After a long wait the o-rings finally came in to the dealer. I then ended up getting the wrong o-rings (it turns out Kawasaki has like half a dozen different o-rings in this carburetor). Don't expect to show detailed pictures and get any help from the parts experts either. With the o-rings and t-fittings in I was able to put the carb back together again (again). But before doing that I checked the floats one more time (they were all good), and reset the pilot screws to factory specs. As I was doing that I noticed that the needles were moving when I flipped the carbs. A quick check of the diagram showed that the spring seat goes above the pin, not below it, which I'd done (quite embarrassing really - I was tempted not to mention it, but my mistake might prevent someone else's in the future, so humility - and humiliation - first). With the pins and seats the right way around I put the carbs back together yet again. Installing it is as big a pain in the ass as it ever was, with the fitting of airbox boots being a dark art.
With everything reconnected and double checked, the carburetors were ready to go. I set the petcock to prime to put a lot of fuel in the empty bowls, hit the choke and turned it over.... and it started and idled properly! As I used to do, I eased off the idle as the bike ran higher and higher as it warmed up. After a minute I turned the choke off and it was idling at about 1800rpm. I dialed back the idle speed to 1000rpm and it was running steady.
So far so good, but the issue was applying throttle - the carbs kept flooding, backfiring rich and then killing the motor, would that happen this time? No! It's alive, ALIVE!!! This video below may be the most satisfying thing I've ever filmed.
I now have two working bikes in the garage. This has been a long and frustrating process, but I've gotten the rust off some long unused skills. I'm taking better organization, attention to detail and theoretical understanding with me as I move onto other mechanical projects. http://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.ca/search?q=concours+carburetor
If it hasn't been replaced, it's been thoroughly gone over. One carb is complicated,
four carbs is a universe of complications!
Without warm weather beckoning (we've been in the middle of an ice-storm here) I'm in less of a panic about not having a bike to ride. With an extended long weekend thanks to power failures and such, I've been hammering through four carb rebuilds. The K&L kit I got came with a new bowl gasket, new pilot jet, washer and o-ring, and a new float jet. Breaking down each carburetor one at a time (so I don't mix up parts), I cleaned out the carbs and blew them out with compressed air and then put them back together with the new parts.
Those little rubber bits get crusty after 22 years on a bike...
Adjustment wise I reset the float height (17mms with the float unweighted - held sideways). I also reset the pilot jets to two turns out from snug. The pilot jets varied from almost five turns out to under three turns out. I'm curious to see how this affects fueling. The manual suggested resetting them to what they were, and I did record them, but the factory setting is 2 turns from snug, so that's what I reset them to. I'm not sure why I'd reset them to what they were when they weren't working well.
The carb rebuilds weren't particularly difficult, but they were a bit tedious (you're basically doing the same thing four times). Things have ground to a halt again as I've found that I need o-rings to replace the old, broken ones that sealed the fuel lines between carbs. With some new o-rings I should be good to put them all back together again and re-vacuum tube them with new tubing.
Rebuilding the first carb - it took a bit longer as it was more exploratory
The second videos hows the final two carbs and then discovering the need for o-rings -both videos are based on photos taken every 10 seconds compressed into a video running at one photo every 1/10th of second.
As an aside, I thought it would be a good idea to go through Motorcyclesuperstore.ca, but they seem to have pulled back from offering Canadian customers a clear view of their prices. You used to be able to buy in Canadian dollars and there were no surprises. When you buy now they charge in U$D, so you've got to do some math to figure out how they compare to Canadian retailers. It looked like they came out about twenty bucks ahead of an equivalent Canadian order, until I got the COD message with border taxes. Suddenly that twenty bucks turned into paying an extra ten. I liked motorcyclesuperstore.com, their customer service went above and beyond, but their lack of clarity around pricing of orders to Canada puts them in the same category as any other US distributor. I'm not happy with canadasmotorcycle.ca's 'easy' returns (they charge you for shipping), but I'm not playing roulette with customs costs again. I'm afraid that's the last time I'll use motorcyclesuperstore. I need to start looking into other Canadian based motorcycle retailers.
Two down, two to go...
The pilot jet (centre) - has a spring, washer and o-ring underneath.
The float bowl off and being cleaned out - the floats are held in a pin at the bottom - the float jet hooks on a tab in the middle
With the o-rings and t-fittings in I was able to put the carb back together again (again). But before doing that I checked the floats one more time (they were all good), and reset the pilot screws to factory specs. As I was doing that I noticed that the needles were moving when I flipped the carbs. A quick check of the diagram showed that the spring seat goes above the pin, not below it, which I'd done (quite embarrassing really - I was tempted not to mention it, but my mistake might prevent someone else's in the future, so humility - and humiliation - first).
