Good deal or not ?

Made a friend with my neighbour a few houses across who is also a Vintage Kawasaki bike fan (he has a very cool Kawasaki Triple and a Honda CB900F) offered me this set of carbs last week-end.

From my research they are Mikuni Smootbores VM-33. They are pretty clean, the slides move freely.

No main jets. 45 Pilot jets, 1.0 air jets, 0-8 needle jets, Needle ?.

Don't know how to ID the throttle valve 1.5 or 2.0 ?

I have read a lot of posts about the difficulties of mating VM33 to a stock 1000 engine. But also it seems there has been success using 120 mains with 17.5 pilot jets and a 0.6 air jet.

I was thinking eventually getting VM29's for my KZ1000, stock bore, K&N pods, MAC 4 into 1, but they tend to be expensive. He wants $200 CAN ($150 USD) for them.

Good deal ? Should I buy them ?

Check the main jet threads in the carb bodies, make sure they're not stripped.

Only complete rack on fleaBay right now is asking $750.00 US. Parts racks are asking ~$400.00 US.

Sounds like a decent deal for $150.00 US.


Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

VM29's are the expensive ones. The 33's go for less than half. Big knock against them is getting them to idle smoothly. It seems that's not what Mikuni focused on when designing them. For $150 they are worth a try for sure. Expect to fiddle with them a LOT before getting the jetting where you want it.

Thanks guys.

I opened the carbs this morning as I wanted to figure out what throttle valves it had and the needle.

Turns out they have the richer 1.5.

I searches for 2.0 or 2.5 and they seem unobtainium or vey pricey at $200 per slide.

So $800 of slides plus $150 for the carbs plus another $100 for jets I will pass and buy a nice set of VM29 instead.

shrap66 wrote: Thanks guys.

I opened the carbs this morning as I wanted to figure out what throttle valves it had and the needle.

Turns out they have the richer 1.5.

I searches for 2.0 or 2.5 and they seem unobtainium or vey pricey at $200 per slide.

So $800 of slides plus $150 for the carbs plus another $100 for jets I will pass and buy a nice set of VM29 instead.

What kind of bike are these coming off of? Given that 70's and 80's bikes sell for $200 - $700 around here it seems like it would be cheaper and easier to just buy a complete bike.

He had purchased them for his CB900F but the spacing is setup for a KZ.

You are right some bikes can be bought cheap but usually, they are basket cases and the nicer carbs are already gone.

shrap66 wrote: He had purchased them for his CB900F but the spacing is setup for a KZ.

You are right some bikes can be bought cheap but usually, they are basket cases and the nicer carbs are already gone.

Don't know about that. My KZ750 cost $300. Guess it depends on where you live. The older bikes are cheap or free on CL around here. You can buy modern "nice" bikes for under 2K. But back to the question - what bike would the carbs you are looking from have come off of?

They were not installed on any bike. They were destined for his CB900F. He had purchased them off classifieds. Based on the spacing I think they came from somebody who had it on a KZ.

I am looking at a parts bike right now, has not run for 10 years. A 1980 KZ1000 LTD and its $700. Its a complete bike and the engine turns but I don't know what carb it is.

Thanks Steve for the Standard Jetting specs but I have read a lot of your posts and I deduct that 1.5 will be too rich for my stock 1000 if its too rich for yours ?

The 2.0 slides were too lean. I had a flat spot just off idle I couldn't get rid of. Had to run larger pilots to compensate. Mileage was crap and Davio found some 1.5's and sent them to me as a surprise. Cost him $100 but wasn't looking for payment. I sent him 4 $25 payments but it took a while to do it. Made all the differance. Went from #70 pilots down to 17.5, back to 1.0 air jets and 127.5 mains along with correcting all the holes drilled by the PO. I'm getting 40+ MPG on the FWY and the bike runs great. Still a little rich in the midrange and will get 125's today to wean it out a little bit more. It has to idle a little higher and I can live with that. I'll post the results in my thread.
At $150, BUY THEM if you can and if you don't like them, sell them here.
Steve

OK I am buying them. Oh boy here I go again ! :laugh:

Hey Steve,

Are you using KZ1100 boots to connect to the air box ? I checked with my Air box and the hoses are spaced okay but too small.