Motorcycle Repair: fuel coming out of exhaust pipe, kawasaki vulcan 800 classic, kawasaki vulcan 800

Question
Hi Wayne. I recently purchased a 2005 kawasaki vulcan 800 classic from a dealer. I took the bike out 3 times for a short ride around town. The third time i took it out the bike jerked a few times when i let the clutch out even when i rolled on the throttle. When i finally got it going the bike had slow accleration when it got to about 45mph it backfired loudly. I got it back home and noticed a little puddle of gas in the exhaust pipe from the rear cylinder any help would be greatly appreciated thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Fred,

It sounds to me like you are running on only one cylinder most of the time.
The cylinder that is misfiring is dumping raw unburned fuel into the
exhaust pipe.

The misfiring cylinder must have fired at least once when it backfired.

Check your spark plugs and do a compression test on the engine
to make sure both cylinders are even pressure.

If the compression is low on that cylinder it could need
a valve adjustment.

Clear out any fuel in the cylinder and check for spark on that plug.

If it runs with a new plug then maybe it is okay. Check the plugs
to see if they burn clean or are wet with fuel or oily.
That will tell you alot about what the engine is doing.

Let me know if need more info after you check all the above.

WS
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