TOPIC:

If anyone read my intro post, I said my 1979 Z1300 was running. It turns out I spoke too soon. I bought rebuild kits for the carbs, intending to do them in the winter time. Unfortunately the bike broke down on me, petrol dripping out of the airbox. I’m thinking it’s the float sticking, So I am forced to rebuild the carbs now, rather than wait till later in the year. I have most of it done but there seems to be some kind of blanking plate glued in, preventing access to the pilot screws. Is this normal, or has somebody done this for reasons unknown. Any recommendations most gratefully received.

Hello McZed:

There should be (Common) slotted screws that cover the 6 Pilot screws. So when you say "blanking plate glued in" do you mean you see no slot for a screw driver?

If so, then someone has either ground down the original screw sets, or found some evil substitute to make the rebuild Hell for the next guy.

The question is did they just glue something in place or did they thread it in?

Regards.

Todd.

Thanks for the reply Todd
It looks like a small alloy disc, the same size as the hole and it has been glued into place with epoxy resin. It looks to be quite profesionally done, I'm wondering if they have been rebuilt at sometime in the past. I have replaced all the other jets, so I think I will leave this part alone and see how it runs.

So I may have misunderstood what your initial question was.

Are the "blanking plates" on the outside of the carb body, or inside the bowl?

For the fuel/ air mixture screw its rare to see those aluminum blank covers over the mixture screw's. This could mean one of two possibilities.
1: These carbs may have never been refurbished, unlikely.
2: Whoever refurbished these carbs last, either recycled the covers and put them back on, or used a set that came with the last carb kits.

Most people leave these covers off. The way to remove them is to carefully drill a small hole, being careful not to drill too deep into the mixture well. Then use a small self tapping screw to remove the billet aluminum cap. (Depending on how well they glued them back in.

Originally these caps were only press-fit into the hole, they were not glued in from my recollection.

This tamper resistant cap was an early EPA attempt at keeping owners hands off of modifying the mixture screws. Most Kawasaki's starting in 1979 received these tamper resistant caps due to the Evil EPA............But that is a story for another time.

Let me know if I'm on the right track....

T.

That's the ones Todd.
I think I will give removing them a try. I was a bit nervous because I wasn't sure if they were a standard item, or not.

Hi guys, still are rebuilding the carbs on my Z1300.
I have managed to remove the tamper proof caps on the pilot screws. Now I think I am in deepest do,do.
The new pilot screws I have (number 23 on the carb diagram in the workshop manual) come with a small spring (number 28). My problem is the old ones I removed have no springs present. So do I use the springs or not? Without the springs the new ones seem very loose. Also how many turns out do I set the screws at. The old ones were all vastly different. I am a bit stuck now so any advice will be most helpful. Sorry to be such a pain in the butt.