pods vs. stock airbox

I have pods on my 77 650. I don't like them. They bike runs fine with them, but the additional noise is irritating. It sounds like a hissing exhaust leak at <3000 rpms. Above that, thay sound fine, sort of like a 4 barrel carb on a big block V8 when the secondaries kick in. But every time I leave a red light I hear that hissing. Also consider this. There has to be turbulence around the carbs at speed, with or without a crosswind. This has to affect the airflow to the carbs, and most likely it will be different for each carb. I have heard of surging problems caused by just moving your legs around, but I don't think that this was on a KZ, so our bikes may not be quite that sensitive. I do like the easy carb removal, but that's about all I like about them. I have parts on order to switch back to the airbox.

The only problem I've actually noticed with my pods, is a slight surge at around 4-4.5k rpm when cruising, its fine when accellerating. I'm almost always cruising above or below that band though, so I really dont mind. I usually cruise in town at about 3500, and 70-80 mph at about 6k.

Gee, no one has mentioned the "cool factor". Pods look cool and they have that racey sound. That carb noise is why we would flip the top of our air cleaners over on our cars back in the 60's. Guess I'll never grow up

kz1000g wrote:

Gee, no one has mentioned the "cool factor". Pods look cool and they have that racey sound. That carb noise is why we would flip the top of our air cleaners over on our cars back in the 60's. Guess I'll never grow up

some of us still flip our aircleaners!:evil: :woohoo:

Ok, thanks for all the input, I think I'm going to go with the pods, I just have a couple questions...
From what I've read I was thinking I would only go up 1 jet size (2 at the most) for only a pods mod. Wiredgeorge says 3 sizes? Is this something specific for the Tekei carbs, or this bike?
Werewolfx, what size jet did you put in?

I used #95 Keihin small head main jets. Jeff at Z1 can get you squared away. I think you could safely go with 97.5, but 95 should be plenty. My stock jets were #92, yours should be the same (atleast according to the parts diagram at kawasaki.com).

Changing the main jets is pretty easy, especially with the air cleaner off. Take the gas tank off, making sure the petcock is in ON or RES (or OFF if you don't have a vaccume petcock) before removing the fuel line. Remove both throttle cables (this takes more work than ANY other part of changing the main jets, imo), I usually unscrew them at the handlebars to give myself a little more room to play. Loosen the clamp screws on the intake boots, and carefully work the entire rack off. There will probably be a little gas left in the bowls, somthing to keep in mind when handling them. I wasn't concerned, gas is far from the worst thing my benches have seen. With the rack upside down on your bench, unscrew the 4 float bowl screws and pop the bowl off. My gaskets weren't that old, so they were still useable, yours may or may not be. The stock jet will be a little hex headed bolt with a tiny hole in it, you need not remove anything else to get to it, its right there pretty obvious. Make sure to hold the needle jet still, one of mine tried to turn instead of the jet. after your old jet is out, set it aside (preferably in a container so you don't lose it.) and screw in the new jet, *snug* it with a flat bladed screwdriver. Repeat for each carb, completely reassembling them as you go. Check the parts diagram at kawasaki.com if you need a visual breakdown.

Hi, I've been reading forum's here for a while and finally got ambitious enough to register. I've got an 81 550 LTD That I've been messing around with (actually several). On the one I'm currently riding it has a Kerker pipe and the airbox has been removed. Because I'm basically too cheap to spend any money on pods that I'm not sure would help the overly lean condition, I came up with a temporary mod that seems to be working fairly well. I cut a green scotch-brite pad to slightly larger than the carb opening squares and then being unwilling to spend money on hose clamps, I used the old springs that help seal the stock air cleaner boots to hold these in place. Not pretty, but it seems to do the job for the time being.

I was reading in this thread Wired George's suggestion about raising the clip on the jet needle. I took another bank of carbs off one of my parts bikes and pulled out one of the slides. The problem I'm running into is that there is only one groove cut into the needle. I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this? WG is it possible to raise this needle by shimming it with a small washer and how much should I be looking to raise up the needle.

I would like to improve the lower rpm response but with all the issues these TK carbs have as far as limited jetting etc. I was thinking maybe the best bet is to look for some Mikuni carbs to replace them with. Anyone have any suggestions?

This thread has certainly gotten off track... suggest anyone wanting info on Tekei carb jetting or other issues of the same ilk, start a new thread! Thanks...