Not thrilled with carbs right now

I've been on active duty for two years now, with the last year and a half on medical hold after I blew my knee out in Iraq. People on active duty do NOT arrive home at the end of the day with a smile on their face. Not until last week. I rode the KZ to work 2 days and I came home with a shit-eating grin on my face both days.

I can't talk about my girl around my fiance. She can't keep a straight face when I talk about siliconing a hose or greasing a shaft or lubricating anything - and besides that, she's jealous as HELL. (Buying my fiance her own helmet didn't help. Now she things I want a threesome)

So I'm still waist deep in hating carbs right now. My petcock is NOT leaking. I'm starting to get into what my issues are. I isolated the vacuum lines - putting caps on #1 and #4. I swapped sides on the manifold breathers and put breather elements on them.

I noticed that one of my boots (going from the carb to the airbox) was not seated properly. From inside the airbox I began pulling them out/off the carbs. As soon as I pulled out the third one the carbs dropped. The hose clamps on the front boots weren't holding anything. Could that be contributing to my problem at all?


NOT riding is killing me. If I had a wiredgeorge down the street I'd be there. As it stands right now, I can't even ride the bike anywhere and I'm in a real bitchy mood.

If your carbs were not properly seated into the manifold and the clamps were not tight I'd say you probably had a an air leak and BIG problems with it running right. Air leaks from the carb to airbox hoses are less of a problem but should be fixed for optimum performance. BTW thanks for your Iraq duty and sorry about the knee.

A thousand thank yous for your service to the country my man. Good to have you back home in one piece. We will get your ride straightened out. Yes that could be a big problem with a vacuum leak.

I got the carbs pressed back in properly. I felt them kinda pop in when they seated properly. So thats done.

I don't think the outside cylinders are firing now. This doesn't have anything to do with capping the vacuum ports on those carbs, does it??

There should be some hose clamp thingies on those boots. If they aren't then you prolly are leaking air in. I just fixed mine a few minutes ago and it solved all my carb problems.
Good luck and thanks.

Capping vacuum ports on carbs? You mean the vents? DO NOT CAP THE VENTS. The ports on the manifold hoses should be capped but not the carb vents! Usually they are on the rail and there are two of them. The route back under the seat over the airbox. The must be left open.

If the bike sat all that time with gas in it theres a good chance that you are starting to pick up the trash in the stale gas and plugging the pilot jets. They have microscopic sized holes in them and plug up easily

I don't think the outside cylinders are firing now

As in #1 and #4 cylinders? Did you check your pipes at the exhaust manifold to see if these are cooler (in relation to #2 and #3)? It's been mentioned that you could try swapping coil wires around. Hook up the wires for #2 and #3 to the outside cylinders, and check the temps again. By all means make sure the carbs are seated in the boots and clamped, but you might be barking up the wrong tree looking for carb issues. Good luck.

I enabled the carb venting again for the outter two carbs. After some more fiddling all but the left most cylinder (while sitting on the bike) fired. I pulled the plug and cleaned it off. Now the 2nd from the left isn't firing.

Am I gettin any closer?

To blow out the carb jets - does that involve complete disassembly?

Just to make sure. When you see that a cylinder is not firing get a fresh plug and confirm that you are getting spark to that cylinder by putting the plug in the plug wire and holding it against the engine while cranking and looking a nice big fat juicy spark. The way you describe chasing around not firing cylinders sounds electrical in nature. If the cylinder is getting spark and it's not a timing issue then it is confirmed as a gas problem. You may want to go around cleaning electrical connections and doing WG's coil mod to give your electricals full power. A nice brass brush (better yet some microbrushes) ,some contact cleaner and dielectric grease does wonders for old systems. Last thing I like to do is chase electrical gremlins. I usually do a one time full assault. Clean and tighten them all. Pretty much rules out one whole system when troubleshooting after that. Another weak spot are the fuses. Change to blade type. There are a few great tutorials on here.

I read about that earlier today on George's new website. Its probably going to be something I do soon - its one of the things I've thought about thats cool about working on bikes= everything is right there and eager to be tinkered with Much different than working on a 454 in a Caprice wagon

Amen to that. I gave up working on cars unless I have to and switched to bike. Less workspace requires, easier access to everything, and most things on a bike you can do by yourself (unlike pulling the engine or trans on a car). Also Thanks for your brave service in Iraq, hope you recover fully from your knee, and glad you are back home in one piece riding your KZ again.