Newbie + Carbs = Trouble?

OK, tomorrow morning I am taking off the carbs of my (new to me) KZ750. They look terrible from the outside and I was told by the PO that the bike sat for a couple years. It runs, even beter now with new points and static timing set, but it still craps out at idle & leaks gas at shutdown. I have driven her to work 4 outta 5 days this week (rain Thursday!).

I want to tear them down to minute parts, but have some apprehension, as I am by no means a mechaninc. How far should I go? I really would like to ride it again this year, before it gets too cold!

I have the Kawa shop manual. hehe, I was impressed it ran after I changed out the points and set the timing!

Should this take more than a couple days?




Oh and I got less that 50 miles outta my last tak of gas! Had to switch to recerve at a VERY busy intersetion this eve at rush hour.... thought for a few minutes I was going to have to walk it to the shoulder! :blush:

Post edited by: EsaPro, at: 2006/09/29 20:36

If you still plan on riding your bike while the weather cooperates, I wouldn't suggest even pulling the carbs off of the bike until you have new gaskets/seals for them first.
If the carb gaskets/seals are the originals, and especially since you said the bike sat for for a couple of years unused, chances are when you start pulling stuff apart the gaskets/seals will either completely fall apart, or will be hard as a rock and useless.

I'm not trying to scare you away from doing what needs to be done, just trying to prevent you the misery of just sitting and looking at your bike in pieces while waiting for the new gaskets/seals to arrive in the mail when you could actually be riding it.

I'd suggest checking with Jeff at Z1enterprises.com to see if he has the gaskets/seals that you need. He's not only faster than most online sources and your local Kawi dealer in ordering parts, but his prices are usually a bit cheaper to boot.

I'm not really familiar with the 750 twins and what the fuel tank capacity is, but I'm pretty certain you should get considerably more than a mere 50 miles out of a full tank of gas.

If you can afford it get fresh boots that run between the carbs & air box, makes it so much nicer to get on & off.

R3- I have the rebuild kits from Jeff already, and a 1 gallon can of gunk carb cleaner, with parts basket, some spray carb cleaner, and a can of compressed air I think I am ready.

I just dont know if I want to tear them down to basic parts or just try a "small" cleaning. I think I will do a small one this morning, and see if it helps. If not, I will rip 'em apart tonight. You are exactly right about sitting there staring at the bike on a nice sunny day. It runs now, albeit crappy, but it runs. It is the mileagle more than the stalling & leaking that makes me want to fix it sooner than later.

oldtimernr - I put one fresh boot on, as the original was beat to crap & full of holes. The left one is in OK shape. Both seem fairly pliable. I also have a set of engine-side rubbers that I bought, not realizing what they were (I thought they were for the airbox side & wanted some spares!)

Thanks guys - I am off to the "garage" (check my post in chitchat on that subject )

OK, so it's raining this morning - what else am I gonna do?


Post edited by: EsaPro, at: 2006/09/30 09:02

Yep, those things are pretty nasty. You can tell by the first picture you posted that there are alot of leaks, or at least there *were* at one time...

I don't think of working on the carbs as a one-time job, more of a do it and do it again until it works... I always seem to miss something each time I work on them...

OK, first casualty The screw that holds the choke lever tight sheared off when I tried to take it out. I *thought* that one came out too easy!

Not sure what to do with that yet, but I have a long way to go before I have to deal with it.

The bowls looked really good (Darn, should taken a pic before I put them in the cleaning bucket).

Here is the bottom of the body...

How does one get stuck jets out? The ones came out OK, but the other carbs (the left, nore nasty one) are stuck in there tight. I am soaking in carb cleaner a bit more, but the pilot jet was boogered to begin with, and it is not getting any better!

EsaPro wrote:

How does one get stuck jets out? The ones came out OK, but the other carbs (the left, nore nasty one) are stuck in there tight. I am soaking in carb cleaner a bit more, but the pilot jet was boogered to begin with, and it is not getting any better!

to clear the pilot jet use a number 80 hobby drill epoxied onto a WD 40 straw (the red thing) and by hand ream out the jet opening - use 'seafoam' as your carb cleaner it is far more effective than gunk.

Thanks firemun. I *think* the jets were clear - I ran some 12lb test fishing line thru em easy enough. I believe my biggest problem now is the vacuum piston springs, they seem pretty weak and are shorter than indicated in the manual. Once I got everything put back together - the bike starts, but it runs just as crappy as before.

As least my carbs *look* good now!

Another angle