87 KZ305LTD can't stay alive

I took carbs apart once and they were very clean, like new! Except clogged idle jets. Whoever rebuilt carbs forgot to clean idle jets!

Are you getting good combustion in both cyclinders? A good check is to see if the exhaust is the same temp at the engine. All the way out is considered 4 complete turns with those carbs. Can you get it to idle without choke at a 1/2 turn or 4 turns on the air screw? If no then you need to adjust your piolets. The ideal screw position is 1.5 turns. If you need to go tighter on the air screw then your jets a little small, if you need to go out to 3 turns to get it to idle then your jet is to big. That's the general sizing rule.

punisher11b wrote: Are you getting good combustion in both cyclinders? A good check is to see if the exhaust is the same temp at the engine. All the way out is considered 4 complete turns with those carbs. Can you get it to idle without choke at a 1/2 turn or 4 turns on the air screw? If no then you need to adjust your piolets. The ideal screw position is 1.5 turns. If you need to go tighter on the air screw then your jets a little small, if you need to go out to 3 turns to get it to idle then your jet is to big. That's the general sizing rule.

So with no choke and warmed up a bit, idles with screws 2 rotations out. 1.25 was not enough 1.5 was not enough.

That is actually reasonable. As long as you are within 1-3 turns and it idles good, that means your piolet jets should be very close to correct. Can you drive it at all? What are the symptoms if you try and ride it? No power, ect. It's common for the choke to be so rich it will blow unburnt fuel out of the exhaust but the piolets still be correct. I looked but couldn't find It in Your previous posts. Have you checked your valves?

punisher11b wrote: That is actually reasonable. As long as you are within 1-3 turns and it idles good, that means your piolet jets should be very close to correct. Can you drive it at all? What are the symptoms if you try and ride it? No power, ect. It's common for the choke to be so rich it will blow unburnt fuel out of the exhaust but the piolets still be correct. I looked but couldn't find It in Your previous posts. Have you checked your valves?

If I give it a lot of throttle fast it gutters out. Its like glugugl off.

I can ride it, ive noticed its a bit unbalanced at lower RPM in low gears

Sounds like you need to adjust your needle clip position. If you can, raise the needle clip 1 slot up on both carbs and see if that helps. If you can't you may need smaller main jets.
Make sure your valves are adjusted properly as well, it's easy to adjust those ones but also easy for them to get miss adjusted during normal operation.
Sounds like just some carberator adjustment to be done though.

punisher11b wrote: Sounds like you need to adjust your needle clip position. If you can, raise the needle clip 1 slot up on both carbs and see if that helps. If you can't you may need smaller main jets.
Make sure your valves are adjusted properly as well, it's easy to adjust those ones but also easy for them to get miss adjusted during normal operation.
Sounds like just some carberator adjustment to be done though.

how do I change needle clip position?

It's in the slide. Unscrew the top of the carb, invert the slide and drop out the retaining plate and the needle. Then just move the clip.

punisher11b wrote: It's in the slide. Unscrew the top of the carb, invert the slide and drop out the retaining plate and the needle. Then just move the clip.

Done on both, cant test because its 1 am. Cant bother neighbors. Idles a bit lower. Was idling just over 1k, now its just under 1k.

Took it out and it feels like it has no power. Also it doesnt wanna idle in 1st without a good bit of throttle.

Ok, this is the last step before you have to change your main jet or get new needles. If it feels like it has no power with the needle clip in that position it means its running to lean. Did it solve the glug glug die problem where it dies when you give it to much throttle? (The rich condition) Adjust the slide stop screw to increase your idle. Now it may not help, but try tightening the air screw down till you reach best idle then try and ride it and adjust the air screw. Probably need to tighten to richen it. Best to play around with it a bit. If you don't feel the power come back and you end up tightened down on the air screw all the way (still to lean at the bottom of the throttle) you will need to rejet your carb. This would mean changing any of the three jets to get the right mixture at the problem areas in your throttle range. Your best bet if you need to go this route is to check if the main jet is proper at WOT with a plug chop. If it is good, then the best bet is to play with different needles and piolets .it can take many many hours to get good at jetting carbs so I hope you can fix it with the air screw. If not plan on learning some carb theory because it's going to take a lot of saddle time and tinkering if you need to rejet. Shops won't touch rejetting carbs on older bikes or it will cost a ton. Needles are not too expensive, so if you end up rejetting start with those and buy a couple of sizes one smaller and one bigger. Good lluck
Side note: it gets better with choke now right?

Little insert here. Battery started going to shit. Put it on charger, said it was bad. Took battery out and put it on charger, charged up. Put it back in, fired right up, lights all seemed brighter as well. Will ride it tomorrow weather pending.