Crab float setting

1978 KZ1000
What is the ??mm setting for the floats. 5mm? 9mm? 18mm? This is also called the dry setting of the floats. Where you bend the tab on the float until the float is resting at certain amount of mm above the float bowl edge. I do not have a manual nor does any of my Kaw shops here I live. Any help would be great.
God Bless,
Robert

Robert, Setting the floats dry as you suggest is mainly a waste of time as folks have probably already bent them MANY times... this causes the floats to lose their orientation from the original. I recommend you use the service fuel level method... about 1/8" below the gasket mating line. If you choose to use the dry method, 26mm is the factory spec for a 78 VM26 KZ1000A2 or A2A models.

Thanks, That is what I will do. I am looking to get it running perfect, as all KZ owners do.
God Bless

Wiredgeorge - this was actually going to be my next line of questioning for you....

The Clymer has me using a Kawasaki tool to set the fuel level in the floats - is there a way to do it without the special tool? I haven't read the instructions very closely yet but it seemed like it was a vinyl tube that allowed you to gauge how high the fuel was in the float currently and adjust accordingly.

The "special tool" is a 4" hard plastic clear piece of tubing. You supply a clear plastic hose to connect to it. The hose would be connected to the 6mm drain opening by an adapter or to the drain nipple depending on which type carbs you have. The "adapter" I use is a 1/4" straight vacuum hose adapter that will screw into the threaded hole when you remove the drain screw (6mm). The "special tool" has marks every 1mm and a reference line and while marks are convenient, you can mark up the clear hose you will have to supply if you like.

I have a small syringe-looking medicine 'squirter' left over from the rugrat days -- the business end of which fits into the end of the clear plastic hose I connect to the float bowl drain. The plunger, I leave on the workbench to lose.
presto, instant special tool. Using just the clear hose by itself seems to work about as well. I still used a caliper to measure the gas level.

Connect to bowl drain, open end of tube is held higher than top of float bowl. open drain screw, gas comes into tube. it may stop short -- raise the open end of the tube so the gas goes back into the bowl and moves the air bubbles out of the way. lower it a little and then gas will flow up the tube to match the level inside the bowl.

PS Troutdad, Hope you get enough crabs for a good feast! Don't forget the Old Bay seasoning!
:lol:

Rickman, Good explanation except if you raise then lower the tube. It will bugger the amount of gas in the tube by sometimes a significant amount. If you have air in the tube, keep the tube steady and to the side of the bowl and tap the bubbles out or even blow into the tube a bit. Don't raise then lower. Raising isn't the problem... it is the lowering again that gives false readings.

ahhhh yes you have that right, I need to explain that a little better.

More often than not, the air bubbles were not visible in the tube, but the gas was obviously way low and not going to go any higher -- bubble up in the bowl drain.

if the gas in the tube rises too high, it won't go back down to the correct level. don't lower the tube AFTER the gas has started to run up the tube, and don't lower it any more than it was before you raised it.

by raising the tube, the gas flows back into the bowl a little. it will then flow back out, kinda like the way a pendulum swings back and forth before it settles. lower it before it comes back out again and it rises to the correct level. By being careful, I was able to get repeatable results with this method. Measure twice, cut once. Measure two or three times before bending.

I will remember, and try, the tap method next time. Blowing into the tube to push the gas back into the bowl is how I came up with the raise-and-lower method. Never lower and then raise.

PS I still want crabcakes...