Well over a year and a half ago I was "that guy" who didn't know anything and trusted area motorcycle shops. I had torn down my '77 KZ-1000 and knew I should have the carbs rebuilt so I asked around a bit and discovered none of the Kawasaki dealerships wanted to mess with the job. No surprise there I guess. So on a lark I did some internet searching and found a shop in Milwaukee that listed themselves as doing vintage motorcycle repair. AHAAA! Just what I needed. So I took a ride over to the place with my carbs to check them out. I found it was a small shop with a few older motorcycles lined up for, or being worked on. I asked the owner about rebuilding my carbs and he said no problem they can handle it. I asked for a rough estimate and he told me $300.00 to $400.00 depending on parts costs. I thought that wasn't too bad a price as I knew nothing about rebuilding old motorcycle carbs and going thru the un-ganging process so I let them do the job. About three weeks later I get a call that the carbs are finished and I go to pick them up. I was handed a bill for over $600.00 and almost fell over!
Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed with this bill and when I asked why so high I was told the parts turned out to be much more expensive than they originally thought. I was P.O.'d but what could I do? I paid the bill and left with my carbs but it was a very long drive home. It always is when you think you have been taken to the cleaners. One consolation was thinking for the price it must have been a really good job with quality parts and that everything that could be replaced was replaced. Nope, not even close. The bike ran like crap when I installed the carbs and I could not get them dialed in no matter what I did. Eventually I bought another set of supposedly rebuilt carbs that were reportedly test run on a bike and put them on my bike. Well they were better but had choke issues. I should point out that neither set of carbs had been stripped and dipped to get the junk off them. My second set of carbs, which by the way were $600.00, had some serious choke issues that were only rectified after I bought and installed new choke plungers from a member on this forum, but they too had other issues.
So now I had $1,200.00 into two sets of rebuilt carbs that still didn't seem right to me when installed on the bike. I finally sat down and read all I could about rebuilding these carbs and obtained high quality rebuilding kits and set about re-rebuilding my original carbs including a strip and drip along with vapor blasting assorted pieces. Not surprisingly when I took the carbs apart I discovered a couple of passages were plugged and needed some elbow grease to clean out. There were a few other issues, but you get the picture. I installed the first set and the results were much better. I re-rebuilt the second set which also had issues and they are sitting on the shelf as a backup set if I ever need them. The second set came from a well known source, but will remain nameless. So at this point I have roughly $1,400.00 into two sets of carbs that I no doubt didn't need to spend that kind of money on. In the end I fell into the old trap about trusting others to do what I can do for myself. I kick myself every time I think about this experience and wonder how many others get bit in the ass like I did. Rebuilding these carbs is really straightforward and just takes a little time and willingness do the job the right way. I also need to express my thanks to many forum members here that gave me help when I asked for it. Without their assistance I would probably still have the carbs lying on my workbench in pieces. Don't be "that guy"!!
Rick H.