1976 KZ400-S2 Cafe/Brat

Kidkawie wrote: If it's just clogged, I use a set of micro drill bits or a torch tip cleaner to clean them out.

I actually lost one of them :S

Have you tried Z1? You may want to get one of them on the phone.
Too bad we lost the KZ400 forum. Lots of good info on jetting there.

ThatGPzGuy wrote: Have you tried Z1? You may want to get one of them on the phone.
Too bad we lost the KZ400 forum. Lots of good info on jetting there.

I haven't yet. I've got my carbs at a local shop right now in the ultrasonic cleaner. He thinks he has a pilot jet there and if not he says he knows a guy who should have one.

Here's Ivan's old site in case you don't have it linked.
www.kz400.com/index.html
Lot's of good information on there still.

I'll look in my 400 parts bin and see if I have one.

Progress update #2

Finished cleaning up the carbs and got them all put back together. All I need is to replace my rubber pilot jet plug. Already found the pieces to rebuild the petcock, which should be here in the next couple days and also got some high quality fuel lines. I checked out the tank and was pleased to find very little rust, almost negligible, so that saves me a lot of time.





I checked the compression of the engine a few days ago - 130lbs on each side, pretty good! However I don't believe I am getting any form of a spark , not that I could see anyways (grounded the plug to the frame to initiate a spark). I will begin to diagnose that issue tomorrow working from the points up to the coil after i double check all connections.

You did a great job on those carbs! Thank you!

In order to check for spark you have to have both plug bodies touching the engine (or each other, or some other piece of metal) because both plugs are part of the same current path. If you were checking with one plug connected and the other plug wire totally unconnected, you will probably not get spark, and might damage the coil.

loudhvx wrote: In order to check for spark you have to have both plug bodies touching the engine (or each other, or some other piece of metal) because both plugs are part of the same current path. If you were checking with one plug connected and the other plug wire totally unconnected, you will probably not get spark, and might damage the coil.

I did my best! Okay I will recheck tomorrow doing that. My knowledge of the lector all system is poor, so I'm trying to figure it all out. I've researched the point system but apparently I need to do some more reading.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationStill found no spark so started diagnosing the ignition components. After setting the points and timing and ensuring continuity there, I moved to the coil. Rather than the 3.2-4.8 ohm resistance suggested by the manual for the primary winding, I had complete continuity. I then moved onto the secondary winding where I didn't get a reading at all, I even went as far as pulling out the spark plug wires and checking the leads in the coil itself and still got nothing. So I ordered a new coil from eBay:

Should be here by the end of the week so I'll try it out and also get new points just for good measure.

Quick update:
Finally got the bike started yesterday. This was after getting a new ignition coil, which still didn't solve my no spark problem. Checked to see if the battery was delivering power to the coil and it wasn't. So I traced the connections to it and found a faulty connection, replaced it, and wahlah! Nice bright blue spark!

Got it to run but it had to be on half choke in order to keep running. Float height and idle mixture screws need to be adjusted for sure but since I'm tearing it down to the frame for a repaint I didn't want to spend the time on it until I've got all that terrible paint off. Next stop - soda blaster!

Do you have the stock air box and filter installed? Ed

To get that bike to run right, your going to need the airbox, or be a carb tuning wizard.

Yes i had the stock airbox installed when I had it running, I once put pod filters on a '08 Ninja 250 that I had and it was a nightmare trying to get it jetted correctly so I'm avoiding that issue with this bike. I honestly didn't even bench sync them so that could solve some of my issues and give me a starting point. I also noticed my carb pistons were sticking a little bit so I need to polish those up before I start to assemble the bike after painting.