Which line to pour Seafoam in?

EDIT: 5/21 - Carbs are off. See post #6

Hey all,

81 kz550 here, been having trouble with the bike under acceleration. I took the carbs off to try to clean them and convert to a manual choke (all my choke flaps were missing) and put everything back together and the bike ran horribly.
2 days ago I took one of the float bowls off (still on the bike) and nothing was stuck. Fired it back up and it ran great for about a day.
Now I am having a problem that while even in gear, not under throttle the bike will lurch. Under acceleration, the bike will catch itself and sputter, sometimes accelerating.
When the bike ran good, with the choke fully on it would rev to 9k, now fully on it only revs to 4k, and without it, it dies.

So I put some seafoam in the tank and now want to put some in the carbs. There are 2 lines from the petcock, bottom one carries fuel and top one is a vacuum line. Question is, should I put some in the top line as well?

If you also have any other ideas of what could be messing it up I would appreciate it. I can take a video of the bike lurching in that helps.

Thanks!

What do you mean the choke flaps are missing, there shouldn't be any "choke flaps." Your symptoms indicate your carbs are dirty with clogged passageways and or clogged jets

home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/TK22mai...chokePlateFlaps.html



All of my flaps were missing, so I fabricated new ones and it became a manual choke

I wouldn't put seafoam in the vacuum line. It will just flow into the engine. I have heard of putting seafoam in the fuel line using a funnel but have never needed to try that approach. The description I read said to start the engine, stick a funnel in the fuel line, add seafoam which gets pulled into the carb. When the engine stops remove the funnel, let everything sit overnight and drain the carbs next day.
As said I have never done this. It sounds like it would work but please dont blame me if it goes wrong.

clogged jets. Unless you want to spend forever screwing with the carbs, clean from the top down. take the tank off and rinse with clean solvent. Take the petcock assy off and clean. Install inline filters. Clean carbs. Fix any vacuum leaks. Adjust fuel levels (clear tube) and you're done.

Bountyhunter hit it right on the head.

Awesome guys, thanks for the help.

So I took the tank off, took the petcock out and this is what it looked like:





Going to get an inline filter and put that in.

Took the carbs off (surprisingly easy when you have warm, new boots). Pulled the floats and needles. Looks like so:











Also, pulled the plugs. 3 look good, one is horribly fouled.



I know which carb it is that its lined up with, so is that carb getting too much fuel and causing the sputtering? How do I do the clear tube test to make sure that the fuel level is right?

Also, how should I go about cleaning the jets? I read a lot of things about getting a thin wire and putting it down the jets (also, which ones should I be cleaning?) but I would just want to ask first.

Thanks for all the help.

Nice posts, have you had any luck with cleaning? I have similar issues with one cylinder not firing well, even after trying to clean out the carbs. Did you end up detaching them from each other? I just tried cleaning everything from the bottom and may need to get more thorough.

Also, I'm really curious... How did you fabricate new choke flaps? I didn't realize what I was looking at when I pulled my '82 550 ltd carbs off last week though but now seeing this post I just realized I'm missing those flaps too, and that perfectly explains my hard starting! Now I just need to figure out these other issues..

www.kzrider.com/forum/3-carburetor/58155...-total-newbie#595814