got a question.....

i am new to this site. im from louisville ky and just bought a 1980 kz1000 yesterday. the bike is in great shape. the only problem is at low rpm's, when i first take off, the engine lugs, sounds like it is being restricted, and misses a little. but then it kicks in and takes off like a rocket. what is the deal with the hesitation? only does it with a load on it. not when it is in neutral. it has pod filters and a kirker 4-1 header with no baffle. i dont know if it has been jetted for these mods, could that be it? any help would be appreciated. also the bike is very cold blooded. runs pretty rough until it warms up. thanks!!by the way, they are 26mm carbs.

welcome your problem sounds like it may be pilot jet related pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning pull all your jets out and spray carb cleaner thru all the passages in the carb then blow them clean with compressed air then soak your jets in the float bowls with some more carb cleaner let them set for an hour or so then blow them out with compressed air again write down the jet sizes and post them back on here and we will be able to tell if they are close or not is the engine stock.

yea the engine is stock. other than the pods and the kirker with no baffle. i will try the cleaning tomorrow. how durable are the bowl gaskets, are they usually reusable? by the way, how can i tell which is the pilot jet? thanks for the help.

the pilot jet will be the long skinny one it will have small numbers like 15 or 17.5 stamped into it. and as long as you take the bowls off gently you should be able to reuse the gaskets.

concrete kawboy wrote:

i am new to this site. im from louisville ky and just bought a 1980 kz1000 yesterday. the bike is in great shape. the only problem is at low rpm's, when i first take off, the engine lugs, sounds like it is being restricted, and misses a little. but then it kicks in and takes off like a rocket. what is the deal with the hesitation?

I will bet it needs bigger pilots and probably richer needle position with both pods and a straight pipe.

If the carbs are 26mm, then one of the PO's has swapped out carbs somewhere along the way...if stock, then he should be running 28's...so there is no tellin' what he has for jets.

Problem solved!! i feel like an idiot. here i am thinking it was a complicated problem. i was running it today and i felt the exhaust pipes. all hot except for 1. the carb mounting gasket screws were loose on the 2nd carb and it was sitting about an 1/8" from the engine. i pulled the carbs, tightened all the screws, reinstalled them and scared myself with the power difference. this bike is a beast. never had a bike even close to this powerfull. thanks for all the advise.

sounds like a vacuam leak,check your carb boots :S