Carburetor Cleaning Questions

Hi everybody,

I'm still learning the maintenance required for my 1978 kz650 sr as I go. I just began the carb cleaning process and successfully got one of the carbs off, dismantled and cleaned. I have a couple dumb questions about some stuff that I'm stuck on though.

I can't seem to get the other three carbs off of the throttle assembly. I thought they would just slide off the throttle shaft, but I can't seem to find a good description of how to remove them in my Clymer. My other question is about the hoses that run laterally along the float bowls connecting each carb. The hoses have orings in them to give them a snugger fit around the nipples they connect to. What purpose do they serve as they don't seem to actually connect to the internals of the carbs. I had one of these hoses break.

Thanks!

It sounds like your bike has an accelerator pump. The tubing connecting the float bowls are fuel lines for the pump nozzles which project into the carburetor bore. The diagrams don't show o-rings, so someone may have added them for whatever reason. See the diagrams at Kawasaki.com, csml or partzilla. My VM24 carburetors don't have o-rings there. I would ditch the o-rings & install new, properly sized tubing. snug fit.

Did you pull the top caps and remove the screws that hold the throttle shaft to the slide lifting device? If you do that with all carbs then the throttle shaft can be slid out one side.

This rebuild tutorial may help... members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/i.../vm_carb_rebuild.pdf
It's for Suzuki GS type VM's but most of the elements are the same other than maybe the accelerator pump.

Thanks for the advice! I've removed all the top caps and loosened all of the screws holding the throttle shaft.

I'm not sure the name for it, but between carbs 1 & 2 there is a vertical piece that looks like it could be holding the throttle shaft from moving? The screw is stripped but I'm removing that later today. It also could be a matter of lubricating parts of the assembly as I don't know if the carbs have been removed from the rack before.

You will need to remove the stripped screws as it holds the shaft in the correct spot then remove all 5 8mm bolts from the rod 4 are under the top caps one is on the throttle linkage remove the 2 black rubber end caps off 1 and 4 carb and slide the rod out