79 kz650 conversation to kick start only

Hey guys, so I'm still wrenching on my kz 650. I rebuilt the top end and reused the old wiring harness and electrics and got it running!! However, my plan had always been to upgrade to a lithium ion battery and an m unit. So I took out the old wiring harness and have, to the best of my knowledge, wired the bike correctly. Lights are working, I'm getting power to my dyna 3 ohm coils. 
My plan was to install the dyna S electronic ignition which I did, but was having trouble setting the timing... I couldn't get my testing light to turn off. Basically it was showing power to the coils constantly, even when turning the engine over by hand. So I switched back to the points for now.
.    To simplify things I decided to ditch the start button and make it kickstart only. It is wired and I try to kick start. I'm not getting much signs of life except for the occasional back fire. It's like it's not even close to starting!!!
.   So my first thought is I'm not getting a spark. However I'm having trouble testing for a spark now that I don't have a push button starter. Any suggestions on this? Also any suggestions in general would help! I know I'm really close but I'm missing something, maybe I need to dig into the stator a little more? 
.  I did upgrade the reg/rec for my anti gravity battery which is brand new.  Coils are getting power, but I'm not sure that's translating into a good spark. One other thing, the ground wire that used to go to the starter, can I now remove that, or should I run that to ground on my battery? My guess is I don't need it but at this point I really don't know if it could be the reason I'm not getting this thing running.

Remove plugs, stick plugs into spark plug boots, lay plug against engine to ground the body, then kick as hard as you can while looking for spark.  Check spark on each plug and make sure it's firing.  

The charging system won't affect spark...unless your battery is completely dead...which is a separate topic.

Spark, fuel, compression.  

It's assumed that you have rebuild the carbs completely to make sure they are ready to run and that you have adjusted the valves to make sure they are not hanging open and leaking compression.  If you haven't done these two things it's HARD STOP time until you take care of this critical bit of maintenance.  There is nothing worse than trying to start a bike that doesn't have the basic matanance done.  

Hey Nessism, thanks for the response!
Yes I've dialed the carbs in when I had it running with the old wiring harness. And yes all valve clearances were checked and set to spec. Shims were purchased and used.

As I said earlier, it ran good with the old wiring harness after the top end rebuild. So I'm pretty sure it's an electrical issue. Now that I've thought about it today, I think I might have . The coils plugged into the  the wrong cylinders. I have one on 1 and 4 and the other on 2 and 3 but I'm going to switch them and see if it makes a difference. It's seems like it's not firing at the right time. I'm going to try that when I get home from work.

Thanks again, Matthew

Just an update for this topic. It turns out one of my dyna coils isn't producing a spark. I bought them used, I guess that was a bad idea. So I'm going to buy brand new ones and hopefully this thing will start!!!. 
Thanks again

 

The starter wire is not a ground. It provides positive battery power through the solenoid. The starter motor body is the ground.
Make sure you have a kill switch for the Dyna S. You can burn out those coils if left powered too long without the engine running.

Thanks Stone Fruit, I appreciate the warning! Maybe I burned the coil out while leaving the m unit on too long while trying to figure things out.