1977 KZ650 Project

T

TCKelsey

New Member
Hey guys whats up? This is my first motorcycle project so there will be slow progress and lots of questions! ;D

Just picked up this bike a couple weeks ago and have started trying to turn her into a cafe, slowly but surely.

The guy I bought it from had done a few things to it as you can see already (bars) and not stock paint.

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I took it for a test ride when I bought it and it ran great. As soon as I got it home I put new gas and changed the oil on it (neither of which looked too bad).

Before I do anything else at all to the bike I want to make sure she runs perfectly. And im running into a few problems already. I took the carbs off to give them an inspection and make sure everything looked alright. I gave them a pretty good cleaning and put them back on.

Now, I put Pods on the bike even though ive heard they can be finicky. I eventually want to relocated the battery to under my cowl because I love the open look through the frame. So naturally, getting rid of the airbox was the first step to opening up that space.

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My first problem, I have everything back together now and cant get her running. She turns over perfectly but sounds starved for gas as if nothing is getting through.

Here is a video trying to start it:


Im sure its gonna be something painfully dumb/obvious, but any help is much appreciated.

Also, not sure if this is the problem/contributes to the problem, but the rubber hose that was connected to the airbox was dry rotted and broke off when I took out the airbox. Now that I have pods what do I do with this hose? As you can see in this video, the hose is broken off.





So please any critism/help is welcome! Help me out! haha
 
Ok the first thinks to check 1 do you have spark and 2 is there fuel getting thru ie. are the plugs wet?
 
So the carbs on theses Kawasakis can be a little confusing. First thing I would do is open the air screws 1.5 more turns b/c you got pods (your gonna have to re-jet your main jet too), but then there is also the problem of your vacuum ports. I see that your engine breather is wide open which I would put a little filter on (can buy at an Autoparts store for $10), but did you undo all the other vacuum ports like you did that one? If you have a stock vacuum petcock which you probably do, then I would probably keep all the ports with the stock hoses on them. I hope this was a little helpful, btw I think I saw that bike on craigslist.... you in Miami?
 
You may also need to go up one size on your pilot size and adjust your needle jet also. Here is a link to website dedicated to our bikes, the thread is basically a list of what jets they are using based on the modifications done to there bike. http://forums.kz650.info/index.php?topic=1853.0 great resource for general problems and upgrades for the bike also.
 
jeffw said:
You may also need to go up one size on your pilot size and adjust your needle jet also. Here is a link to website dedicated to our bikes, the thread is basically a list of what jets they are using based on the modifications done to there bike. http://forums.kz650.info/index.php?topic=1853.0 great resource for general problems and upgrades for the bike also.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff, yea ive been looking through kz650info... def a great site for info. Ive already learned alot from reading hours on end there.

I knew that I would have to re-jet my carbs, but I was under the impression that it should run even before I re-jet. I just thought it wouldnt run correctly. Am I wrong in thinking this?
 
PeteyWash said:
So the carbs on theses Kawasakis can be a little confusing. First thing I would do is open the air screws 1.5 more turns b/c you got pods (your gonna have to re-jet your main jet too), but then there is also the problem of your vacuum ports. I see that your engine breather is wide open which I would put a little filter on (can buy at an Autoparts store for $10), but did you undo all the other vacuum ports like you did that one? If you have a stock vacuum petcock which you probably do, then I would probably keep all the ports with the stock hoses on them. I hope this was a little helpful, btw I think I saw that bike on craigslist.... you in Miami?
Click to expand...

Thanks Petey, I sent you a PM...

Im not sure if my petcock is stock or not but id def does not work. It wont turn the gas off at all. I didnt think this was my problem though, because its been broken since I bought the bike and the bike ran before I cleaned the carbs.
 
Clean petcock, make sure kill switch is in run position( no insult intended its happened many times). If she wont start make sure your getting spark. If you have spark and fuel it should fire even before rejetting. I went to 17.5 pilot and 112.5 on mains with pods and 4-1.
 
Thanks for the tips guys, I got her running yesterday, by kickstarting. She wont idle at all though, dies right away.

Does anyone know where I can order jets from? Ive been looking on the Z1 website but cant seem to find what I need, not sure if im just blind....
 
Here is link if you search for mikuni jet on z1enterprises, this will pop up and then you can order the jets to size you need http://www.z1enterprises.com/ListItems.aspx?keywords=mikuni+jet
 
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