Bringing back to LIFE ! !

Ok , I just got my hands on an 81 Kz550 with 12850 original miles. It has the TK carbs , 4 into 2 stock pipes and was not started for a few years. Here's where I need your help my friends. I drained the tank , bought a new battery and charged it up. The starter button had been relocated to the side of the fork tube (dont know why) , Drained the case and changed the filter. Then filled it up with fresh 10w-40. Ok I turned it over for about 45 seconds with no choke (pointing down??) and nothing. turned the choke so it pointed to the rear of the bike and she fired up. My problem is that when I turn the choke toward the ground she wont run and if I keep the choke turned toward the rear it will run but idle starts to rev higher and higher. What should I do , you sound like a bunch of pro's and I really want to get her on the road. Thanks

Post edited by: Big Perm, at: 2007/04/20 01:01

You mean it wont run if you turn the choke off right away, or it wont run after it has warmed up with the choke on? It's normal for the idle to climb with the choke on as it warms up. You turn the choke off gradually as it warms up until it will stay running with the choke off.

How long should it gradually take ?? Maybe I didn't give it enough time. I had it running for about 2 minutes when it started to rev on me.

Mine takes a good 5+ minutes to warm up completly. Of course the weather has an effect too. If I start my bike on full choke it will start to rev almost immediatly so I start turning it off to keep the RPM around 2500 or so. Give it another try and let it run until it's good and warmed up. Just keep turning the choke off gradually to keep the RPM good. You may have to adjust the idle screw too. If it is turned out too far the bike will stall when you turn the choke off. You wont know until its warmed up though. If you adjust it while its cold you will find the idle speed increasing as it warms up.

If it sat for a long time with gas in the carbs you can rest assured you are going to have to pull the carbs off and clean then throughly.
It will start but as soon as the choke is turned off it will die and not run due to clogged jets and pilot circuits.

Those TK-22 carbs take a long time to warm up so you can take the choke off. I did a mod to the choke's fast-idle adjustment to allow you to tune the fast idle to different weather temperatures. (Not to be confused with the main idle adjustment.)

www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZchokeScrewMod.html

If you can't get a decent idle at all, however, you probably need to clean the carbs especially the idle circuits (like Baldy said).

Here's a man yoo all:
home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/KZ5mnl.pdf

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/04/20 15:00

Well I fired it up and gave it awhile choking down the more it reved. It never idled for me so the carbs are coming off for a good cleaning. It also started to smoke from the bottom of the case ?? Not bad but I noticed ?? Thanks guys. I will be posting pics of this endevour as soon as I resize them.

Big Perm wrote:

Well I fired it up and gave it awhile choking down the more it reved. It never idled for me so the carbs are coming off for a good cleaning. It also started to smoke from the bottom of the case ?? Not bad but I noticed ?? Thanks guys. I will be posting pics of this endevour as soon as I resize them.

Hopefully you just spilled a little oil on the pipes when you did the change and that is what's making smoke. Whatever you do, don't let the smoke out of the wires.

Have fun and good luck!

OKC_Kent wrote:

Whatever you do, don't let the smoke out of the wires.

:lol: :lol: :woohoo: :laugh: :ohmy: :woohoo: :lol: :laugh: My Wireman imitation again.

Alright , took the carbs off and cleaned them. Still cant get the bike to idle but I did find a point were I could have the choke open and she idled good and ran great. I said screw it and threw my helmet on and took her for a ride up and down the street. Ran great an was super responsive. Do you think that I need to adjust the idle screw now that its all cleaned and still wont idle with the choke off or do you think that maybe me choke has been turned into one of those fast idle deals I keep hearing about ??

Have you adjusted your fuel/air mixture screws, to add more fuel to your chokeless mix?

Do you have the idle screw in at all? 'Cause you'll need that for sure...