77 kz650b1 cafe build

So, had a bit of a mishap today. I decided I was going to dink with the carbs and try to get them straightened out. One of my buddies told me to remove the cables from the rack and see if one of them was bound up or too short to allow the idle to run where it needs to. So I removed the cables and tried to start her up. Not sure what went wrong, but one of the carbs backfired and blew FIRE out all over the top of the engine. I can only assume that the carb loaded up so full of fuel that when it backfired it was spraying napalm, because that's exactly what it looked like!!! I paniced, yanked the tank off because the fire was burning right up the fuel line and threw it, still burning, out of the garage into the driveway (thankfully it was my old tank, not the one coming back from paint soon). Good thing too my fire extinguisher had a full charge and I was able to get all fires out without any damage per say. I was afraid the wiring would be cooked, but it looks okay. Seems that the fire was confined to the fuel system (hopefully). I'm going to have to tear the carbs down I guess, which I was trying to avoid because they looked clean and I didn't want to have to spend the $$ on kits, and see if I can tell what went wrong. I'm thinking it had to be a float height issue that made an innocent backfire turn into napalm death....

Aren't old bikes fun!
I love that game!
Napalm bike!
We usually play it while we are riding it though....

I think I'll write a new song about it....
Napalm Bike From Hell!!!

Strangely enough, we've probably all "been there" and done that...ha! Drive on, man...and post pics!
-KR

Looks real good

Bad Kaw wrote:

Strangely enough, we've probably all "been there" and done that...ha! Drive on, man...and post pics!
-KR

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Still waiting for my stuff to get back from paint. Haven't really done anything worth taking pics of in the meantime. I'm hoping to have my tank and tail back from paint in the next couple weeks (probably wishful thinking though). I started rebuilding the napalm carbs last night, got them cleaned up real good and have everything done except setting the slide heights. Pics will follow once I have any worthwhile progress.

I was just going to ask you if you had the tank back yet, really interested in seeing how it's all going to look. Keep us posted.

Pics will be posted as soon as I get the stuff back. I'm getting really anxious to see how it comes out too. Hopefully my painter kicks it in gear and gets the sh*t done!!! I can't really complain since I'm getting the work done so cheap, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it now d@mn it!!!

Well, no new pics yet (still waiting to see when my stuff will be done with paint so I can get the seat finished up ) but I did get the fire breathing carbs rebuilt, and I didn't have to buy any new kits to do it! I was looking at all the bits after I tore them completely down and got to wondering if they would match up to the bits that come in the vm24 kits (which I had a plethorah of extras from with the two racks I'd rebuilt and kept the extra stuff from) and sure enough, everything except the slide needles matched up identically to something either in the pumpers I wasn't using or the extra bits from the rebuild kits. So, after looking the needles from the 26s over real good and not seeing any suspected problems I cleaned everything and put them back together. The carbs came out with more than a couple pieces from the pumpers (the little collars on the choke plungers were shot on the #2 and #3 carbs on the 26s so I robbed them off the pumper carcasses) along with replacing the slide bar because it had a couple of knicked up spots I didn't like.
Now, here's hoping that they little bastards got all the fire breathing outta their system and next time I try to start this thing I don't end up with another bout of napalm!!!

Well since we're waiting for pics I'll go ahead and tell you my flamin' GPz story. I had an '85 that was a total roach cosmetically, broken foot-peg bracket, sat for a hundred years w/o being started...typical stuff.

Repainted it, welded the foot-peg bracket, new battery, cleaned the carbs and was in the middle putting the carbs back on out in my dads shop when a spider came scootin' across the floor...you know what's right next to you when you're cleaning carbs: carb-cleaner and brake cleaner (contact cleaner). Well - genius that I am - I picked up the contact cleaner and strafed him all the way to the little space heater that he hid under...the karosene filled space heater...it was December... ...gettin' the picture?



Well, I got the fire out quick enough, but hooooooly muther-puss-buckets! That scared the livin' poop outta me!

Anyhow, that's why my little GPz was the fire-bug.

-KR

ROFLMAO. Sounds just like something I would'a done!!! In fact, I've blasted more than one spider with carb/brake cleaner, just never into a running heater before!!! Good stuff!!

Yeah but did you get the spider?

I haven't had my carbs belch fire but I had to spend considerable time getting them to stop leaking lest they decided to. I swapped new float needles with other new float needles, tried a couple of different types of gasket material for the bowls, swapped fittings from another set of carburetors .. it only took a couple of times removing and replacing the carbs only to have them still leak before I checked all my work through an improvised vise-and-2 x 4 arrangement. I let them sit after each attempt for a good 24 hours just to make sure they stayed sealed. I finally installed them and they appear to work fine.