Trying to get my 77kz650 on the road

That is the place he is talking about, and you dont have to remove the slide needle itself to test it, just insert the straw to the right or left of the actual needle, right against the needle, and you will be fine.


What are the chances that you have a meter tp set the "dwell" on your points?

Thanks

Does your slide have a little notch in it? My 78 does. Try to get a straw-wire-drill bit small enough to fit in the little notch. That is the side I slid the straw into, the head side, not pod side.

Alright well I already done it the wrong way. And that may explain the reason way my idle is all over. I will be taking them off again. And I will reset them using the notch.

Well the chery red pipes are still there, but has improved I am down to 1 and 2 getting red. So there has been improvement.

I checked the timing with my timing light. I am within the marks.

Still need to get a filter.

The idle seems good. I think sealing the manifolds helped, But every once and a while it will jump up to 4K RPM's. On it's own. I won't even be near the thing. Sometimes it will bring itself back down and sometimes not.

So when I take the carbs back off I plan on bench setting the floats again. I am going to bench sync the carbs, by setting it in the notch.

Alright I did the bench sync on the carbs. I used a wire about 1mm. I also reset the floats using a piece of clear tubing. I held it up close to the carb and made sure that the level was were it needed to be.

The bike is still giving me a hard time starting.

The idle has improved but still jumps around.

I know that the petcock is not functioning correctly.
Some one before me installed a univerial type shut-off valve in line after the factory petcock. Could this be part of my problem? Is it get too much gas or not enough because of this?

I did not start the bike in the dark to see if pipes are getting red today. But I did take it for a ride around the hood. It ran fine. It seems when it sits at a idle is when it jumps its idle high on its own and at times when you rev it up the idle will stay high. Thats why I am wondering if the petcock may be part of the problem.

I am planning on get an in-line gas filter sometime this week. Could trash in the gas be causing my idle issues?

I really need to improve the starting of the bike. It is still a fight to get it to start up when its cold. Once started it will start-up easier.

Any suggestion or help is appreciated.

You're still lean. If you have the floats set right, the timing set right, no air leaks (OH, now do the test with the WD40, remember? ) then all I can think of is the jetting is still stock, and wasn't changed when the pods and pipe were installed.

What size pilot jet and main jet do you have in those carbs? Your stock jets should be a #15 pilot jet and 102.5 main jet. The jets will have a number on them. I know it means taking the carbs off again, but you want to check each carb. With the mods you have the main jet should now be 2-3 sizes larger. Somewhere around 110. 107.5 at the smallest. The pilot jet should be the #17, or 17.5. If your jets are stock you will have no choice but to spend the money on larger jets, or put the stock intake and exhaust back on, if you have them. Main jets run about $3 each. I don't know what Pilot jets cost, probably the same or close.

Another thing to check are the throttle cables. Dirty or mis-routed cables can give flaky idle symptoms like you have too. Run solvent down them to clean out crap and lube them up with some light oil. Make sure they are routed correctly, meaning no sharp bends. If any are kinked get new ones.

The old owner had a petcock problem and that's why he installed another shutoff valve. Keep it on there and shut it off when the bike is parked. Gas was probably leaking past the old diaphragm and out the carb bowl overflow or into the engine crankcase. You can try a rebuild kit from Z1, but if you read their article about rebuild kits you may decide to buy a new manual petcock anyway. As long as the second valve does not hamper flow and shuts off the fuel worry about this later when you have more money.

A question..when the bike was fully warmed up or even hot from a long hard ride, would it idle worse or even stall?

Post edited by: OKC_Kent, at: 2007/10/07 22:37

I personally would try and figure out why the bike is running so hot before riding around anymore as you are VERY likely to damage the engine while it is in this condition. I would review the cam timing position, the igntion timing using a shop manual as a guide and review your jetting as well as check for air leaks in the intake.

Sorry guys its been a while since I have been on. Had company in town.

I did not do the WD test. I went ahead and sealed the manifolds. They were cracked. I used some high temp gasket maker and electricians black tape. I know this is not the right way. But right now, thats all I can do. New carb manifolds are not in my budget. Air should not be getting thru that way.

The Main jets if I remember correctly are 105's. I did not change them. When I bought the bike it already had the 4 into 1 pipes on it. I added the air pods because the stock air box was cracked up and missing parts. My carbs don't have removeable pilot jets. At least that I know of. I know I can not adjust them Nothing There To Adjust Or Replace.

I took the bike around the block. I just putted around I did not even get out of 3rd gear. Once I got back it idle pretty good. It did stall out when I got back in my driveway.

I plan on trying to get a hold of some new Main Jets. I have a Kawasaki dealer right down the road from my house. I hope they have some in stock, I doubt they will. Every time I am in there the kid behind the counter looks at me like am some kind of idiot for working on the old bike. They are all about the newer sport bikes there, they do the dyno drag racing there on the weekends. The smart ass asked if I was going to bring it up to race, and he did this with a shit eating grin. Now I hate going there ever since.

Anyways sorry I got off the subject. Thanks for the help.

Hey There Now just a minute!

Did you check on the classes?????

You just might be the ruler of the vintage class!

Go For it!

KZCSI

If they don't have classes, tell them that they challenged you come up with them!

Just an observation here... the three basic troubleshooting/adjustment stages are:
1) First, test the compression.
2) Next, get the ignition right.
3) Finally, get the carbs adjusted right.

I did not notice if you checked the compression on each cylinder or not. Do you have one or a buddy who can lean you one? REMEMBER to do the compression test with throttle "wide open" otherwise the results are not valid. Test all 4 cylinder and record the results. Now add some motor oil to the cylinder directly and test again:

A. If there is no increase in the results then the associated cylinder has valve leakage caused by poor valve seating and or cam timing misalignment.

B. If, the results were below specifications without the additional oil and are now within specifications with oil then you have ring problems with the associated cylinder.

C. If, the results were within specifications and over specifications with the oil then the associated cylinder is OK. Move on to the next phase.

If you have compression problems you will still be able to test your ignition but will not easily be able to adjust the carbs. or compensate for compression problems by adjusting the carbs.

Best of success!

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/10/13 00:57