Greetings and carb queries

Greetings! It's nice to have found a forum dedicated to my era bike! To start, I have a 81 KZ 550 LTD that I picked up a few years ago for 600 bucks CND. It's in pretty good shape and since then I've put new tires, a new battery, rebuilt the carbs and fuel petcock, swapped worn wheel bearings, changed the worn front master cylinder and changed cables. Most everything works fine (The auto canceling turn signals its supposed to have don't work but what do you expect after near 30 years)

I do have a question thou. I made the mistake of replacing my air box with K&N pod style filters and have had some trouble getting the bike to run quite right. After some tinkering yesterday I managed to make it idle like a dream but after leaning my mid/high range needles a tick (After having richened them the year before an amount I don't remember) I have made it run worst while not fixing the problem I was trying to cure. Before leaning it out, the bike idled fine and was perfectly happy from just above cruising throttle to full throttle as well as around idle to low throttle inputs but trying to hold a steady speed and throttle position the bike would miss cough and sputter. Changing to a higher gear and compensating with more throttle to keep the bike going the same speed sometimes helps so I'm thinking with the pod style filters my pilot jet is now too small. When I first got the bike the timing advance was also seized but I loosened it up and lubed it and since the bike works find at most speeds I'm thinking the ignition system is allright. The bike seems to idle better as it gets warm while driving worst,

I kept the factory air box (Thou I lost one of the rubbers and all the springs) so if it's too much trouble I can always work backwards back to factory (Which, if it'll cure my problem and allow my hair to grow back would be fantastic) Is there a set in stone tuning for a 550 with stock pipes, cone filters for riding around Red deer Alberta (Internet claims 2800 feet)

Thanks!

After looking around some more I found a few handy tests to preform and unfortunately the "spraying flammable gas around carb holders" test caused idle fluctuation on at least 2 cylinders. I don't mind paying 40 bucks for the rubbers into the air box but 100 kinda hurts the pocket for the carb holders. Oh well, I'm going to pick up the new carb holders, reinstall and replace the air box filter and see how that works out. Also going to order the factory sprocket for the rear wheel as the rear currently has a 45 toother and I can't go very fast (Thou I get going pretty quick)

welcome to z-jungle!

Hello, welcome.

If your going back to stock remember, everything, and I mean everything - must be completely air tight from the airbox snorkel, to the exhaust tip. FOR REAL.

Anyways, as you have discovered, jetting for pods usually requires going up 1 size on your pilot jets, setting the mixture screws out X # of turns more, raising your needles X amount, and going up 3 or more sizes on the main jets.
Notice i said usually! All depends on so many things!

If the carb holders that connect to the engine arent cracking severely and still have some flexibility, then they can be reused.
Use some Permatex #2 gasket maker to seal them to the engine. Then work your way back.
Install the carbs with some good clamps.
Make sure the air box boots are firmly affixed to the box, and once installed, make sure the boots clamp firmly all the way around the carb intakes. Either origional springs, or clamps.

Make sure the air filter is installed, and the entire box is sealed properly.

GL!

Thanks for the welcome's and the tips

The carb holders don't seem to be too bad but I did notice a small crack in one of them. The holders could also be leaking inbetween the engine and holder, I haven't had them off before as they are held on with phillips head capscrews and if I've learned anything about working on this bike it's that no matter how loose you put a screw into the engine, it'll always be tight as hell to get back out! I figured I'd wait til I HAD to pull the screws out so I only wreck them once. I think the proper fitting screw in a 3/8 impact driver shall be my weapon of choice, any tips to keep bolts from sticking in these engines? Might replace with bolts if I can fit them...Torx would be great too

Also, there is a leak in my exhaust on the road side where the 2 pipes join into the muffler, are leaks that big a deal even that far down the exhaust? I know there are no leaks at the engine/exhaust connection (replaced those donuts already) and I think the baffles are still together

Unconcerned wrote:

Thanks for the welcome's and the tips

The carb holders don't seem to be too bad but I did notice a small crack in one of them. The holders could also be leaking inbetween the engine and holder, I haven't had them off before as they are held on with phillips head capscrews and if I've learned anything about working on this bike it's that no matter how loose you put a screw into the engine, it'll always be tight as hell to get back out! I figured I'd wait til I HAD to pull the screws out so I only wreck them once. I think the proper fitting screw in a 3/8 impact driver shall be my weapon of choice, any tips to keep bolts from sticking in these engines? Might replace with bolts if I can fit them...Torx would be great too

Also, there is a leak in my exhaust on the road side where the 2 pipes join into the muffler, are leaks that big a deal even that far down the exhaust? I know there are no leaks at the engine/exhaust connection (replaced those donuts already) and I think the baffles are still together

Use anti-sieze compound. Can be found at any autoparts store.
Exhaust leaks can affect performance slightly, but it depends how bad they are. If its an annoyingly loud hole, then yes, it is affecting. If its just a tiny little leak that squeeks a puff and can barely be heard, then i wouldnt worry about it.

Whew, that's good I took a good look at the exhaust yesterday anyway and found a pinhole under one of the shields by the foot pegs and a loose clamp. I'll just dab a bit of weld over the pinhole and it should seal up nicely. I also discovered the joys of polishing with a bench grinder yesterday too. So far I have turned a few parts from marble to chrome and soon the addiction shall consume my soul until all is shiny!

Removed the carb holders yesterday too and found that all of them are crackless besides one that has a good 1/2" crack in it, not all the way through thou. I'm gunna try the sealant and if that doesn't work then I guess Z1 is getting some more of my money

Unconcerned wrote:

I also discovered the joys of polishing with a bench grinder yesterday too. So far I have turned a few parts from marble to chrome and soon the addiction shall consume my soul until all is shiny!

Just remember to put a good cote of wax on those when you finish, cause nothing rusts faster!

Any recommendations? I've never owned anything nice enough to warrant a waxing. My truck is rattle can flat black

Hurray! My parts finally got here today. They were on back order, then customs had its way with them, then they likely sat at the post office under a shelf but they are finally here! Installed new filter, sprocket, carb rubbers and now I remember why I removed the airbox in the first place...what a pain in the butt to get those carbs on! But, the bike works near flawlessly so I shouldn't have to take them off anyway (Better alternative), with only the strongest of headwinds causing the bike to sputter and now I can do highway speeds! I also noticed I now have power below 2k, not super low end torque but now when I take off I don't have to rev the engine as high and it doesn't miss off the line

Also patched the pinhole in my exhaust (Turns out the metals really really thin. I made the hole much bigger before finding the trick to making it smaller again) and I slapped some wax I picked up from Canadian tire on the polished parts and the tank (Made it look much better, thou still chipped and abused) Also turns out my auto canceling signals DO work, it was the lack of a speedo cable that was doing them in before. Had to remove said speedo cable thou cause the speedo needle started to shake and make a really weird high pitched noise. Going to have to look inside me tinks