Won't Idle on all four - HELP!!! About to give up!!!

okay, check the idle jets once again and New Plug Wires. That was one of my other thoughts as well, but kinda dismissed it thinkning that if the wire was bad it would be bad at all RPMs. It's worth a shot anyway.

I had planned on having this thing running back in July. Guess that didn't happen Maybe I'll have it ready for July next year...:S

there is still time left.. just bundle up LOL I been driving much as I can with gas going down in price.. its awesome!!!

wireman wrote:

hey trav and tellie tubbie,i answered a question about a kz550:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: and it feels great

Not only did he post an answer, but, by golly, I think he's got it right!!!!! I seem to be able to get the last cynder to kick in by jiggling the wire harness around near the head light bucket. I pulled the headlight off and check al the wires for any obvious fraying or any loos connectors, but could find none. :S I took all the connectors apart, reconnected them... same issue. Looks like it's time for a further dive into the system. How do you track a bad connection like that?

I started this on the engine boards, but it got moved to carbs. Now I think it needs to get moved over to Electrical... :lol:

Okay, so I have elimitated the electrical. all is fine and dandy with thw wires and the problem still persists. I am back to my carbs for the problem spot.

So, again, it seems to be carb #4 that is giving me the trouble. Both the jets are clean and clear. The fule pathways, as far as I cam tell are clean and clear. It's just not drawing gas into the cylnder. With the air filter off, I can put the palm of my hand over the end of the carb and it will draw tons of gas out of the bowl to the point that it spills all over the place, so I know its getting gas and I know there is suction from the cynder. I checked float hieght and all is well there, too. I even tried bot raising it and lowering it to see if made any difference but it did not.

The only thing that I could think of is the gasket on the top of the carb. As you can see in the pic, its a little deformed. I used some silicone sealant when I put it back on but it didn't seem to make any difference. Does this seal have effect on carb performance? I know I'm pulling on straws here, but thats just about all I have left to pull on.

Post edited by: KB02, at: 2006/09/27 12:03

Also, do my carbs HAVE an idle mixture (or AIR) screw? That's the only other tyhing that I can think of that would be out of wack that could cause this, but I can't find one on these carbs at all. The place that it normally would be is sealed off in the metalcasting.:blink:

You have to have the top off to adjust the slide for you merc .gauge. That is how you adjusted the vaccum isn't it. You didn't just turn the adjusting screw on the bottom of the carb did you

There's an adjusting screw on the bottom of the carb?

The first time I tried to adjust carbs I didn't have a book I thought it was like a car. duh

I had a goldwing that was doing what your is doing, kinda

On them you use #3 as base and adjust the likage screw to balance the other 3 cyl

Grrrr....

Air screw found. air passages cleaned out. fuel passages cleaned out (again). Air screw screwed all the way in, air screw screwed all the way out, air screw actually sitting in my hand... no difference either way. And no difference at any point in between.

Damn it!! What the hell is wrong with this bike?

I haven't been paying attention to this thread but looks like you need some help. If I help, I have to do it in a systematic way... so far, you haven't really done much that will help ident the problem.

FIRST step is to identify which cylinders are potentially not firing at idle. Get a spray bottle of water. Start the bike and let it warm. Then, spray each exhaust head pipe. Water rolling off will be a cylinder that isn't firing and water vaporizing will be a firing cylinder. Let me know and we can work from there.

#4 is the culprit. While admitadly not using the spray bottle, but using my hand instead to test the headers for heat, I have determined that cylnder #4 is the problem.

There is good compression in the cylinder. (similar psi to the other cynders.)

There is plenty of fuel in the bowl of the carb. (set as per my clymer's manual.)

There is good spark to the plug.

What next?

I was kind of hoping to do this systematically... you have already found one cylinder to not be firing. You have already eliminated all potential problems. Try the spray bottle to ensure that ALL four are firing / not firing. The header pipes adjacent to firing cylinders will be so darn hot, you can't touch them. Once the culprit non-firing cylinders are definitely pinned down, we can move on and check some of the other suppositions. I know you are pretty sure you have already checked some things but you haven't found the problem so it seems sort of obvious that if you have compression, spark and fuel, the bike SHOULD be firing on all four... but it isn't... just be patient with me... I seen to many first hand diagnosis mistakes in the past to be careless and not go through things by the numbers.