1100 Maxim - Problems with #1 Carb

Bringing a Maxim back to life. Cleaned the carbs and the bike starts, idles fine with lots of power but backfires/misses on deceleration.

Found #1 exhaust header is cold. Got good spark and there's fuel in the carb.
With the engine at idle I started pulling spark plug wires off one at a time. With the spark plug wires connected on 2,3 & 4 the bike runs until I disconnect #1 which causes the engine to quit running but the other spark plug wires are connected.

Any suggestions where to start looking to solve this?

 

Backfiring durring deceleration usually means you are running lean. Are you running stock exhaust and airbox or aftermarket?
I would say the #1 carb has a clogged pilot jet, did you dissamble the carbs completly to clean them? Taking out all the jets and needles to flush with carb cleaner. Do your carb slide diaphrams pass the "clunk test".
Doing a compression test will also help eliminate other possibilities

 

Bike is all stock. I did a good cleaning of the carbs but no clunk test. What is the clunk test??

 

Search the forums for "clunk test"and read up on it. Its is basicly making sure that the carb slides are free in the carb bore. Cleaning and polishing the bore helps greatly. If the slides don't move free you will have bad throttle response and a poor running bike.
Some other things to do before you remove the carbs again:
Compression test
Sync the carbs(most important)

 

Did he clunk test and carb sync this morning, all tests ok. I have the key turned on (engine not running) and touched the #1 spark plug wire and got a shock !!

Took out the plug, held it against the head and got intermittent spark while turning the engine over.

I suspect a coil problem. I looked in the archives but couldn't find the article on how to test ignition coils. The manual is useless as it mentions a tester.

Found some info on the test so the results on mine are:

- between the 2 small wires 2.8 ohms
- between the spark plug wire leads 11.8 ohms (caps removed)

 

I wouldn't suspect the coils unless you were having trouble with a pair of cylinders, since each coil fires two cylinders. Maybe plug caps? I'm not familiar with the 1100, but on my Maxim X the resistance should be 5 ohms at the caps.

 

I hooked up a Honda coil in place and it works. Got a nice spark on #1. Funny though if I pull a spark plug wire off # 1 or #2 the engine will still run, but it dies if I pull a plug off either 3 or 4 ???