New Member on a Kawasaki Zephyr 550 looking for some help....

Hello everyone!
Being a newcomer first of all I would like to present myself: I am 51, living in Berlin, Germany, and recently bought a 1991 Kawasaki Zepyhr 550 to restore. I bought it cheap and worked on it in my spare time. I do have mechanical experience, having owned several bikes and scooters (2T and 4T) in the past, so I am not a complete newbie.

The bike was not running, it had been stored in a garage for some 5 years (as far as I know, maybe more) and was needing a full rebuild, so that's what I did.

I rebuilt both front brakes and rear brakes, installed new brake pads, new fluids, cleaned carbs, new forks oil and even new set of rear shocks (mine were busted). New black paint job (it had been already repained several times, from green to red to black...) and before installing new tires for the legal inspection and registratino, I tried to fire it up... and now the story begins....A small video I made like a month ago, after finishing with the painting. That is a cold start. Yet something is off...

This is my bike sorted out esthetically, but not mechanically still

Looking to get help from more experienced guys here!

Welcome to the site.
Nice bike . 
Your other thread is released
Dave

Welcome from the UK

Welcome to KZRider...I like the Zephyrs...nice save.

Welcome from France. Nice looking Zeph. I had one at 21 and loved it, so much so I bought an 11.

Welcome! I’ve got a Zephyr 550 myself (two of them actually, but I’m selling one currently). They’re great bikes. I’ll look out for your threads and offer help where I can. 

And I am finally back... After a lot of waiting for parts and personal stuff going on, I finally managed last week to put my hands back on the bike. I replaced the chain tensioner (which I found out was broken inside, kinda like I was when I found out....) and the pilot screws with some compatible thumb screws I found on the net. In the end all the issues were caused exactly by a misregulation of the pilot screws..

Basically the Haynes manual states that these should be set to 2,5 turns out max. So I did. And I was wrong. A mechanic I met, who has the same bike, told me to set them to 1 3/4 turns out. Lo and behold, after some sputtering the bike started fine and held the idle speed.

The only issue now is that when blipping the throttle, the RPMs stay high. So another carb cleaning was de (my tenth...) and now I am about to reinstall the carbs on the bike.

Will keep you posted. 

Most of the time, a hanging idle is because of a vacuum leak.  Most common offender is the rubber carb boots that bolt to the head.  Remove them and flex, looking for cracks.  Or just replace them, if still available.  Rubber parts are short for the world after 40+ years.

Welcome from Germany

A carb sync is nessesary and I know from experience that the carb rubber boots are the source of your trouble. The stock jet setup is also very lean (idle and main jets), so any little air leak can cause probs like yours.