78 KZ650 Project needs serious TLC

Hi Rory, Welcome to the forum. Looks like you have a project there. We all went through the same thing and survived. Your seat cover is available on eBay. They go from $50 to $75. You could probably pick up a good used seat for that price. Have patience, these projects go slow. Don't mix the carb parts when you take them off the bike. Have 4 containers to put the parts in so they can go back to the carb they were removed from. While waiting for parts, another thing about these old bikes are the electrical connections. Spend a day or so cleaning the bullet type connecters with the female ones. I used pipe cleaners and some chrome cleaner. Also Scotch Brite for the bullet connecters. Make sure you put an inline fuel filter on before putting fuel in. You could ruin a good carb job if you don't. Go through all the wheel bearings to make sure they're lubed, or replace them with sealed bearings. Again pretty cheap on eBay. Check with KZ650.info site also, another KZ 650 site. Good luck and have fun, these are great bikes to ride. Take a safety course, so you will be an alert rider. Bob

PS, if you can use the aair box, do it. Trying rejet these bikes are trial and error. It will take much doings to get them right. I know, I have pods. Bob

Pods.........................................................$20.00
Jets.........................................................$30.00Ea set.(Just a guess)
Paying someone to tune your bike to get it to run right......$80.00 an Hr.
OR
Intake boots and a K&N Air filter............................$90.00
Guess which one I will choose. "Cheaper" isn't always cheaper in the long run.

I cleaned my carbs and they are on the bike! Waiting on my pods (sorry to those who hate pods). I should be able to get her started this weekend once I put the pods on! Here are some photos of my carb job.

Holy cow! I've seen a lot of goofy stuff before but that's the first time I saw a set of carbs that had 2 overflow ports attached to each other. I guess the previous owner wanted to make sure that every drop of fuel that overflowed from those carbs went directly into the cylinders and crankcase. :laugh: :laugh:

Yea Ed its strange. I cant find anywhere in the service book that shows how the hoses are supposed connect. Are there any good references that show how the Carb is supposed to look? Hoses and all. Some direction with this would be greatly appreciated!

Those nipples on the bottom of the carbs are overflow drains. They should each have a separate drain tube connected to them that runs down between the back of the engine and the swingarm and hangs down toward the ground so any overflow fuel will drip on the ground. The fuel inlet is an upward facing "T" between the #2 and #3 carbs and that should connect to the petcock outlet. There should be a brass nipple on the upper left side of carbs #2 & #4. These are vents and should each have a tube that runs from them up and toward the back of the bike and end in open air (mine happen to end in the air cleaner tube, but that is not a necessity). If you bike has a vacuum operated petcock there may be another port at the #2 carb; a tube will run from this to the petcock vacuum nipple to provide the necessary vacuum to operate the petcock. Ed

Gotcha. So those hoses that are connecting the carbs should just hang "freely" I will make the adjustments. Thanks for the information!

Finally! I got the bike up and running!! This is what she sounds like.

Carb 1 is currently flooding and one of the points isnt firing all the time so its running rough. But she started up great yesterday! I am starting to get pretty excited!

In regards to the tank and body parts, I currently have everything pulled and have been sanding them down to bondo some of the dents on the tank and then will paint everything black!

It is starting to come together!

Been a while since I've posted any updates. The bike has come along just fine! I reupholstered the seat and I think it turned out pretty good considering it was the first time I've done anything like this.

I reshaped the plastic tail piece and made it rounded. I fabricated a new taillight holder and license plate bracket.

[attachment:1]C:\fakepath\1 full paint.jpeg[/attachment]



I painted the frame and the tank and side covers in a black and red paint scheme. I know its more a Honda than KZ paint scheme, but I really like the look of black and red.



Aesthetically, it is just about where I want it to be, but I am having carburetor issues.


I got it ready for my first test ride started it up and tuned the idle, and noticed I was spewing gas from the carb. My #1 is flooding and leaking out the overflow constantly. I have changed out the needle and seat, I've adjusted and readjusted the float. It has been cleaned, blown out, re cleaned re blown and still it leaks. I am stumped as to why it is still overflowing! Any advice would be huge.

The tab on the float might have a notch in it from where the pin hits.

Sorry for all the upside down pictures. Cant seem to figure it out. Please forgive me!