noob needs help on kz650 carb rebuild

I just received the 4 carb rebuild kits from z1 and I am now officially in over my head. I have no idea what the stock jet sizes are and which sizes i should put in. is there anything i should know about the rebuild? I heard that gaskets need to be treated with something prior to installation. Is this true? what is the process?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

you should never treat the gaskets with anything exspecialy on carb gaskets, if you do when you try to take them aprt later you will tear them to pieces,dont mix any of the parts from carb to carb not sure what your kit came with

Most stock jets are 102.5's. Need to know what has been done to bike, header, pods? Many variables. Include mods to bike in your signature.

The bike is stock. As far as I know nothing has been done to it. It still has the airbox and original ignition system.

If you don't have a manual, get one they're 25 bucks on ebay. It will pay for itself.

Just get right in there, I have never done this before, but I just took my carbs apart last week and it's not that complicated, just go slow and keep everything seperate. take pictires! There are some small parts in there that will fall out so, be careful where you work. Have a clean bench!



a few tips
-note the settings of everything before you disassemble
-get things clean(plenty of threads on that here)
-the jet sizes are on the jets, so once you take them apart, you'll know what you got.

These are just a few hints from a newbie

I just got done rebuilding the carbs on my kz550. Overall the job went pretty well. The bike actually ran after sitting for 10 years :woohoo: . Get a diagram of your carbs before you start. It is also helpful to take pictures of the assemble before taking things apart. A clean work space is a must. Also having the proper tools helps. Even with a set of JIS screwdrivers some of the fasteners on a 20+ year old bike can be hard to remove.

I used a product called hurrisafe carb cleaner to clean the carb bodies. The link is www.hurrisafe.com/newpage4.htm

I chose this product because it is safe on all the rubber parts in the carb. Unlike berrymans which will eat your skin as well as the rubber in the carbs this stuff is biodegradeable and pretty mild. I diluted it 1:1 with water and placed the carbs in a bucket of the stuff. My carbs slides were stuck so I soaked them for a couple of days.
After soaking I was able to remove them. For cleaning the passages in the carb bodies and small metal parts I used the walmart brand carb cleaner. Then used compressed air to blow everything out. If you need to clean the small holes in the jets out a single wire from a brass or steel brush will work. I purchased k&l brand carb kits, some of the kits were missing a couple of parts (clips that hold the needles in place) so I reused some of the old carb parts after I cleaned them up. During reassemble I used a little grease on the rubber parts as well as a light coating in the carb slides and throttle shaft. Gaskets were assembled dry. It is important not to force any thing when putting the carbs back together, if something doesn't fit find out why. The hardest part of this job was putting the carbs
back on. Trying to get the airbox side carb boots on was
a real pain. If you plan on reusing the old boots I found it extremely helpful to soak them in top end cleaner or seafoam. Any product with naptha in it will bring the old boots back to life. They will soften and swell so you can install them. You can use a piece of hard plastic or a screwdriver with tape on the end to help get them into place. I had to walk away from the bike a couple times while putting them on..definitely an excercise in patience. Hope this helps.

Al - FYI... your experience with Berrymans is out of date. They have reformulated their product which is now in a YELLOW can (the dip). The new product won't hurt your skin, plastic nor does it clean carburetors bwhahahaha I think someone, perhaps the EPA got on them as the old stuff worked FANTASTIC but did burn your skin and melt plastic. I bought some of the new stuff when the old stuff disappeared from the market and it is absolutely useless. They still offer TWO types of spray cleaner. The regular stuff which comes in a yellow spray can and another type called PROFESSIONAL which comes in a white can like the old B12. I suspect the yellow can is a spray version of the useless dip and the white can is the old formula. I don't use their products at all anymore... I use GUNK brand dip which while not great, works decently. I use it to pre-clean really oily/greasy carbs before cleaning in an ultrasonic as it doesn't clean internal passageways all that great even after blowing them with compressed air. It also does remove paint and the paint has to be removed from painted assemblies prior to cleaning them ultrasonically.

Hey George--thanks for the update. The berrymans I have is in a white can. I bought it at advance auto parts in 2006. I used it to clean a carter yf 1-bbl and it worked really well. It's just nasty stuff.

Shiska ..

Definitely get the manual bro! You'll have your jet size specs, detailed instructions on how to disassmle and reassemble, and learn a lot to boot.

One bit of advice probably not in the manual .. wear eye protection when shooting cleaner through those passageways .. you may shoot in one passage and have it come out in another that is pointed right at your face!! :blink:

Try not to mix your parts too .. keep the parts in sections according to the carbs. Take your time, watch how it all comes apart and you'll be fine.

Thanks for all the info guys. I replaced all the jets, float needles, and air screws. It all went smoothly and there were no problems. The float bowls are soaking in carb cleaner for the next day or so and then il be finished work on the carbs. My next steps in the rebuild are very simple things. New spark plugs,oil and battery then its gonna be the big day when i finally try to start this baby.



One last thing. The throttle slide seems to be stuck. Should i be able to move it by hand? right now it only moves a tiny little bit then gets stuck.

Post edited by: Shiska, at: 2007/07/18 00:36

You have four throttle slides; one in each carburetor. When you pivot the bellcrank (the thing the cables hook into), the slides should move upwards smoothly.

brich wrote:

Shiska ..



One bit of advice probably not in the manual .. wear eye protection when shooting cleaner through those passageways .. you may shoot in one passage and have it come out in another that is pointed right at your face!! :blink:

And hold tight to the jet when spraying with compressed air:pinch: