Motorcycle Repair: carburation adj., kawasaki kz 1000, spark plug gaps

Question
I have a used 1977 kawasaki kz 1000 a that i have been working on.The stock air box was missing when i got the bike and it has individual pod filters. I just changed the exhaust from a 4-2 non stock set up to a 4-1Vance and Hines system. Also replaced the stock coils with a set of accel coilw with 8.8 wires. I have regaped the plugs to .035 for the higher output coils. I also rebuilt the carbs at this time. I reinstalled the main and pilot jet that i removed (sizes 115 and 15)instead of the 106 and ? that came with the kit since the bike didn't seem to run to bad before.the carbs have air adjustment screws instead of pilot adjustment screws that the manual says it should have, The #2 carb also has an accelerator pump in good working condition  connected, which the manual says was not used until 1979. Now for the problem. after rough syncing the carbs, adjusting air screws, adjusting the dwell and timing, checking valve clearances there is a hesitation when accelerating in the lower rpm range up to about 5000 rpm. I suspected that it is running a little lean, so I went to adjust the jet needle to a richer notch. to see if this would correct the problem. to my surprise there are no notches on the needle.I also do not know what size of needle jet is in the carbs.  Do you think that my suspecions may be right and if so what should i do now  thank you for any help. also the odometer say there ar about 66000 miles on this bike and I have no reason to doubt.  

Answer
Hi Kevin,

It's not unusual to find different carbs than described in the manuals for older MC's, especially hotrods such as yours.

Isn't Accel's recomendations for spark plug gaps to be .050" for their performance coils?

When the carbs were rebuilt, were they at all varnished (gummed) from stale gasoline?

Check accellerator pump diaphragm on carb #2 for defects. Hold it to light and look for light to come through as you stretch the rubber slightly. Replace if you see light.

Notchless jet-needles must be shimmed to enrichen the circuit.

Describe carb problems using throttle opening positions instead of rpm. Example, "...between 1/8 and 1/4 throttle it stumbles..." Carburetors are tuned with respect to throttle positioning. RPM comes second and usually is not even needed.

Send me an email address as requested. I'll return lots of carb tuning, cleaning, and synchronizing files for your review. Review the information in the files and compare info to the work performed. Make necessary adjustments, if any.

Respectfully,
Mark Shively