KZ-440?

Went to fire up the bike this weekend and it would crank, but no fire.

I shot a spray of starter fluid and it fired until the starter fluid burned off.

Gas is in the tanks and gas is in the bowls.

Put Sea Foam in the gas tank over the winter.

Just does not appear to be feeding fuel into the cylinders. I tried with choke open and closed. i even pumped the throtly a few times to see if I can get gas to blow into the cylinder and to get some fire. But nothing.

The bike was working, not great, but would start.

I hate to have to pull the carb again, so please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks!!

Try some new gas? New spark plugs?

bullitt00692 wrote:

...I hate to have to pull the carb again...

...but you know you have to....

The way you describe it, it's probably clogged, or the floats are stuck, or something like that...

Duhhh

Taking the carb off is eash - Putting it back on is a pain.

I'm just a novice at this - When I take the carbs off, what should I be looking for and what should I do to the carb and/or floats?

okay - Now what - I take the carbs off - What am I looking for and what should I do with the carbs now that they are off the bike?

Should I clean it? Rebuild it? Throw it away?

Any help is appreciated.

Honestly Cinci, sounds like the carbs need to be totally disassembled and thoroughly cleaned... clean the inner passageways and make sure the pilot circuit and pilot jets are real clean. The best way to do this is first soak in carb dip then run through an ultrasonic cleaner.

I've got a similar problem. What would be the best solution to use as a carb dip? Also, is there anyway to build an ultrasonic cleaner or am I pretty much stuck with just sloshing the parts around in a solution?

This is a standard problem in the spring when bikes have been stored all winter. If it ran when you parked it in the fall, there are no reason why it shouldn't in the spring. And although you put fuel stabilizer in the fuel tank, the fuel in the float bowls will be next to useless, and that is the fuel you are trying to start the bike on.

Two things to try; first open the float bowl drain screws and drain the carbs. Then open the petcock (on vacuum petcocks set it to PRI) with the drain screws still open and make sure you are getting fuel to the carbs and that you flush out the fuel that has been sitting in the fuel hose(s) all winter. Then close the drain screws and let the float bowls fill up.
The second thing is to put in new and dry spark plugs before you try to start the engine. NGK plugs are notorious troublemakers if they get wet from bad fuel or condensation.

Another trick if you have stored the bike cold during the winter is to pre-warm the engine a little with an electric heating fan before you screw in the plugs and try to start it.

I can't guarantee anything, but if it works it sure beats pulling the carbs.

I did exactly what you said and same results. With "fresh" gas in the bowls, I shot some starter fluid into the carbs and it starts for a few seconds until the starter fluid burns off. Does this with choke open or closed.

Logically it sound slike a good cleaning or a rebuild my be my best hope - But how is a non-mecanic like me going to do this - Is there a poor man's way to clean the carbs. I can always pay someone to do it, but I want to avoid spending $100+ for this when I should be able to do it myself.

Replacing the spark plugs sound slike a good idea as well, and will look into that today.

Go to a parts house and get a gallon can of ChemDip carb cleaner (or any of the other brands). The gallon can comes with a little basket to put your parts in and it's about $20.

Order a couple of carb kits from Z1. The kits are about $15. The kit doesn't come with a lot of stuff but enought to allow you to do a good clean job.

If you don't have a service manual buy one. You should not own a bike that you don't have a manual for. If you had rather save the $25 for a manual then go to kawasaki.com and print out the parts diagram for your carbs (this is good to show what should be there).

Get your digital camera or poloroid and take pictures as you remove every part. Most digitals number the pictures in order so all you have to do is start with the last picture and work backwards. If you use a poloroid number the pictures with a marker.

The reason for the camera is it really helps when you just can't seem to remember where the part came from or how it fits. The other thing that helps is to only tear down one carb at a time so you can use the other one as a reference. Only one will fit in the cleaner at a time anyway.

Put all your metal parts in the cleaner and allow them to soak for a day or so. ** Don't put any plastic or rubber parts in the cleaner IT CAN RUIN THEM.

I soak mine for a couple of days and swish the can of cleaner from time to time. Use your head when you do this or you'll drop parts out of the basket. Put the top on the can. Pick it up by the handle and twist your wrist back and forth gently.

After the soak pick up the basket and allow the parts to drain for a few seconds. Rinse the parts with warm water and scrub with an old toothbrush. I have even used a big pot with simmering water to boil the carbs a bit but thats normally not required.

Now blow the parts dry with an air hose and blow gun making sure you get all the little holes and passages. I guess you could use a can of air if you don't have access to a compressor.

Now all that's left is to put them back together in reverse order, set the float height and put them back on the bike.

This is not a hard job and is easly in the realm of a newbie. Take your time and watch closely what you're doing. If you run into any problem we're here to help you. The guys on this site are really sharp and they're willing to help you learn to do this.

The other choice is to send them to wiredgeorge. I hear he does great work and you'll know they are right when you get them back. That's as easy as plug and play

Good luck

Post edited by: stone_cold, at: 2007/03/18 10:25

For those of you folks still touting Chem Dip... well it is a different formula now. The new stuff is worse than useless... leaves the carburetors nastier than when they went in. It is also probably pretty safe as it doesn't melt plastic like it used to either but since it doesn't clean carburetors, I guess there is little point in buying it. And the gallon can? Nah... it is smaller than a gallon now also. The folks who make this stuff are up near Dallas and they had problems last year. The stuff was blowing the tops of the cans off in transit even with a plastic band (had to be cut off) around the top. I guess the old formula was either offending the environmentalists or was causing transport problems. Next best stuff I have seen which is available in autoparts stores is the Gunk stuff. It works about 80 percent as well as the old Chem Dip. The NAPA stuff works as well but leaves the carburetors coated in oily stuff that must be sprayed off with a spray carb cleaner. Chem Dip still has cans of the OLD spray on the shelf but also will have cans of the new formula next to them. The new cans are white/yellow/blue/red where the old ones were mostly white with some red and black lettering.

Nothing is easy...