I just brought a 1987 1000f. Got a buddy to go with me as I really know nothing about bikes to check it out - anyway, long story short, it is now broken.. I was riding home and it suddenly started sounding like a harley and the engine was imbalanced like it was only running on 2/3 cylinders. I removed my spark plugs, cleaned them (they weren't badly fouled). I took the carbs off, cleaned all the jets etc and adjusted the throttle plates so they all matched. It will start and run, but it just isn't firing on all 4. Also, white smoke just started to come out of the exhaust after this issue (headgasket?). There was a little tick which to me sounded like a tappet/lifter tick. Another issue is a line from what look to be 'secondary air injection' units in the manual, although the bike has no California stickers on the air filter housing. Through this line I can hear the engine running really loudly and it pulls a hard vacuum at idle - there is nowhere for it to go seemingly?

I really need to get this going - I borrowed the money to buy it to have something reliable to get to college, and so far it hasn't turned out so well..Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Man that's really bad, sorry to hear it!
I would start with simple stuff: if it's only running on two cylinders pull each plug wire and check for spark. You may find that 1&4 or 2&3 aren't firing which could lead you to a bad coil. Make sure you smell fuel on all plugs too. Obviously a dry plug isn't getting fuel and therefore won't do you much good!
As far as white smoke goes, does it smell like coolant? It's a pretty distinctive smell, also keep an eye on you oil level to see if it goes up or gets milky.
The tick could very well (hopefully!) be the cam chain rattle. They all do that.
Try googling the vacuum leak or searching on the forum.
Good luck, I feel your pain. Mine is my daily driver, w/o it I wouldn't be getting around much!

 

Plug the line drawing a vacuum ( suspect it's the primary PAIR line)

Double check your ignition wires and plug connections

You did read the thread with pics I suggested, incl in your "secondary injection delete" thread ?

Also you may have stuffed pilots & a tank full of crap (rust) continually working its way down to the
carbs ( meaning the tank may need sealing and the carbs need complete cleaning pilot needles float
bowls , float valves the whole shebang ) Also if it still uses the electric fuel pump that filter right after
it may need replacing too.

My 87 had all of the above - except the PAIR system

I ended up ditching the fuel pump assembly and filter and gravity fed the carbs after cleaning and sealing
the tank and completely cleaning the carbs

 

White smoke not being oil would point to head gasket.

A compression check is the first step in my book.

 

Thanks for all your replies, i'm working through them trying to solve it. One thing I have noticed is the regulator/rectifier wiring connections are burned at the connectors quite badly. The day after I picked my bike up it wouldn't start - I charged the battery because it went dead from starting and later it did. Is it possible that a bad R/R, meaning low V to coil packs, could cause it to run badly? I started it again now and there is no 'dead' cylinder - each time I pull the plug off any particular cylinder it dies. Also, I noticed the other night when it was running that the brightness of the headlight and dashlights was much greater when I reved it up. Thanks again for all the replies.
John

 

My advice

Replace your R/R, connectors and Battery -go from there.

 

Hopefully ur stator is in good shape, i think i fried mine.

 

Def Link the Fox, my opinion on this is - if you have a battery that is way past
it's due date - the charging system gets a perpetual major workout, first thing to
happen is the R/R boils off the electrolyte then the R/R eventually commits Hari Kari
and if you keep leaving a trash battery and toasted R/R in place - next to go are the
stator coils

Prevention : fresh battery every two years (wet battery) , 3 1/2 years for agm
Keep them on trickle charge year round - gives your entire charging System an
easy time of it.

This routine has worked well for me with the 1000F's