Helpless '82 KZ550 in the hands of a TOTAL NEWBIE

Let me start by saying... This is a great forum. I've already met some awesome and helpful folks that were not snarky towards a complete beginner. I appreciate it!

So with my new bike, the seller said he had his fuel/air mixture set very "rich" which to me means the concentration of fuel is higher than normal. Why he did this, I do not know. I believe it causes the engine to idle high and also lack in power... especially when it revs to higher RPMs. Does this sound familiar? I'll be having a friend help me adjust things back to normal and clean the carbs, but I'd like peoples' opinions on wtf this guy was thinking and if there are any pitfalls I should know about before undergoing the cleaning. And by the way, what do people mean by "rebuild" of the carbs? Does this imply they cleaned the carbs and also replaced gaskets, seals 'n such?

P.s. when I changed out the spark plugs I found evidence of a rich fuel/air mixture consistent with the symptoms in the clymer manual description: "dull, dry black with fluffy carbon deposits on the insulator tip, electrode and exposed shell."

timotay, welcome.

My understanding of the mix screws is that they only make a difference at idle and lower range rpm. Once revved up,other circuits inside the carbs take over and monitor the mix of air and fuel.

I would first try turning in all four mix screws till they GENTLY bottom out, then turn them each out 1.5 turns. See if that solves your rich problem. But bad performance at higher rpms will probably not be affected by this.

Why the Previous Owner (PO) did this is a guess, maybe he had problems with dirty carbs, but it's anybody's guess. I have seen many carbs that have been 'adjusted' wrongly, hoping to compensate for other carb issues or problems elsewhere.

Don't assume anything was renewed or cleaned properly. "Rebuild" can mean anything or nothing. I am currently renewing a Honda CB750 that the PO claimed had the carbs rebuilt. Judging from what I found inside those carbs, his idea of rebuilt must have included throwing them in the dirt and kicking them around. :blink:

Take the carbs off the bike, put them on a bench and disassemble and clean them completely. Your bike will probably never run right until you get these carbs cleaned and adjusted. Read, search, read, search and read some more until you feel confident enough to tear into them. There's loads of info all over the web on carb cleaning.

Owning a 30+ yr old bike requires some basic mechanic-ing or deep pockets to pay someone else to do it.

Open those carbs up,see what the gaskets look like, post a bunch of pictures and you'll get lots of help right here.

And look into making a homemade manometer for synchronizing all the carbs, which simply means they all are at the exact same setting and all four cylinders are pulling together evenly. Manometers are easy to build, cheap and very accurate in my opinion and experience. And synchronizing will make a huge improvement in the performance of your bike.

+1 on carb cleaning.
the PO of my bike tryed to feed me some lies about how it was running a year ago.
it would run on starter fluid only at time of purchase.
turned out what ever was in the carb looked like swamp water

cleaned installed.
removed clean air sys.
new oil, filter, and plugs
repaired choke flaps.

seems to be happy now

does your bike have any mods? 4-1 header? pod filters?

What is your bike using for air filtration; the stock airbox and filter or pods? Ed

Had to take a long motorcycle hiatus, but now I'm back and hoping I can revive this thread. Thanks for your help so far. To answer the above questions, everything is stock on the bike in regard to air filtration. Stock airbox.

I need to attend to the carbs immediately. I had the bike sitting for a long time and realized last night when trying to start that the petcock was left in PRI. Carb #2 was leaking like crazy from the either the drain screw or the float bowl gasket, and I am almost positive I have gas in the engine (and the airbox, if that's even possible) because she did not start at all, just bogged out after turning over.

Ugh. I have loudhvx's links on the TK's and the manuals and I'll be going thru it again today. In the meantime, I'm looking for rebuild kits. The one's linked to ( home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/TK22mai...TK22rebuildKits.html ) don't seem to include the parts I suspect I will need (new floats and float parts, drain tubes, clamps) just needles, O-rings and gaskets.

Does anyone know where to get all the extra carb parts in one kit? I think my #2 float could be leaking. I guess I'll never know until I rip into it, but it would be good to have some parts on the way while I get going...

Any other tips not mentioned in the info are welcome. Thanks ya'll.

Here is a page from Z1 Enterprises that has both the carb kit and just the float needles you might need. Call and talk to their parts guys if you have questions. Very knowledgeable and helpful.

Awesome, thank you.

After trying to start it a for a while I could tell the thing is still flooded. Pulled off the plugs, #2-4 were all wet. There's water in the airbox.




Can't tell if the cylinders are full of fuel or not.





I'll leave the plugs off to dry everything out but how can I get the gas out of the airbox?

And just for fun here's a picture of the carbs, showing how bad they've been leaking. Time to go to work..

I'm betting you need to start at the top and work your way down.

Check the tank for rust, and if you find any, clean it out.
Check the fuel petcock for leakage (it's if a vacuum one) and for general blockage and operation.
Check the inline fuel filter (which you definitely have, right?) to see what it looks like.
Pull the carbs and clean, then rebuild, then clean them again.
Check the fuel level in the bowls using the 'clear tube' float height check.

I know you're new, but each of these is explained LOTS and LOTS here and and at Kawasaki Motorcycle forums. They are also covered in your shop manual for the bike (which you've got, right?) and have been referring to. Not having a manual and coming here for every little detail is dangerous at worst and rude at best.

That red stuff on the carbs is gasoline varnish. You're definitely leaking LOTS of gas.

The standard rebuild kits should be all you need. The floats, themselves, don't leak, and as long as no one took a hammer to them, they should be fine. The part that leaks is the float valve, and most of the kits come with them. They are in 3 parts; valve housing, needle valve, and round gasket. For drain tubes, you can usually use lawnmower fuel line available at some home centers. They don't need clamps.

When the previous owner said he set them rich, he probably meant the air-screws. You can just turn them back out to normal. Normal is about 1-1/4 turn out from lightly seated.

Thanks again. And no this forum is not my only source of information. Glad to have this though. I'll try not to abuse it.

In my signature, there are several manuals for your bike. I would grab all of them, including the separate wiring diagrams.