Cold Start Problems

Hi There, 
Well this is a long story !!!
I lived in South Africa for 42 years and during the Covid lockdown, a good friend suggested I take his "Kawasaki", for free, as a refurbishment project. Thinking I was going to get a small buzzy bike I agreed. My jaw hit the floor when the KZ1300 arrived. It had not been run for 20 years but it was complete and shiny !! I also had the maintenance manual, which was a priceless document. I was an experienced single cylinder bike person but not six of them.
The bike started in a manner of speaking, then it did not and the journey began. 
I replaced the ignition system, HT coils, HT leads and pick up coils, to get the spark back. It ran but not well. I then replaced all of the carb parts. It ran but not well. I  must of had the carbs off and back on 50 times !! Each time it ran a bit better, but not perfectly. At this stage the family had decided to relocate back the the UK after 42 years, so the KZ1300, along with others and the classic mini, were crated and shipped to where we now live in the south of England. Next on the agenda was to turn my attention to the timing. Off came the engine camshaft cover to discover that they were out of sync by one notch. While I had the engine in this state, I decided to take the head off and clean it, re seat the valves and replace seals, because the bike had basically never seen modern fuel. All done and put back together again and engine started, but immediately stopped. I had ignored an important piece of advise from the forum. Replace the cam chain tensioner!! It failed, the camshaft went out of sync and I bent two inlet valves. So the whole job had to be done again, but this time fitting a new bolt/threaded tensioner that did not rely on ball bearings and a taper. Whilst I was re-assembling I dropped a bolt into the engine, so had to take it all apart again. On the positive side, it made me remove the oil sump plate to discover a 20mm think layer of toffee like white sludge. 
I was now doing this re-assembly stuff in lighting quick time but the cost of new head gaskets and medical plasters for my fingers was taking its toll on my wallet. Anyway, I got it all back together, but now the bike was coughing and back firing when running. The neighbours were diving for cover in their WW2 air raid shelters. The revs also went sky high after a short time. Very puzzling. It had to be fuel mixture issues. Off came the carbs again and they were cleaned and adjusted. My rather course friend stated that the carbs were on and off more than a pair of prostitutes knickers !! With a final vacuum test and syncronisation of the carbs, slight repositioning of the auto timing advancer, and a prayer to motorcycle gods, I now seem to have a bike that runs nicely and starts from cold. The ultimate test is a ride on the road, but for that I am awaiting for my delivery of brave pills !!!
I have learnt a lot over the past few years and pretty much know this bike like the back of my hand. Frustrating yes, but a lot of fun.
The most important lessons I have learned is patience, read the manual properly and never assume that new spark plugs will work. 
Bruce

Wonderful read! And a beautiful bike too. Love the color. Good things take time, yes?

Well done for sticking with it, i live in England and have had 1300s for over 40 years but i would say in all that time i have had them running well for about 5 of the 40 years and have frequently felt like setting fire to them but they are addictive, from what i have seen of the south African Z13s they are the masters of customising them but i think you may find spares are more readily available in South Africa than England

Great story, I think we have all had our battles getting them running right. Mine had been troublesome for years but now is running really sweet. At one time I had to change the plugs every 100 miles!

However, I have a spare engine in a frame that I try to keep running. 99 times out of a 100 it will not start and then without changing anything it does - just wish it could be consistent.  I retire in 4 years time and I will sort it then

Hi Paul, 
Thks for the moral support.
Yes the exhausts are from South Africa and sound wonderful. Only problem is that you cannot fit the centre stand, not that I have one to fit. I have made up some "legs" on each side of the bike, so that I can raise the bike in an emergency, as long as I breakdown under a dockyard crane! . 
I live in Bournemouth are you anywhere near?
Chrs
Bruce

Hi Bruce
I am in London so not local but not too far, i have a couple of Z13s one of which was imported from south Africa which has a widened swing arm to accommadate a wider wheel and also had cowley exhausts but had a silencer which was about 4"s long which i swapped out for a longer item i have tried to attach a photo but i am a computer numpty so dont hold out much hope