1979 KZ1000 LTD B3 Help wanted - Bike will not start

Hi,

I have reading a lot of posts on this forum and others to try and figure out what to do next.

The bike is a 1979 KZ1000, it has 15,500 KM's. Glacier Green !

The engine is a MKII. The bike has not started for over 5 years. It was sitting mostly in a garage. When I bought it the carbs, pipes and tank were off. The bike was very dirty in general.

I am not a mechanic. I have a Clymer manual and the manual I found on this site.

Here is what I have done to it so far;

Degreased the engine and frame, general clean up
New battery, charged it
Relocated the front flashers, changed a flasher relay, all lights, horn, starter, work as they should
New drive chain, adjusted
Spocket cover has the lower left bolt broken (PIC)
New clutch cable and spring
Opened up the alternator stator, cleaned it up, changed the gasket, 1 bolt on the top is broken (PIC)
Front and rear master cylinders were rebuilt, new rear hose, new banjos
Checked and cleaned the brake callipers.
New old school coils, hi-tens lines, caps and NGK B8es Sparkplugs, checked the gaps to specs
Checked the points, I used a very fine sand paper between them and then I cleaned up with contact cleaner, then lube and gap spacing, I am losing 1.3V between the battery and the coil leads.
Opened up the cam cover, looked quite dirty. Saw some white crystals deposits here and there. The gasket held up. Closed everything up.
The inside of the fuel tank looked pretty good, I rinsed it with fuel several times and running what was coming out with paper towels to see if there was any debris (there was)
did that until it was clean.
New rubber fuel lines with in-line filters
New K&N pods (the bike came without the airbox and the seller told me the carbs were adjusted for that and the 4 into 1)
Installed the 4 into 1 with new gaskets.
Oil level OK. Filter I was told by the seller was fresh. Got a spare one.

So the engine turns fine, the starter works. I can see blue sparks if i test the spark plug against the engine. The sparks are not huge.
I tried both with the choke up and down, does not seems to change anything. No sputter.
I removed the left pod and tried blocking the rubber fitting, I can feel suction and gas was accumulating on the rim.
Basically trying to start it until the battery started to weaken and then I stopped.

The carbs were ultrasonically cleaned 4 years ago and basically sat in a pan covered with a shirt in a garage. I have the invoice and it say 'Removed old and replace Vton rings, Floats set to 26MM, fuel screws 1 1/2 turns out.

So I am looking for some advice on what should be my next steps. I am not sure if it is a ignition issue or a fuel issue ?

To improve spark, should I consider changing the points to a Dyna system, just the points and keep the coils as they are ?
To adress the loss of voltage between the battery and the coils, do a bypass with a relay as I have read in this forum or is 1.5V not significant ?
Do I need to clean / rebuild the carbs or get it done. Check the floats. Not sure what 4 years of sitting in a garage did to them. How hard is it ?
The breather apparatus is gone. There is a hose connecting both the covers. The lines on the carburetors have nothing. Does that affect carb function ?
Do I need to open up the top and clean everything, check spacing change shims etc. The bike has low KM. ?
I have a compression gauge. Did not figure out yet out to test. Will try that next week-end. Can I test if engine isn't running ?

I think I am not far from there I just need to figure out what is missing.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

First thing to check is the compression. It is an indicator if the valves need adjustment. I would have done that when the cam cover was off. To check compression, leave the carburetors off OR keep the throttle open. when testing. Remove all four plugs. Put your compression tester in first plug hole and turn the engine over till the reading on the gauge maxes out. Do this for the other 3 cylinders and record the results. Then take one TEA SPOON of oil and pour down JUST #1 cylinder and repeat the test. Do this for the other 3 cylinders, one at a time. Don't pour oil down a cylinder you are not going to test. Record the results. Let me know what you find. Don't worry about the carburetor assembly at this point.

When trying to get an old bike on the road the first thing I do, even before trying to fire it up, is to perform all the various maintenance tasks. Your list is pretty good but I'd check the valve adjustment and clean the carbs straight away. While inside the carbs you need to perform an inventory of all the jet numbers and compare against stock. With the K&N's the jetting will have to be adjusted according, as I think you know.

When adjusting the valves follow the factory Kawasaki method on how to position the cams. Actually, I like the method described in the later Kawasaki manual because the cam positioning method is best; it places two adjacent valves on the base circle so the valves can be checked in pairs with less engine rotation steps. The reason valve adjustment is so critical is because so many people neglect this task, and the valves tighten with usage so eventually the valves start to carbon up and burn (not good.)

BTW, losing 1.5 volts going to the coils is not ideal but it won't cause problems per say.

Thanks for your advise !

So I removed the K&N Pods, the carbs and the 4 spark plugs and proceeded to test compression. I tested each cylinder dry and then each cylinder after adding the oil and here are my findings;

Cylinders from left (clutch side)

Dry

Cylinder 1: 45
Cylinder 2: 20
Cylinder 3: 0
Cylinder 4: 20

With 1 teaspoon (3MM) of oil

Cylinder 1: 48
Cylinder 2: 20
Cylinder 3: 0
Cylinder 4: 20

So I am thinking the problem is poor compression across the board since my Clymer manual says I should have 130-160 PSI and that 100 is OK.

Also Cylinder 3 seems to be a problem. or the same as the others.

Next steps gentleman ?

I am thinking about removing the top cover, clean everything up and try to assess if something is wrong with the valves ?

Thanks.

Would first measure the valve clearances and adjust as needed to bring within specs.

Next would perform a leak-down test.


A leak-down test injects air pressure through the spark plug hole to pressurize the combustion chamber.

Can perform a poor-man's leak-down test by introducing compressed air into a spark plug hole and listening to where it escapes from the combustion clamber. This may be done at TDC or any other cam positions where both valves are fully closed. Top dead center (TDC) is when the piston is at its highest position. An easy way to tell TDC is by alignment of the T mark with the case mark when viewed through the timing window.

May introduce a spurt of compressed air by using a rubber cone-tip blow gun (rubber air nozzle) held into the spark plug hole. And of course keep holding it in position to keep air from coming back out the spark plug hole while listening for escaping air at other places. The air compressor should not be running while listening because the noise will likely drown out any sound of escaping air. Or just use a portable compressed air tank.

Air heard escaping from exhaust port indicates exhaust valve not fully closing (perhaps too tight clearance or damaged valve or valve seat).

Air heard escaping from carb intake indicates intake valve not fully closing (perhaps too tight clearance or damaged valve or valve seat).

Air heard escaping from crankcase breather indicates loss of compression past rings into crankcase (perhaps worn piston rings or cylinders).

Air heard escaping from head gasket area indicates loss of compression past head gasket (perhaps due to a blown head gasket).

A leaking valve may sometimes be resolved by adjusting the clearance to within specs.

A leaking head gasket may sometimes be resolved by torquing the head fasteners when the engine is stone cold (such as after sitting overnight).

Good Fortune!

So I removed the coils to make some space and the valve cover this morning. The intake valve of cylinder 4 looks really bad. Lots of deposits and rust on the cams surface. All of the other cams look better. I also removed the breathers to take a look at the reeds, very dirty. So I mostly did some cleaning and will read further on valve clearance and checking the head fasteners. At the same time, I will clean up the cover and buff it while I have access to it.

It looks like your valve lifter buckets are stuck by the rust and can not moving freely. Some valves could not really close so you have a lot of compression drop on all cylinder.

I wouldn't run it that way and get rid of the rust.
Steve

OK so I cleaned up everything and checked the torques specs on the caps so they were OK.

I took some measurements. For 1979 the space between the cam and the shim should be between 0.05 and 0.15 mm. Only 2 fall within tolerances. 2 have no gaps and the shims do to move freely either. All of the others are either below 0.038 (my smallest feeler gauge) or above 0.038 but below 0.051.

I mapped out everything in the attached file and ordered a Kawasaki shim removing tool and a .200 shim so I can start removing the shims to see their sizes and figure out what other shims I might need.

I am missing something important ?

Thanks.

It is possible you have a lot of carbon/rust build up on the valve/head seat ring surface and the valve stems. Before you do the valve shiming job please took some pics from inside your in/ex ports.

You said you cleaned everything up, but just to confirm... Did you remove the cam shafts? Did you remove the shim buckets? Given the amount of rust and gunk on that one bucket, I would definitely remove the cams and all buckets and clean and oil everything.

I'd pull the head.
Steve