1979 KZ1000 LTD B3 Help wanted - Bike will not start

I put the bike back together and the tank, side covers and tail section came back from the painter. I like the overall look.

Still need to finish tuning the carbs.

I have white smoke emanating from the top of the head once the bike gets warmed up. Seems to me like its coming from the camshaft cover. New gasket. Normal ?

The paint looks good!

Did you block off the smog ports on the valve cover?

Do you have any leaks around the front of the head gasket?

No leaks. My head gasket is brand new and I sprayed both sides with Permatex Copper Gasket.

All I did for the smog ports was to clean the reed valves. The smog caps are linked together with a piece of new rubber hose.

I was thinking about buying the APE caps to eliminate all of that clutter.

Do I need to block something else ?

I capped mine but your solution is equally effective. The hosing was originally connected to the air box to route unburned gases back into the combustion stream. For some reason they included hoses off two of the carburetor boots. If you've put plugs on all your carb boots then there should be nothing else to do.

If you have no leaks on your head gasket then there should be no smoke. Just wondering if you might have had a bit of oil on your engine that burned off. Oh...and check your tach connection to make sure it's not leaking.

hardrockminer wrote: . The hosing was originally connected to the air box to route unburned gases back into the combustion stream. For some reason they included hoses off two of the carburetor boots. If you've put plugs on all your carb boots then there should be nothing else to do..

Actually, that is almost exactly opposite of how the system works. It is not an EGR system. The system introduces clean, filtered air into the exhaust ports in order to encourage the burning of any unburned fuel and to dilute the pollutants to keep the EPA happy. The reed valves prevent exhaust gasses from entering the system. The vacuum lines connected to a vacuum valve that controlled when the fresh air was introduced to the exhaust. Most folks just connect the two reed valves as describbed, but some folks also thread the ports and install threaded plugs to completely disable the system.

Thanks for that explanation. I just put plates over the ports, and eventually I switched to a '78 head.


What was the purpose of connecting to the carbs?

I think vacuum from the carb is needed to operate the vacuum switch valve.

Good Fortune!

Wow thanks Patton,

Reading the Kawasaki add almost makes me feel like buying a vacuum valve with the hoses and installing it. They are usually available on E-bay. The only thing is that my air box doesn't have the fitting but I know those are available too.

I am hesitant between eliminating everything or going full factory.

I eliminated everything but I also changed the head.

I am thinking about getting rid of them now.

Can't really work on finishing tuning the bike as it's so freakin cold so I went ahead and did the install on the Tarozzi rear sets which came in last week.

I had some worries about being able to fit them as apparently the MkII model was not supposed to fit on a LTD.

The install went fine. Clutch side was basically plug and play. On the brake side, I had to use the original master cylinder shaft as the one supplied was on the short side but aside from that it fits very well and happy.

Stupid question.............. Can you still use the kickstarter with the rearsets??

There are no stupid questions. Actually that was my next thing to check.

I am going to try and let you know. I think it's going to be really close.

If the kickstart is going to hit,I will likely remove it and put an APE cover. Should trim a bit of weight and clean it up but I would much rather keep it.