cause they were too slow to act. They've been sneaking planes in at night time, I spose the will to get more serious isn't there. There was a rumour I snuck a few rides in  but then didn't want to  chance a fine. I think bikes are allowed this time, not sure.

I'm not dark on Australia over the virus, the death toll is under 1,000 probably not bad compared to most countries, spose we could have done better being like an island.

It's a satirical reference to Desperate Dan ( Andrews ) , the totalitarian premier of Victoria.

Maybe you do not follow international affairs that closely.

Beamer wrote:It's a satirical reference to Desperate Dan ( Andrews ) , the totalitarian premier of Victoria.
Maybe you do not follow international affairs that closely.

I don't follow politics in Victoria too closely, Beamer, but it's clear that you're not on top of your Google game when it comes to understanding motorcycle travel restrictions Down Under during Covid.

Are you a recent university grad; is that it? 

I don't follow politics in Victoria too closely,

At all. I got that.

Australia's in pretty bad shape right now. They thought they could keep covid out, and failed.
They are about as far behind in distributing vaccinations of any country which can afford to get any.
As a result they are about where the rest of  the world was 18mo ago. A population totally naive to the virus with very little vaccination.

They've spent 18mo isolated from the world, in and out of pretty drastic lock down in many states and all for nothing.

Leadership on a par with Biden's pull-out "strategy".

Well, all a bit OT.

Cleaning the throttle stop screws did not change anything. ( I also changed the O-rings on the screws ).
I sprayed StartPilot around to check for air leaks and that did not show any change in speed.

Tickover is not too bad but way too slow.

Timing check next but I don't think that's moved.

Beamer wrote:

I don't follow politics in Victoria too closely,

At all. I got that.

So you are a new grad. Congratulations!

G'day All, I cannot see how, by berating Australia's handling of the Covid vaccination regime, will solve the intermittent sparking issue. Cheers Tom

It will allow people to vent off some steam, relax and then get the brain juices flowing again to actually solve the problem.  

Come on now Beamer, I think Australia is in exceptionally good shape, that's why we weren't given priority with the vaccines. The lockdowns weren't for nothing, it's meant more people above the ground and fewer people under the ground. I can't speak for everyone, but I prefer living above the ground.

Hopefully the sparking problem disappears after a service. 

Curiosity got the better of me so I used a timing light to see if the HT direction changed after swapping the primary wires. Unfortunately my timing light works in both directions, did you happen to notice a difference?

daveyson wrote:
Curiosity got the better of me so I used a timing light to see if the HT direction changed after swapping the primary wires. Unfortunately my timing light works in both directions, did you happen to notice a difference?

The polarity of the HT DOES change if you invert the primary contacts. That's basic physics. If your strobe light triggers on both polarities that's great.

I think I've clearly noted the differences I observed and Robmack also told me to expect the directional on inductive strobe pick ups.

There's no oddity there. What I have not worked out yet is why it seems not to trigger  properly on the HT output closest to the green wire (pick up in either sense), whether primariy is wired correctly or inverted.

That's not a key problem since the bike is running reasonably well now. At some point in the future I'd like to understand the strobe issue because I don't like things I can't explain.

In fact the strobe was misleading me because I took the apparent misfire at face value at first. At least it did expose a defective coil which needs replacing.

*

Here's some drawings of what I was trying to say, and assuming a faulty spark plug, but could also apply to a faulty lead or coil.



In post 1 you say you inverted the two low tension connections to the coil and the fault followed the green/yellow connection. And "Does this make sense to anyone?" 

That makes sense, as in the diagram below.  



In post 1 you also say:

  "I swapped the HT leads (...at the coil...) and the problem stayed with the same HT output. So that seems to eliminate the HT lead and plug"

 Comparing the top drawing with the one below, I don't think it does, because the circuit is going through the spark plug in the opposite direction, so that also makes sense.