440ltd carb? fisrt bike dont know much

bough the bike for cheap. changed the plugs oil etc. in the bike

turned on today idled real high after i let out teh choke. i dont know much about bikes as i said. bike now idles at about 3000 to 5000 and every now and then will drop to normal. then shoot right back up? i was told maybe the carbs? im not sure what i can do to fix this without paying alot of money. any tips?

please be patient i am not very motorcycle suave. but i know some what

thank you all for helping me

If this is on here twice I apologize for Comcast's awful service.

Anyway, It sounds like someone has been messing around with your idle / mix screws. I got similar symptoms on my 650 once messing with stuff I didn't understand. Why did the previous owner sell it? Give us all the background you have if any. Probably is carbs related but I would also check the points settings.

Get yourself a good Haynes or Clymer manual. Check the 440 section, someone I saw in 550 section had a free manual download in their signature, someone in 440 might as well.

Anyway run a search in the 440 section for idle air screw or mix screw settings. The screws control the rate of air that is mixed with the atomized fuel to produce the boom that makes us go. Something like that. There is a preset number of turns, specific to each bike and sometimes specific to each year that it should be set at. Usually 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 or even more.
Also the carbs may simply be dirty, clogged, mismatched, modified or broken.

Basically because many of us are so scattered we've all been there and have had to learn by makiing tons of mistakes. That's ok. You can't really break anything, as long as you don't actually break anything. Make sense? Good.

So my suggestion is to get a manual, a pot of coffee, case of red bull, whatever. Read until you understand, then read some more 'caquse you missed something, make some educated guesses, try something, fail, try again, come online and curse ( not really), get some answers, then try that.

Most important, don't give up, it's just a machine with an evil soul that doesn't like you.. Maybe just mine... Oh and take out a home equity loan to buy lots of parts. Welcome to our slice of Heaven!

Welcome to the site.
You can find a manual here www.kz400.com/

Your problem could be a number if things like sticking throttle cable or air leak around the carbs and if you have just bought the bike it could probably do with a good tune up. I would suggest you follow the manual for a good tune up, check the points plugs and timing and make sure you lube all the cables so they are not sticking. Check the rubbers from the airbox to carbs and from carbs to engine for cracks. Spray some WD40 around the rubbers and see if the idle changes. If everything else is checks out then it could be carbs and dont worry...it's not difficult to clean them and if you do like Aric says it wont cost you a fortune either and you'll get a great sense of satisfaction from figuring it out your self.

Check back and let us know how it's going

Post edited by: JR, at: 2007/12/16 13:31