1981 KZ440 Carbs

Hey everyone, I've had a KZ440 sitting in my garage for awhile that I've finally gotten around to working on and cleaned up. I've now gotten to the carbs and I just have a few questions. I'm fairly new to working on motorcycles so go a little easy on me. What I've done so far is replace the plugs and an oil change/filter as well as a brand new battery. Pretty much the bike starts up on a dime but it does idle rough and when you blip the throttle at idle it really hesitates to get up into higher rpm's and starts bogging down and will eventually stall out, to my knowledge this seems like an issue with the pilot jet. I've taken the carbs out and inspected them as well as cleaned the pilot/main jets and soaked all of the parts of my carbs in carb cleaner. But when I put them back together the bike still runs very rough. I did order 2 carb rebuild kits because she didn't like being taken apart with those ancient gaskets so I will have to replace them because there is gas leaking out of the carbs. Also my entire bike is currently stock. When I take apart my carbs to adjust my pilot jet and main jet what are the stock factory recommended setting for them i.e how many turns? I attempted to search through other forums but didn't have any luck with it so I'm coming here to look for an answer so any help would be appreciated. Also if anyone has any other reccomendations to get the bike running properly I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
-B

Welcome aboard!

A recommendation: go to the front page of KZRider.com and download the appropriate manual for your bike.

Jets can be finicky things. You'll want to poke through each one with a bristle from a nylon (not metal!) brush just to be absolutely sure they're clear.

Good luck!

The info you desire is here: www.shiny-red.net/guides/keihin-carburetor-jetting/

Much better info on carb tuning than the factory manual, although you SHOULD download that.

Good luck!

I'd recommend the following:
1) Not only clean the jets, but also make sure that all of the passageways in the carbs are clean and will flow carb cleaner. I've attached a diagram of the pilot passages for the 440 carbs below.
2) Screw the jets in all the way, but don't over tighten them. They are meant to be installed completely. The mixture adjustment on these carbs is hidden from factory behind a plug to prevent people from messing with them. I wouldn't recommend messing with that unless you end up doing modifications to the bike, and only after you can get it running properly first.
3) Check for air leaks around the intake boots. Those rubber mounts that connect the carbs to the engine can get pretty brittle after 40 years, and they need to seal 100% to prevent extra air flow into the engine. Often times you won't be able to see if there are leaks in the boots, while the bike is running try spraying a little starting fluid around the carbs and the boots and listen to see if the rpms increase. If they do, try to pinpoint where the leak is occurring (probably the boots), and fix as necessary.
4) If the rebuild kit comes with replacement jets, make sure they are the same size as stock. I forget what the stock jet sizes are off top, but I do know that sometimes those rebuild kits are also "stage 2 kits" or what have you.
5) Make sure your valve clearances are set to factory settings. If they are out of spec, this can also make your bike run rough. The procedure and specs on valve clearances can be found in the repair manual found in the files section on this website.
Best of luck!