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It all got kicked off in 1983.  I was in Washington D.C. when 3 or 4 "barking Kaws" got the arrow across from us leading onto the highway.  I had to have one,  This was good timing for a buyer as the industry was depressed and it had turned into winter.  I had never ridden a bike on the street, unless I can count a Rupp minibike  .  I went to the dealer and purchased a new in the crate 1982 KZ-550 delivered to my house, it was silver with a cool black stripe and a smaller brown stripe.  I peeled the brown off and it looked great.  So, I jumped on my 550 with no experience and zero training.  Rode it for 12 years then sold it as I was not riding it much and Florida coast had done a number on it with the salt air.So, in 1997 I got the bug again and bought a 1982 GPZ-550.  It had been gone through by a motorcycle mechanic and repainted, you guessed it, lime green complete with 1000R badges.  Rode it 2 years then had to get a CBR600F3 brand new.  The Kaw sat in the garage and after a silly drop onto my left leg I sold the CBR but the Kaw sat in the corner of the garage until a few months ago.  Wife kept asking me what I was going to do with it but I would not sell it.  Performing a light 'restoration' on it to test the waters so that brought me here. 

Just got it to fire up tonight!  Leaking carb, one exhaust pipe leak and idling too high but after 24 years this guy has come back to life.   

 

With a sweet Bassani exhaust! Must sound nice…

wrote:

With a sweet Bassani exhaust! Must sound nice…

Yes, it does, thanks.  I love the bark.  The pipe was near new when I got it about 2k miles/25 years ago.  It also had the UNI pods and a stage 3 Dynajet kit and the carburation was perfect with MPG in the 50's.

It did not sound too good initially yesterday but smoothed out and sounded like I remember.  I have a leaking fuel petcock to rebuild and once I got it off the choke the revs were setting down to about 1.5k but then went to 2k then 2.5k with the choke off and the idle screw was turned down with no effect.  Throttle was closed and no evidence of anything interfering with the cable/return.  This is when I shut it down to reassess this morning.  Any ideas?
 

Very cool. I love the small GPZs. Sounds like you have an air leak. probably the boots. 

We removed the carb boots and cleaned them up.  All looked good with no cracking but a little hard as we had to heat them up for a few minutes with a hair dryer and then the carburetors pushed on with a popping sound, seem sealed.

On cylinder 1 & 2 it is wet around the exhaust ports, looks like oil.  When I removed the exhaust to change the oil, fun stuff, there was some white sealant stuff under the cooper washer thingees.  I cleaned it all out and reused the cooper washers.  Wondering if the rings need to loosen up and whether I need to find some new exhaust manifold sealant.  I have new copper gaskets but was going to use them after a short initial oil interval.