Carb cleaned, new plugs, new oil, why no run?

Howdy folks! I'm still new to the forum but i do have a lot of questions. The first one i asked was answered many many times before (DOH!) so this time i read through the carburetor forums before posting lol. Ok so my 98' KZ1000, I purchased it and put a pingel petcock on it. It would run but soon the air box filled up with gas and caught fire lol. Yep...stuck floats, all four actually. I pulled the carb and gave them a good cleaning. 2 jets were completely clogged, so i got everything looking good as new and put everything back together. Pulled the choke out, she fired right up! sounded like it was running great so i pushed the choke in a little and it died...I tried again, started right up with the choke on and died as soon as i gave it any throttle. All of the forums i read lead to clogged jets but before i pull the carb again is it possible that the fact that I have no filter hooked up a possibility? As stated before the filter caught fire and I deemed it unusable lol. I was wanting to check that the carb was ok before i fight with that airbox again so the carb is wide open on the air intake end. Another symptom since the rebuild is white smoke...is that directly related to the air/fuel mixture since there is no restriction on the air? I need to get this running for next to nothing so I'd prefer not to go buy a new air filter if there is something major wrong here. Thanks in advance!

throw a match in the gas tank. Then you wont have to spend 10 bucks on an air filter

*facepalm ugh...shoulda known id get a comment like that. Ok, Im the type that always want to replace things that go out with something better. So I don't want to go back with a $10 filter but a $40 K&N. I read the comments and decided agains the pods but still don't want to go with a stock filter. So...that being said, I don't want to spend $40 on a solution to the wrong problem.

Lack of a filter may contribute to the problem by introducing too much air for the available fuel. There is still a chance that one or more of those tiny passageways in the low speed circuit are clogged. A new fuel filter would also be a good idea.

Ok thanks. It's entirely possible that i missed something when i was cleaning the carb. I just figured if it sounded more like a filter issue then i would go out and buy a new filter but if there is no reason for it to run like that without a filter then I would know its a problem with the carb. Just wondering where to start...money is really tight so I want to solve one problem at a time. I did change the oil filter btw, i guess i didn't mention that. When you synchronize carburetors aren't you supposed to take off the air filter system? I'm not sure why I'm thinking that but for some reason i believed you were supposed to sync them before you hook that up. If thats the case i definitely clogged up something when i was cleaning the carbs.

Carb synch must be done with everything hooked up and the engine running. Do you have a factory shop manual?

I would buy the cheap $10 filter at first. I believe the K&N non-pod filter is a high flow filter which may effect the volume of air and therefore your set up anyhow. Maybe someone else here can confirm that. But you should definitely do your adjustments with the filter on. But first, if you haven't already adjusted the floats, adjust them using the clear tube method.



You would need to take them off the bike and mount them level somehow (workmate bench, etc) and put four of these tubes on each of the float bowl drain holes (I used a drip irrigation pipe coupler from homedepot and clear tubing. Self threaded the one side of the coupler into the drain tube hole the other side slipped into the clear tube). Test and readjust as necessary. Check out this thread by P21, he does a class job on this: Clear tube method . Also, check your overflow tubes in each bowl. Yours could be clogged. This will eliminate any issues with fuel overflowing into your air box. Should bench sync as well while you have them off. Once you have them back on the bike the set your mixture screws at 1 1/2 with filter and try again.

Ok, i was thinking about checking the float level but skipped it since it seemed I found the problem with the stuck floats. Great help thanks! Ill go buy an el cheapo air filter so that i can get it good and sync'd. I don't have a repair manual and I know I REALLY need one. I have a ridiculous budget to get this thing running...$45 a month (dont ask lol). Thank you again for your help. Just for fun I may go ahead and re clean the carb. I did skip a few things because they looked okay from what i could tell. I didn't even touch the air/fuel mixture screw because it has that cap on it...I didn't know if I should mess with that if it didn't need to be touched.

describe how you "cleaned" the carbs. Some may have a different idea of the procedure.

As far as a manual, some here have links to the Z-series manual you which you can download in PDF format. Will get you by for awhile, but you should invest in a factory service manual however. Just do a search or look in the KZ1000 manual. Patton also has a good diagram with notes on how to clean your pilot circuit.

Joe

Oh a good guide would really have helped me out when cleaning. Like i said the float was stuck and everything else looked pretty clean so i was fairly certain i had pinpointed the problem...when i cleaned it i didn't get everything. There is a metal plug that covers one of the jets so i left that alone. Really all I did when i cleaned it was remove the main jet, float and the whole screen and assembly beneath it. I also removed the diaphragm and all of the parts attached. I soaked all of the metal parts in carb cleaner and sprayed the main car body out with cleaner. I ran compressed air through the fuel line as i went. I started with the two inner carbs and then did the two outside so that i wouldn't blow junk into the carbs i had already cleaned. I cleaned it based on a youtube video of a very similar mikuni carb as well as the Carb cleaning 101 procedure that is here on kzriders. The mikuni on the video had more accessible jets than mine. I had hoped it would be enough to get running again since everything looked pretty good i believed that was the case. I will definitely be getting a good manual as soon as i can and I'm going to check out patton's procedure also. What do i search as far as removing that metal plug? what is it called, I didn't see anything under carburetor cleaning on the forums but i had read about them on here somewhere.

Well to put it simply, you Have to remove those plugs, and the jet under them. This is the Pilot, Low Speed Jet, and its plug. Cleaning this and the 3 Low speed Drillings is a must. The 1st drilling is where the Mixture Screw resides, very well also under a metal plug. The other two Drillings are small holes for the Transfer circuit, you will see them when you just open the throttle blade slightly. This low speed circuit must be really clean to function properly. Fuel level is also a must for setting up your carbs.
Anyway do you have the correct service manual for your bike? If not the Manual in my signature will cover the carbs.
Here is an exploded view:



Also while not shown in this picture, there is a brass tube that comes from the carb body and goes to the bowl, make sure this is also clean/ clear. Open the choke/ en-richer valve and blow though them. This is the enrichment for the cold start.

Here is info from "FileBase": www.kzrider.com/filebase/doc_download/50...retorrebuildtutorial
www.kzrider.com/filebase/doc_download/48...carb-cleaning-series