Kawasaki 250 F11B - dads old bike

[andycafe]

winner winner chicken dinner, great news! bloody O'rings, funny how something so small can cause so much grief!

[jaderd]

OK, back at work now refreshed after a 9 days of holidaying in Rutherglen and Sydney, lots of awesome food, sight seeing and still managed to fit in some training for tough mudder (only 2 weeks to go)


Arrived home to find the carby o-rings i ordered arrived, 2 identical so should last me forever, so on saturday after a 9 hour drive back from sydney straight to garage pulled out carby and installed the new o-ring, fits very nice and tight that you force to carby bowl on before you can put screws in etc.


also checked a few main nuts / bolts to check still torqued up, tightened chain a little.


Adjusted point gap back to around .40mm and spark plug at .80mm


Sunday gave bike a good 30km ride approx on road mainly with bit of dirt.


Bike seemed fine, able to cruise along ok at 80kmh although sounds like its revving a fair amount (havent hooked up tacho yet.


Bike feels fine other than the rear wheel / tire feeling a little wobbly, may be i had a little too lower PSI and being a trials tyre with soft side wall it was moving around a bit.  Think i will take off rear wheel and have a go at truing it up rigging up a little stand to hold axle on bench etc, from memory it always had a slight buckle and its ephasized when at speed on road.


Also looked into getting a fold away trailer as dont really want to do that much road driving if possible and would rather cart bike to where i wanna ride and hopefully future Vinduro type casual events.


Easytrailer seem to be the goods and fold up to only 65cm wide so easy fit beside car in garage.


Good value also



Still want to drop bike off / meet up with someone who knows 2 strokes heaps to get there opinion on how bike is running / tune up. The trailtech dash i have showed engine temp (read off head bolt) peaked at around 165 celcius and hovered at around 155 while riding along.


See pic below of plug after around 15-20km of riding peaking at 80kmh etc, looks nice chocolate to me, this is with bike on stock carby settings and needle on stock position 3, running a new oiled Unifilter.....look ok to you ?

[jaderd]

Quick update, spent an hour or so in garage last night cleaning up and painting the slimline luggage rack (optional accessory back in day) i got from a generous guy on OZVMX forum, he supplied me this one and also the more AG style large one you typically think off with a kelpie sitting on.


For me i really wanted the slimline and the guy surprisingly had both types which he supplied free! i just had to pay for postage.


Got the angle grinder on it a few months ago taking off extra tabs that were welded on by prior owner for side saddle bags i think.  Yesterday i wire wheeled it to take off surface rust etc then just a 360 grit sand then painted 4 coats of Sating Black which was supplied in spray can from my powder coater incase i ever wanted to paint things to match my frame
 


Happy with how it came out, will fit it up tonight most prob.

[jaderd]

The plug was darker as in rich prior to the ride, that was taken after the ride finishing for last few seconds at idle then key off etc, tonight I screwed the air screw back in 1/4 turn so it's at 1&1/2 turns out as specified online for
Model, workshop manual states 1&3/4 turns out which I feel might be a little too on the safe side n rich. Will continue to check plug and will get someone to look at it off a forum who is a 2 stroke head etc.


Pics below of rack on, also Kelly enduro bag on front with first aid kit within.


Also let tyres down then went around all spokes slowly tightening each one 1/4 turn, went around each wheel around 4 times until they were all the same tension, some didn't get any further Tightening after rotation one as already were tight ( supposed to be around 25 lb torque) just went by feel etc.  also had a bit of a go at truing up rear rim, seems better, I think the standard tightening of the somes fixed it really as some were fairly loose.


Cheers

[jaderd]

Went for a ride today, the wobbly feel is basically gone, the tightening of the spokes worked perfect


I bought some glass wool muffler packing sheet stuff which looked identical to the old orig stuff within the muffler.  i cut out one 10cm X 10cm x the 1cm thick patch of it which was perfect wrap around then hold in place with some wire before slipping back in.  I didnt notice much sound difference but atleast i now know its doing its job properly re back pressure as there was only around 40% of the orig one left.


Did around 30km today on the road, max speed around 80kmh as where i ride is fairly hilly, think ill limit the amount of on road riding as i dont think the bike likes it much, at times around full throttle in 5th to get up hills etc.


The engine temp peaked out around 185 degrees Celsius on way home, i was around 5 km from home so decided to pull over and klet it cool down / check plug and injectolube etc.


I had also noticed some ticking / knocking sounds throughout the whole ride, which i think are always there / have always been there even years ago, prob normal not sure ?


Took side case off to check the oil injection pump was working properly re. lineup point and adjusting in line with throttle properly which it was.


Also checked the plug, see pic below, figured it might have been a tiny bit lean so i turned air screw back in slightly so set at 1 & 1/2 turns out


Now i also just noticed in the garage that the carby is leaking slightly out of the nipple at the base of the fuel bowl, if i tap the carby bowl with my finger each time i tap another droplet of fuel comes out, any ideas what this could be ? float stuck ?, float set too high, seems to have appeared after todays longer ride at higher throttle openings etc?.


Cheers all, your advice is valuable


PS - looking to have bike at the HBBB at broadford on either sat or sunday (depends on mate with utes work arrangements) to show ppl from various forums / let them have a ride and give me feedback on anything and everything. So if your there and want to check out bike / give me some feedback after a fang let me know - 0418569006 - Simon

[jaderd]

bottom nipple on float bowl leaking, going to rip carby off and check everything re. fuel level / float height and needle valve itself, fun fun , atleast carby work isnt daunting any more its nice and staright forward

[jaderd]

OK - Question for all.

Filled bike up with fuel the other day 7L approx, did the ride as above.
Got home, that night and from then on leaking fuel out of overflow nipple on bottom of bowl.  Now i know my petcock doesnt fully close off when in off position, normally not a prob, but im thinking that the extra volume of fuel is forcing its way into the carby to overflow it ?

That night i whacked a hose on bottom nipple and wedged it under seat to catch / stop flow, ofcourse this backfired and just allowed the fuel to fill carby and into cylinder as would not start, spitting fuel out exhaust pipe flange and wet plug

Drained tank, removed petcock, replaced tap rubber.

Removed carby, checked carby, evidence that fuel was heaps high, bowl gasket all wet etc.  Was a fair amount of rusty crud in carby from tank as last two rides were first ones with full tank washing around inside pulling through crud.

Main jet was 80% blocked with crud - blew it out.

Put carby back on, put back in place the inline fuel filter i had on previously, with clear hose so can see if starving due to filter etc.

Put petcock back together, still leaks on off position though alot less.

New plug in, bike eventually started, as heaps of fuel still in cylinder engine i think
Took bike for ride (15km) felt really good. parked last night, checked hour or two later - zero leaking from fuel bowl nipple.

Open garage this morning - smell of fuel and constant drip from nipple

So question is can a full tank and dicky petcock force fuel into carby, needle jet seemed to seal well enough that me blowing through fuel line could not get air through unless i let need valve drop out, as if zero fuel in bowl etc, didnt have to depress the internal spring for it to stop me being able to blow through.

Or do you think it is more related to needle and seat, as in theory the needle and seat should be able to stop the flow even with fuel left on, which ppl forget and do all the time.  I will pull out, inspect etc, although im thinking it is fine as i could not make air pass when blowing on fuel line with needle only just in closed position with no pressure etc.

PS - i think i will piss of my orig cumbersome over the top petcock for a simple basic small one.

Also now thinking i will have to check my engine oil for petrol in it due to extreme flooding it had, i will take carby out / apart / check everything then test the carby overnight with tank on stand on bench and carby rigged up level etc, easier then taking in and out of bike and more petrol in oil, dont want to change the oil multiple times would rather do it once and save some cash..... bloody carby's eh.

All advice welcome, cheers all.

[jaderd]

Carby breather hose is fine, can blow / suck through it in the position it is/has been in.


Checked the oil, smells perfect, zero fuel smell at all, no change in color either etc.


Cheers

[andycafe]

hey man glad to hear that youve been getting out and about with your bike, how did you get on at tuff mudda? look forward to catching up cheers andy.

[jaderd]

Hey mate, yeah im all good and bike going better, i put an inline fuel tap on it and have had zero problems with carby overflowing, also pulled apart carby fully and cleaned everything (again


tough mudder was awesome, def doing it again next year and looking for similar events for this year.


heading to HBBB tomorrow with a mate, taking bike for some ppl from forums to have a fang on in car park and give me feedback etc, should head up if your free, give me a buzz if you decide to go.


cheers mate

pic below is off me climbing out of the "arctic enema" big pool of ice water (full of ice cubes) with a wooden plank and barbed wire across the middle forcing you to go under water etc....nice n chilly, that was at 5km in, so wet for next 15km and ofcourse the mud started not long after this pic

[bird_dirt]

great thread, great work on the bike. 
i just got the same bike (1975 right?) from my father in law.  similar story of your bike, he bought it new, garaged it in mid 80s , and he just gave it to me for my first bike.  having my buddy get it all squared up, still in good shape since it was garage kept and started up once a year or so, so far just looking at getting carb rebuilt, new tubes/tires, new chain, tank and cables all still looking good.  he mentioned a little fuel leak similar to what you were talking about above.  did you get it resolved?  if my friend gets is worked out, i'll let you know what he did.
thanks for sharing, i plan on bookmarking this to really go over all you did with yours.
cheers from kentucky, usa. 

[oldnbroken]

Nice work, looks great. I wonder if one day my bike will get the same treatment from my sons or daughter.

Jim

[Bert Jan]

Not sure if your leak problem from the bowl overflow has stopped yet, but in my case (similar problem, diffrent bike) it helped to replace the needle and needle-seating. Its made out a fairly weak material and deteriorates over time. Little particles from the tank can prevent the needle from closing perfectly. When you clean it, it's ok, but only to the point a new piece of rust or debris jams the needle seat again. So, my advice:

New needle, seat, fuelline and filter. Also check IN the tank. Some bikes have another fuel filter inside the tank. When that's dirty and crudded up you'll chasing a rabits tail forever.
Good luck!

[SteveG]

You have done a good thing.  This bike would have gone to scrap, but you have made something beautiful.  A real bike that anyone would love to blast through the woods.  Well done.

[jaderd]

Cheers guys, as for leak, current leak is from the petcock, the little pipe that slips into the main petcock body has worn slightly so leaks from there, will replace in time.


The overflow carbs ended up being the needle jet holder o ring - easy fix once figured out