83 KZ1100ltd Rebuild

astrosail wrote: With respect to the runaway engine:...The real problem was actually my idle speed adjustment...Turns out I adjusted it wrong and had the idle too fast, thus the throttle butterfly valves were open too much, allowing air in, and the CV slides went crazy and caused the engine to race. Closing the throttle via the idle adjustment screw fixed my problem. Of course the pilot screw adjustment and idle speed adjustment work together at idle, so change one and adjust the other.

I owe you a debt of gratitude. Originally dismissed the comment because the bike idled fine. But having run out of ideas to fix the runaway issue, I started to mess with the idle screw.

When the engine was warm and ran away to 3000 rpm, I loosened the idle adjustment screw and the RPM feel back to idle. Rode the bike around the block and got back. Bliped the throttle and RPM stayed at 3000. Less than 1/8 turn loosening the idle adjustment screw and the RPM feel back to idle. Revved the engine several times and the RPM returned to idle. Didn't runaway.

I need to check the carbs on vacuum gauges and see if I messed up the bench sync. More accurately, see how much I messed up the carb sync!

Fix for noisy speedometer. Sorry no photos.

Long story short: disassembled gauges lubricated speedometer gears with cable lubricant and noise is gone.

Keep reading if you want the whole story.

Dismounted the gauges, 2 10mm bolts. Recreated to noise with a separate loose speedo cable and a drill.

Removed 4 screws holding on the chrome cover, removed cover. Removed 4 screws holding gauge cluster together. Removed 2 screws by speedometer cable receiver. Removed 4 8mm nuts holding the 2 mounting brackets, removed brackets.

Removed tiny screw holding trip milage knob, remove knob. Separated cluster and removed speedometer.

The speedometer was open and all the gears were visible, nothing broken. Sprayed a little cable lube on all the gears and cleaned the inside of the gauge housing and glass.

Reassembled and tested. Noise is gone! Everything took less than 30 minutes total, including testing time and reinstalling gauges on bike.

Said farewell to the LTD today. She went to a good home. A gentlemen near retirement and wanted a KZ for he and his wife to ride on two up.



Thanks for your kind attention and support for this project.