At whits end

OK I have a 1982 Kz440 that decided it was not going to run right a bit ago no matter how much I beg. I just got done removing the carbs, soaked them, blew them out, dried them, prayed over them, and sacrificed a goat to the gods of mechanics and it did not fix the problem. Guess I shouldn't have skimped on the goat.

Anyway this is what she is doing; The idol is erratic but only slightly, however, the two cylinders are putting out at different pressures. (the compression on both cylinders seems fine) Putting my hands behind the exhaust the left cylinder seems to put out even but soft pressure at idol while the right side really chops. I have adjusted the idol and even tried adjusting the carbs to no avail. When the right is adjusted nothing really happened but adjusting the left killed the bike.

When I give the bike gas, only a small tweak of the throttle will rev the bike several hundred rpm, slowly back down to idol and die.

Please God can anyone help me figure this out!!

Have you checked for vacumm leaks, around the carbs and the intake boots, also have you checked for a good spark and fresh plugs,not cleaned but new

I'd do a compression check followed by checking the valve clearance. A "tight" valve only gets worse as the engine gets hotter(metal expands).

Does your bike have points or an electronic ignition? If points, they need to be properly gapped and the dwell set.
If you have an electronic ignition check for loose,corroded or overheated connections.

The mechanical advancer need to be checked for operation as if it is sticking the ignition system cannot retard and advance with the rpm change. The points should be under a small cover on the side of the engine and the advancer is attached to the end of the crankshaft.

Gidian9 wrote:

OK I have a 1982 Kz440 that decided it was not going to run right a bit ago no matter how much I beg. I just got done removing the carbs, soaked them, blew them out, dried them, prayed over them, and sacrificed a goat to the gods of mechanics and it did not fix the problem. Guess I shouldn't have skimped on the goat.

Anyway this is what she is doing; The idol is erratic but only slightly, however, the two cylinders are putting out at different pressures. (the compression on both cylinders seems fine) Putting my hands behind the exhaust the left cylinder seems to put out even but soft pressure at idol while the right side really chops. I have adjusted the idol and even tried adjusting the carbs to no avail. When the right is adjusted nothing really happened but adjusting the left killed the bike.

When I give the bike gas, only a small tweak of the throttle will rev the bike several hundred rpm, slowly back down to idol and die.

Please God can anyone help me figure this out!!

Would first remove the sign.




Next would spray water mist onto exhaust header pipes while engine is running -- does water sizzle and immediately evaporate off both pipes, or perhaps only on the right side? Please let us know so we may decide how best to proceed with diagnosis.

The waterspray test is to determine whether combustion is happening in both cylinders. If not, the issue might be a faulty sparkplug, or other ignition component problem, or a compression problem, unrelated to carbs.

Remove sparkplugs and hold their bases against the head while spinning the engine over (as in otherwise normal cranking procedure with ignition switched on), and look for a good fat blue spark on both plugs.

Assure battery fluid levels are correct and that it is fully charged, with clean tight cable connections.

Would also do a true compression test and assure correct valve clearances.

The idea is to first assure a good quality spark and acceptable compression before addressing removal of remaining goat hair in the carb pilot circuits.

Good Luck!

When cleaning my carbs I am very much a proponent of gently and carefully poking a guitar string or nylon bristle through each and every single hole you can find. Soaking and blowing does not always get the goat hairs out of the pilot circuit
when done, a carb synch would then be very much in order.

All this only after following the suggestions above.

Oh, and dont forget to put an inline fuel filter in the gasline if not there already.

Cheers