74 Kawasaki Z1 carb question

[jdsmithinc]

Hi guys, it has been a long time since I was last on here but you all helped me so much on my XS1100 (which is running very good right now) I am back for more of your wisdom. I just bought a 74 Z1 900 Kawasaki, and when you hit the throttle it acts like it is starving for fuel. I talked to a guy at a bike shop and he said it was getting too much fuel since the plugs were sooty. He told me to move the clip on the needle up one notch at a time until I got it running right. Problem is I set them all at the third notch from the bottom and it is doing the same thing consistently throughout the rpm range. I noticed that the #3 carbs needle was set on the very bottom notch and the rest were on the second from bottom. Could the needle setting on that #3 carb have been causing my delema? Do I need to set them all at the first or second from bottom notch? PLEASE HELP!!!

[AlanB]

Hi jd,

If you have been a regular on here, you know how this goes.......


Before you start altering things, you need to get it all working properly!....... Strip and clean the carbs, check all the internals to make SURE they all match, and set 'em all the same..... If the bike is stock, you should need stock settings, if it is modded (pods, 4-1 pipe, etc) the "jetting" chart in here will give you a reasonable starting place.

You also need to KNOW that you have a good spark, at the right time, and that everything else works......

I am not a Kwak historian, but I am guessing that for '74, you have points and condensors to replace as well as plugs before setting the timing, tensioning the cam-chain and giving it a good service.

There is NO point in altering carb settings until ALL of that is done..... faults in ANY of those components (or coils, or HT leads, or.....) could cause the problems you describe.

You have to remember, this bike is 34 years old; It has either done a huge mileage, or it has sat around for a long time..... neither is good! It has probably had a couple of rounds of being re-commisioned after being unused, so almost anything might have been done to it over those years, by mechanics of unknown abilities..... trust nothing!

Get stuck in, and have fun doing it; at least the Z1's slide carbs are a whole lot easier to strip than the XSs CVs!!... and more "logical" to tune.

AlanB

[Roy Bean]

I have a friend that works on carbs for a living.

He has a web site with a discussion board. He primaliry works on Kawasaki so you might find some help there.

www.wgcarbs.com