TOPIC:

Thermostat is new form Kawasaki. I've run this bike a few times before, I had just verified my float level again so I wanted to do a final adjustment and sync.

I have observed the bike heat up, then the fan come on and the temperature fall and the fan shut off. I had watched bike cycle to ensure the cooling system was working. The event yesterday has me puzzled. After I shut it down, the fan cycled on for a minute or so then shut off. Strange. Today I noticed that the reservoir was sucked dry as she cooled down, the rad is full though. If I had an airlock problem it may have sorted itself out.


As far as the my idle set, Kawboy that's exactly what my issue is. I will pull the valve cover and check the head bolts and valves, I'll pull the carbs again an reset everything when I do that.

I pulled my spark plugs today and they looked sooty, so I may have to drop my needles a slot.

Tyler wrote: Thermostat is new form Kawasaki. I've run this bike a few times before, I had just verified my float level again so I wanted to do a final adjustment and sync.

I have observed the bike heat up, then the fan come on and the temperature fall and the fan shut off. I had watched bike cycle to ensure the cooling system was working. The event yesterday has me puzzled. After I shut it down, the fan cycled on for a minute or so then shut off. Strange. Today I noticed that the reservoir was sucked dry as she cooled down, the rad is full though. If I had an airlock problem it may have sorted itself out.


As far as the my idle set, Kawboy that's exactly what my issue is. I will pull the valve cover and check the head bolts and valves, I'll pull the carbs again an reset everything when I do that.

I pulled my spark plugs today and they looked sooty, so I may have to drop my needles a slot.

If it sucked the reservoir dry, it may have to "burp itself" one more time.

Scotch and KZQ will both tell you that the stock jetting seems to be the best setup with the DG pipe, provided you're romping around at less than 4000 ft. above sea level. And the needles should be set in the middle slot. 3-1/2 turns on the air idle needle jets.

You should get about 500 Km or 300 miles on it before checking the head torque and valve clearance. You could do it now but things need to wear in after a new rebuild. Valve clearance should be set to the loose side of the specs since as things wear in the valves tend to tighten up. Most people feel that the valve clearances will get larger and staying to the tight side will provide more performance, but then the next time they check the valves, they find no clearance and possibly a burnt valve.

Almost there Tyler. Kudos for the major rebuild.

Good to hear you've been making progress Tyler!

Unfortunately I can't drive it yet, the body work and tank are off sitting at the auto body shop. They keep the parts off to the side and work on them between jobs as filler. I get a great deal on a professional paint job, but I have to wait until they get around to it.


I can see now how I was fighting the linkage while trying to adjust everything yesterday. I could get the carbs to sync up perfectly but then I would run out of adjustment on the idle knob. I don't think my link rods where bottomed out tightly when I did it on the bench. It makes sense now but was confusing when trying to adjust them. It takes a bit of practice to get the details pined down on these carbs.

I have stock pilot jets, and I put adjustable needles in these carbs, they are currently in the factory (middle) notch. I had the carbs running rich and have been working them down. Main jets are 100's right now. Its close now and maybe I should clean the plugs and drive it before adjusting any further. It starts easy just requiring choke at tick over, then it runs fine on its own.

Well I've found the problem that caused my overheating episode. Sometimes my fan only comes on for a few seconds then cuts out, if I ground the wire to the fan switch it will run as it should and the temperature will come down. So my fan switch has an intermittent problem, I will check it out in a hot water bath, but I'm sure that's my problem. I had replaced the wit to it during the rebuild as the PO had installed manual switch. Now I know why he put a toggle switch on it.

I also checked my plugs and they are still sooting up, I'm also opening the idle screws out too far and the idle is still rougher than I would like. I decided to drop the needles 1 notch, I rechecked my float levels again since I had the carbs on the bench and they are dead on. I did notice I installed 105 mains, so I swapped them for the 100's. This should get me closer to good a state of tune.

Tyler I am not sure if it is a typo when you said idle screws out to far Did you mean the mixture screws that will make it run rich.
And might I suggest using a colourtune to set the idle mixture should be a thread on the subject if you do a search.
Also Have you bled the system according to manual where you take out the fan fuse let it boil etc.
As for mains needle height and alike there are several guides that will help select the right setup Like the 4 position throttle marking with a plug chop.Like this as an example kawtriple.com/mraxl/carb/carbadj.htm