Motorcycle Repair: carbs, air fuel mixture, kawasaki kz

Question
Hi Mark

I have a 1982 Kawasaki KZ-305CSR belt drive.

The carbs are off.  On one side, it has a very slight backfire when decelerating.

The bike starts fine.  When I take the choke off, the idle is very low (800 RPM), but when it has run for 10 minutes or longer, the idle is 3000 RPM.  The range seems to be constant, in other words, when I adjust the cold RPM higher, the hot RPM goes higher also.

The bike only has 5,500 miles on it.  I cleaned the carbs about 2,000 miles ago and they were very clean.  I also recently adjusted the pilot screws - each 2 turns out.

What can I do now?

Thank you!

Gordon

Answer
Hi Gordon,

I suspect carburetor synchronization may be off a bit. Some simple tuning may be necessary, too. You'll have to learn to read the spark plugs to know how to adjust the air-fuel mixture throughout all ranges of the carburetor.

It is important that valve clearances and cylinder compression are within specs before the carbs will function properly. Otherwise, you're time is fruitless.

Send me an email for numerous files on carburetor tuning, cleaning, and synchronizing. These are very detailed info files, some with illustrations.

Most free email services reject my file attachments. Use a quality email server. My email addy is: mshively1@woh.rr.com

Respectfully,
Mark Shively