'75 gl1000 not starting up

[iknowyourider75]

Hi folks, was hoping I could get a few tips or some suggestions on why my 75 isn't starting up.
It's the usual story, seller said it needed a bit of work but it started up and chopped during the transaction. When I had gotten it home, the electric starter was barely turning the engine, so I decided to do a bit of work.

The bike came with a carb cleaning/replacement kit so I used that as well as changing all 4 spark plugs for new ones. When I was removing the boot from the plugs on one side of the engine, I believe some water had gotten inside the boot and was resting with the old spark plugs (When I reached this point, the fluid in with the plugs didn't seem to have any particular taste or smell, therefore I assume it's water). It's definitely possible that some had fallen in after I removed the plugs on that side but I can't be sure that is the main issue. Another theory I have is that one of the spark cables could need replacement because as I was replacing the carb assembly, one of the cables came disconnected from the boot, however it seems to make connection just fine when I push/turn it back into place (also I was getting about the same amount of start out of the bike before this happened)

After cleaning the carbs and replacing plugs I'm still not able to get the bike to start up. The electric starter doesn't seem to be doing anything other than activating the starter b/c that's the only noise I hear when I try it. Using the kick pedal, I'll get a kick out of the engine once about every 4 or 5 but no start up.
Only other thing I can think to mention is that I did try to see if the new plugs were sparking in my dark garage but when I tried this I didn't see a spark from either 4 of them.
Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[winguyjo]

the starter issue could be the starter clutch, but you can set that aside for now since you have a working kick starter ...

since you are seeing no spark (you probably have intermittent spark since it sounds like the engine is occasionally firing), i would go straight to the points. inspect, clean, gap and time them. also worth noting that the kill switch could be gummed up after 46 years; disassemble and clean.