TOPIC:

Hello. I am new to the forum. Just bought a 1981 KZ550. The bike was sitting for about 3 years and will not run. I checked for spark and gapped the plugs. Air filter and box was really clean. Loosened bleed screw on the float bowl on the carburetor with the petcock on prime and no gas flowing out the bowl overflows. While pressing the start button sprayed a squirt of starter fluid in the air box and the bike started so I knew for sure I had a carb issue. While cleaning the carbs (which I think are TK-22)I noticed 3 of the 4 choke flaps were missing. The bike is 38 years old and I'm sure this didn't just happen. From the reading I have done people don't seem too concerned about the flaps being in the engine. The bike sounded ok from the 10 seconds it ran with starter fluid. This worries me. Should I be tearing down the engine to find the flaps? Thanks .

From the reading I have done people don't seem too concerned about the flaps being in the engine.

I wish i still had the picture of the cylinder that sucked in a carb flap on my 550. Piston top and head were beat to crap. I only found this out after i took apart the engine because the main rod bearing from that piston seized.

Its hard to say where those flaps are now. they could've been sucked through many miles ago and are long gone. Id remove the remaining one from the carb and get a bore scope.

loudhvx has tons of info about TK22 carburetors on his motorcycle stuff page. see links in the signature of any of his replies.
There's a seller on EB who lists the choke flaps. I think you'd still need to do some fiddling to make them work, but they're probably a good starting point instead of making them completely from scratch.

More often than not, they somehow miraculously make it through the engine. I still can't see how, but I have a couple motors that were missing flaps that must have gone through, and they run fine and have good compression.

I ended up making some out of stainless and spot welding the hinges so they would be reinforced.

Thanks for your reply. I removed the intake carburetor boots and snapped a bunch of pictures inside each motor cavity. Actually the pictures worked well. I couldn't see anything abnormal or beat up. I think I will replace the carburetor flaps, install the carburetor and get it running. If it sounds ok, then I will check compression. Thanks for your help.