1981 Kawasaki GPz550 Cafe Build

Maritime said:
Nah, they don't help performance wise, I'd just run the hoses out to direct anything away, or like I did on my CX crank case breather a short hose and small filter to catch anything that may burp out.

Good idea. Got a link to the small filters or name/photos?
 
Totally unnecessary to put filters on the carb breather hoses.
 
doc_rot said:
Totally unnecessary to put filters on the carb breather hoses.

Ok, I didn't look them up but I'd trust Doc to know. There are different ones on different bikes that do different stuff.
 
doc_rot said:
Totally unnecessary to put filters on the carb breather hoses.

Can I just take them off then as there is the pods there they can just breathe fine without the 10" leads right?
 
the hoses are there to prevent crap from getting in your carbs. I have heard on the 550 if the hoses are routed so that they sit in the air-stream on the high way it will over pressure the float bowl leading to a lean condition. Its ideal to route them up under the tank into dead air, or to tuck them behind the engine case
 
Electrical done.
Exhaust wrapped.
 

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Sam, those are the carb float bowl drains. these are what you would drain before storing the biek for winter so the gas doesn't turn to varnish over the whole winter.

there are carb overflow vents that are the plastic T's in between each carb body.
 
Got some damn leaks on the tank. But I Rode the bike to the office today! Test ride really. Had a few hiccups. Fuel on "on" after warmed up will not feed the bike when I roll the throttle. Sounded like it starved it as soon as I pulled the throttle. Had to drive it all the way here on "PRI"(prime?). Just ran high on idle. But lights work and brakes work!

Anyone know what would cause that?
 

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doctorcat said:
Sam, those are the carb float bowl drains. these are what you would drain before storing the biek for winter so the gas doesn't turn to varnish over the whole winter.

there are carb overflow vents that are the plastic T's in between each carb body.

Thanks! Would I need to take those bowls off every season? Not sure how I would drain those.

Also, I turned the lines that were between the cards (only two) up and tucked them above thinking it wouldn't need to drain anything just breath. Should those be going down not up?
 
Sam_I_Am said:
Got some damn leaks on the tank. But I Rode the bike to the office today! Test ride really. Had a few hiccups. Fuel on "on" after warmed up will not feed the bike when I roll the throttle. Sounded like it starved it as soon as I pulled the throttle. Had to drive it all the way here on "PRI"(prime?). Just ran high on idle. But lights work and brakes work!
Y
Anyone know what would cause that?

Sounds like a fuel tap issue. Does your tap work by taking vacuum off somewhere to open the tap while in the "on" position? Could be leaking vacuum so not opening tap fully. Or a faulty tap seal. There's a diaphram in the tap that might be leaking.
The prime position is just opening the tap without needing the engine running to create the vacuum.
 
Yep. Vacuum petcock issue. Its the line to the vac, or the diaphram or sonething else. They are shit to sort. I chucked mine for a standard one and just shut my fuel off after riding.
 
Vaccuum petcocks are fine when new but when they die, I prefer to replace it with a manual petcock every time.
 
I'd swap it out for a standard on/off/reserve pingel or other brand. The vacuum were designed to shut off fuel if the bike stalls in a crash if the motor stops, they cause a lot of issues when they get old and sometimes, even all refreshed the bike will run funny, like the high idle etc. just remember to turn off your fuel like folks have done for 40 years before they invented them. The prime is designed to flood the bowels after the bike has sat to get it started then the vacuum takes over so running on prime puts fuel in way to fast and can over run the floats and would be like running choked and cause the fast/high idle.
 
This is for a honda, but there should be one to fit the GPZ:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Honda-Motorcycle-ATV-Fuel-Valve-Petcock-18mm-x-1-0mm-CB750F-/170982542530?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27cf5a8cc2

Put this on my CX and it was perfect.


Try this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-AFTERMARKET-PETCOCK-GPZ550-GPZ-550-81-82-FUEL-COCK-VALVE-TAP-KAWASAKI-MANUAL/172983040409?hash=item284697b999%3Ag%3AFCEAAMXQ-3NRjeGO&_sacat=0&_nkw=GPZ550+fuel&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313&LH_TitleDesc=0
 
I went manual on mine and don't regret it. simplicity is good and it works much better than the vacuum unit. There's cheap stock replacements or the pretty pingel ones. I used a cheap stock replacement style and it works fine and the bike runs.
 
i see stockish running examples of GPZ550's going in the 1500-2000 range
 
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