TOPIC:

tripman.......
the above pic show a clear tube connect to the carb...that is a vac port and should be open at all times. should be two of them.

The picture does not show the vac port, it is showing the bowl vent port, yes there should be 2 of them,and they should not be capped off, However there may be another port on carb #2 that is a vac port and it should be capped off if it's not connected to the petcock(if it's a vacuum operated one) which the one in the pic does not appear to be.

If "hand choking" lets it start and run okay either you have an air leak (carb to head boots) or you're running lean; also have you checked the valve clearances?

I didnt mention carb to airbox boots because being a 78 your bike should have vm24 slide carbs and should be able to run halfway decent with old cracked leaky boots.

the bike has the vm24ss carbs, the ones with the accelerator pump. im going to attempt to wet check the float levels. anyone know how to do that with out buying the tool from kawasaki? i imagine that you coult just hold a clear tube up to the drain port but idk.

to be honest, i figured that at 12,000 miles the valves wouldnt be very much different than factory. "i know the manual specifies 4,000 mile "tune ups" but that seems awefully short milage wise."

attempted to start it and check for air leaks by spraying starting fluid on the engine side carbs boots and the idle did not increase. interestingly enough, i noticed fuel POURING out of the air box. so... now i have some serious issues that are confusing the living shit out of me.

Set the floats wet; only way to be sure (gas coming out of air box either leaky needle/seat or too high floats)

needle as in needle attached to the slide or needle as in the float needle?

either way, ill screw with it tomorrow or something, at least i know that the carbs are the issue here.

little update for yall!!!!

I FIXED IT!!!!

turns out the top caps on the carbs have to be on for it to run

anyway, took it out this evening and that thing pulls STRONG! so much faster than my 550 honda haha.

thanks for the help gentlemen!

trippmann wrote: little update for yall!!!!

I FIXED IT!!!!

turns out the top caps on the carbs have to be on for it to run

anyway, took it out this evening and that thing pulls STRONG! so much faster than my 550 honda haha.

thanks for the help gentlemen!

That certainly is not the case with the stock 1978 KZ650-C2 VM24SS carbs. In fact, you must remove the top caps when you synch the carbs, so that would be impossible to do if the engine wouldn't run with them off. What carbs are on your bike? Ed

i imagine that they were the vm24ss carbs.

i also found out that even though my bike is a 1987 its a c3 instead of a c2.

i guess i have one of the first c3's! build date is 10/87.

yeah, i found that really strange also. thats the reason that i never bothered installing the carb tops. maybe you can only have 2 off at a time?

trippmann wrote: i imagine that they were the vm24ss carbs.

i also found out that even though my bike is a 1987 its a c3 instead of a c2.

i guess i have one of the first c3's! build date is 10/87.

Maybe you man 1978 not 1987?

Yes, just like cars, Kawasaki model years don't exactly match calendar years. They always start building next year's model the late summer/fall of the year before. That's the same reason you can buy a 2015 Chevy today even though it's still 2014. Ed

trippmann wrote: yeah, i found that really strange also. thats the reason that i never bothered installing the carb tops. maybe you can only have 2 off at a time?

All 4 can be off at the same time. That's how you normally synchronize the carbs. Ed