Motorcycle Repair: 1986 Cavalcade dead cylinder, hydraulic lifters, exhaust pipes

Question
cruising in the hills by Lacrosse Wisconsin, my Cacalcade has a "dead" cylinder feel when the rpms are between 1000 and 2500 rpms..., I down shift and get the rpms to around 3000 rpms, the miss is gone....I had the bike sit at an idle after a lunch break (so it was cooled off) then I touched the four exhaust pipes...(all were warm, not a cold one in the group).....my dad had a spray bottle in his goldwing (for hot weather cooling off) and while the bike was idling still we sprayed the wires down with water waiting for a sputter..... nothing happened.....
Another biker came over to us and said to change your plugs, and boots, at low rpms there is not enough power to spark all the time, but at high rpms the problem is gone...

So yesterday I bought plugs and the problem still is there..

So what do you think about the boots??? they are 22 years old, and I have never heard of a "bad" boot before...the engines I have worked on have the wire hooked up directly to the plug....but I heard on the "cade" there is a resister in the boot....is that true???

Again.... high rpms, no proplem..

thanks eric

Answer
Check the battery and charging system using a voltmeter. You should get at least 12.5 off and 13.5 running at 3k RPMs.

Now that you have new plugs in I would remove them after a while and look for a plug with the wrong color: either too dark or too light. That might indicate which cylinder isn't working.

Other things to look for: a partially clogged idle jet, bad valve clearance (not sure if your bike has hydraulic lifters), out of sync carbs.