84 virago 700 questions

[van avery]

Picked up a 85 VF700 virago a short time ago. Been sitting a couple years . Last license was 1996. Cleaned and coated tank and cleaned carbs twice.

Seems to run mostly on the front cylinder. I notice that when I rev the engine the Tach will not show above 400 RPM it drops to zero and then when I let off it will return to normal reading. Could this be related to the reason the back cylinder is not hitting right? I took it for a 3/4 mile ride yesterday and then took the back plug out finished unscrewing it by hand ( not hot). Could it be a bad CDI or??? looking for ideas

Installed new plugs today and while I was at it I checked the spark with the old plug and it seemed to fire fine.

Is there a chance that I did not get the idle mix screw set correctly?

Also , the back plug looked black like it had been running rich.

[BlueSky]

You said it has spark so it must be a fuel problem, I would think. Have you checked the compression?

[van avery]

Got a chance to play with the bike again today. Took for short ride and could feel the second cylinder kick in and out. While back in the shop and checking fuel level in the carbs, the idle kicked up to around 3500 RPM and sounded much better. The tach started to preform correctly and things are much better. Guess it was an electrical issue and just needed to run some to get the kinks out.