TK22 Carb Cleaning

Does anyone have any photos documenting the cleaning of their TK22 carbs? I'm currently trying to tear down the carbs off my 83 KZ550 and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to get them apart. As I'm sure some of you know, the photos in the service manual are pretty worthless when dealing with small details.

On another forum I frequent I was advised to leave all of the carbs on the assembly so that I don't mess up the synchronization. I don't know who valid that advice is for my carbs, though, so I'm more than welcome to any suggestions.

Any help is MUCH appreciated.

I have TK22's on my bike, but do not have any pictures for you. I would not recommend taking the complete assembly apart. These are relatively easy carburetors to work on. When done, you can bench syncronize them to get them close, then do your syncronization with vacuum gauges with the engine running. Do a search of this forum by typing in TK22 and you will find much good information to help you out.

Robert

Thanks for your reply. I actually searched several times for information on these carbs and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

What I'm mainly looking for is where the sync adjustment screws actually are. I've looked my carbs over several times and I just can't figure it out. Also, as I mentioned before, the photos in the service manual do not help me much.

insignia100 wrote:

Thanks for your reply. I actually searched several times for information on these carbs and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

What I'm mainly looking for is where the sync adjustment screws actually are. I've looked my carbs over several times and I just can't figure it out. Also, as I mentioned before, the photos in the service manual do not help me much.

On the TK22's, you have to take the top of the carburetor off to syncronize them. I believe it is held on by 3 screws. You will see the adjuster, as it usually has a dab of yellow paint on it from the factory. There is a set screw and locknut to hold it in place.

Robert

Great, that's exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.

insignia100 wrote:

Great, that's exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.

You are welcome!

Most cleaning is accomplished without needing to separate and remove the carbs from the mounting plate which holds them together in position.

If the carbs are original equipment (oem), am thinking the 1983 KZ550 has cv (constant vacuum) carbs with diaphram activated slides (no sync adjustment) [see image below], whereas the 1981 GPZ550 has manual slide carbs with sync adjustment.

Good Luck!

[Click on image to enlarge view]

Unfortunately, the 83 KZ550 does have manual slide carbs. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're the same carbs as were on the 81 GPz.

Was looking at 1983 KZ550-A4 on kawasaki.com which showed the cv carb.

My experience with the oem Mikuni manual slide 26's on the 1976 KZ900-B1 LTD, and Mikuni 29 smoothbores, has been that most often the top part of the carbs, which is accessible by removing the top covers whereby the sync mechanism is exposed, is usually not the carb section that needs much if any attention for cleaning.

Most of the truly nasty stuff (varnish, crusty old residue from evaporated gas, etc.) needing attention, disassembly and cleaning, is accessible upon removal of the float bowls. These being items such as the overflow circuit, float, float needles, float needle seat (sometimes), pilot jet, main jet, bleeder tube, air or mixture adjuster needle, pilot air jet (sometimes), fuel and air passages, pilot circuit bore orifice, enrichener circuit, etc.

And the majority of necessary cleaning work is usually done easily without needing to separate and remove the carbs from the mounting plate which holds them together in position.

Imo, the pilot circuit is often responsible for poor driveability, especially during in town riding. For me, sometimes the pilot jet looks absolutely perfect, even under lighted magnification. But performs poorly. A new pilot jet resolved the problem. The old pilot jet wasn't clogged, but must have been somehow damaged by over-zealous cleaning of the orifices which impaired its fuel metering function.

If needed, there's an earlier thread on how to attain a perfect as-new pilot circuit, and which doesn't require ultra-sound cleaning (which is very nice, but not readily available to most of us amateurs).

Good Luck!