Hard Starting after one season

yes i was planning also to spray starting fluid around the rubber block offs. 

nice bike. I havent done anything but curse at it and install a new battery. Not related but the old cheap one wouldnt hold a good charge even off the bike. the coils etc were all done at the same time, as in it ran amazing with them. Wiring is good. 

xstreamcanadian wrote:

havent. not sure how. thing is it ran very well when i put it to bed so I cant see them changing over one winter? 

I don't know if this is the cause of the problem, but I do know that failing to adjust the valves will cause them to burn, damaging the head in the process.  

Kawasaki doesn't call out valve adjustment maintenance for no reason.  If you are serious about wanting your bike to run properly, and for a long time, you should follow the maintenance schedule in the Kawasaki manual.

Valves out of spec will cause this but if it started good and ran good last season then this season doesn’t start or run good it’s probably not the valves. Sounds more like fueling.

Ground a 5th sparkplug to the engine. Connect plug wire 1 to this plug. Check how the engine runs. Do the same with the other plug wires. When the bad cylinder/carb has its wire connected to the grounded plug, the engine will run best.

So digging in I found a couple of things. 

1  loose spark plug wires at the 1-4 coil. 1 almost fell off when I checked it and 4 wasnt a pile better. There isnt a lot of room with the aftermarket high current coils. Also a vacuum leak on carb 3. I also believe my cam chain adjuster is not functional so I pulled one from my spares pile and cleaned it all up and it works great, so I'll swap that on as well. After fixing the above she fired right up, however I did get a hiccup at the carbs initially. So I'm wondering if I've jumped a tooth on the cam chain. May have to pop the cover off and check after I swap the adjuster out. I'm thinking jumping a tooth would be more catastrophic than a rough idle and carb pop no? 

Nessism wrote:

xstreamcanadian wrote:

havent. not sure how. thing is it ran very well when i put it to bed so I cant see them changing over one winter? 

I don't know if this is the cause of the problem, but I do know that failing to adjust the valves will cause them to burn, damaging the head in the process.  

Kawasaki doesn't call out valve adjustment maintenance for no reason.  If you are serious about wanting your bike to run properly, and for a long time, you should follow the maintenance schedule in the Kawasaki manual.

Yes I hear what you're saying. It's just not likely. It's a very low miler. What's the valve service interval ? 
 

www.kzrider.com/service-manuals

 

so for anyone looking at this thread in future, suggested service interval for checking valve clearance is every 5000 kms. That said, in this case, its very unlikely to have been a cause for my issues, as noted above. Good advice just not applicable advice 

There’s a procedure for installing the cam chain adjuster.

cam adjuster was very straight forward and i followed the adjustment procedure after cleaning and polishing and re installing. works great now 

i tore the carbs off, and popped the bowls off, and the 4th carb had a dead mason bee in it. that couldnt have been helping, carb 2, the one thats been popping and farting the bowl was discolored, which was different that the other three, i pushed the pin out and removed the floats, and the float spring on 2 was crap. so then i tore the carbs off my parts bike, which has been sitting in my yard for well over 15 years, and before that more years in the guy i got it off for free. they were full of old gas/varnish, but i managed to find a working float spring and got mine buttoned back up. going to seal the vacuum plugs on the carbs before firing it up this time. fingers cross it was just a pile of gremlins, which all added up made for a grumpy bike and poor starting condition. ill re post once it fires up again. cheers

i fired it up after what i listed here, and it ran great, started great. seemed to have more power too if that makes sense? that was yesterday. Started her up today, burping and back firing worse than ever, and to add to it all, puking gas out of the #2 carb bowl, in pulses though, also like it was injected. I shut it off and did some investigating. If i blow through the #1 carb bowl drain hose, the air goes straight through to the vacuum line i have running up under the seat(traditionally off the air box that I dont have now. #2 carb, complete blockage, #3 carb pushed piles of fuel up through the carb and out the pod filter, great more spilled fuel, #4 carb air through the other vacuum line.....

Im stumped. Im guessing the float spring I put in, although looking the same isnt the correct size, explaining the fuel pouring out #2, but i dont get why it didnt do that yesterday. 

!@#!@$ gremlins