81 kz650h1 project "test pilot"

I have the same motorcycle. Here's some of the stuff I did:

Clean tank. fresh fuel. New fuel line w in-line fuel filter. new vac line. K&L petcock rebuild kit.
New air filter & cleaned the airbox. Airbox ducts good & soft. Good carb holders.
Cleaned the carburetors by removing the float bowls & the little parts. Checked the compression while the carbs were off the motorcycle.

New spark plugs. added small amount of oil to each cylinder thru spark plug holes. Redo the spark plug wire connections at all points.
Cleaned, checked & lubricated the timing advancer. New RH engine cover gasket after servicing the timing advancer.

New engine oil & oil filter.
Lubricated the drive chain & aired up the old tires.
New battery. properly serviced prior to installation. I did the battery last, because I wanted it to be as fresh as possible.
...

Planning to snag some new fuel line aswell as vacuum lines. My carb boots are in awesome shape, supple, not stiff, I pulled the carbs out but I havent dove into them yet.

Been reading through the service manual, now that I have access to that I'm gonna go through and inspect what I can before I even attempt to roll it over "under it's own power"

Also. Some parts arrived today
Throttle assembly
Pod filters
Plug wires and boots

Still awaiting new throttle cable and spark plugs

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get out to the shop and throw a couple wrenches at her. No heat in the shop makes me lazy lol.

If your airbox is good & complete, do not throw it away as you might want to use it later or sell it: the 81-83 650-CSR and KZ750E/H models used the same airbox. If the ducts are good & soft, save those as well as they are NLA & only used on the 81 csr.

You probably already know this, but with the individual pod filters the carburetors may need re-jetting. Someone else can probably give you a good starting point. maybe #105 main jets & #17.5 pilots, but I haven't tried to remember exactly what others have used. doh.

....

Pods. Egads. Good luck, but as Martin recommended keep the airbox and ducts handy so when you get tired of spending money and fiddling with pods you can reinstall them so the bike will run right.

As an afterthought, I must ask - Why pods? Ed

No specific reason really, I try to pod everything lol, I just always like the looks of carbs with pods.

Also, I'll have a tough time (I feel) with hiding my electrics and battery with the air box right in the way. I do have it and it is complete and in decent shape from the couple minutes I saw it while removing it, and the boots where soft, idk about tears, wasnt really a thought to "save it" so I didnt look.


Is it really that bad running pods? I understand tuning can be trial and error. But I sprung for them since I've always had great results with my sleds and quads.

Typically, although there may be exceptions, pods work well at certain RPM ranges but not at others. So if a bike is being raced carbs may be tuned to run well at high rpm using pods or velocity stacks even though at low rpm there may be less power. Of course nobody races at low rpm so it doesn't much matter.

I'm sure some folks love pods, and some may have found jetting combos that suit their needs, but there was a rather thorough study done a while back that cast doubt on the effectiveness of pods. See below. Ed















ALSO..........

Woah cool! Something to learn! Thanks for that, I'll definitely be giving it a read

We have ignition!
Couldnt get the ignition working, and I really wanted to roll the motor over and get some ignition out of it before stripping it to clean up, so after some hacking and slashing, it starts. Not fully running, but it burns fuel.

Also, slight view of what I got for stuffs

I still need to remove and figure out taillight exhaust, finish theframe, shave random un needed mounts, whew, I can see why these can take a minute to build

Worked on the wiring a bit today, making sure I have everything working before I figure locations and such.

Here is my wiring diagram right now, does this look alright? I have also posted in the electrical area

Finally got a couple nice days so I took some time and wired her up, trying to get it to fire up before I tear it down to finish up the frame.
Not having any luck, good spark and compression, fuel down the cylinders it gives a bit of a backfire but no actual "run" just a backfire. I'm thinking the valves may be stuck?

But my headlight works !!

Did you rejet & tune the carburetors for the individual pod filters?
If so, what main jets & pilot jets did you install and did you shim the jet needles to raise them?

Other stuff. service fuel level check to make sure the fuel level in each carburetor is correct.
Accelerator pump operating correctly >> fuel should squirt thru the carb bores without hitting the walls.
Mechanical synchronization >> throttle slides adjusted the same or about the same. the slides have a square opening or notch that probably should be completely above the bottom of the carb bore. I don't recall what the 81 manual says about the throttle slide gap, but the drawing doesn't show the notch.
....