Kawasaki carb hell

[xssiveone]

Yep, pretty much the same as XS11 carb hell.... In the beginning, carbs were completely stripped and soaked, and passages blown out with high pressure air. After getting the m/c on the road, I noticed #1 header pipe turning blue, indicating to me that it was running lean. Took carbs off and proceded to measure fuel level (OH BOY!!! I smell like gas again!!) Discovered the screw that holds the needle seat in place had came right out on #1. So, I put it back in and made sure it was tight this time. After adjusting the floats as necessary to bring it in line with factory specs, I reinstalled the carb bank. Resynced the carbs and thought everything was fine. Wrong. Getting a steady seapage from #1. Very strange because the body of the carb is wet with gas ABOVE the float bowl. Am I looking at carb kits, or bowl gaskets?

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Brian

[Bill]

Re: Kawasaki carb hell

Brian wrote:

the body of the carb is wet with gas ABOVE the float bowl. Am I looking at carb kits, or bowl gaskets?

Hmm... the fuel inlet "T"s are above the float bowls. Could they be leaking? JAT

[xssiveone]

Yep, might just be the problem Bill. Will check it out. Mind you, it's on the wrong side of the carb, but not difficult for it to run along the front or back and along the other side. Think it says 7mm O-rings on the BuyKawaski.com site so that's an easy fix, providing I can find metric O-rings. Going to try float bowl gaskets first, as the ones that are on it are pretty ratty looking. Not cut paper gaskets like the XS, but more like an O-ring that has been formed to follow a groove in the float bowl mating surface. Also going to double check my fuel level measurements. It's possible that I measured wrong..... not that I would EVER make a mistake like that of course.

[xssiveone]

Have come to the conclusion that the leak was indeed from the #1 bowl gasket. Ordered 4 replacements but they won't be here for at least a week. Decided to do some experimenting and managed to get a large O-ring to stay in the groove and when I installed the bowl, it doesn't appear to be leaking from that point any longer. Figured I was good to ride again until the proper ones got here.... NOT!! Now gas is spewing from the overflow for #3 & 4 carbs. The needle/seat looks fine, the leak appears to be coming from around the seat on #3. Finally got #3 seat out and when I tried to remove the O-ring, it litterally fell apart. Going out tomorrow to see if I can locate some O-rings of the correct size. Will be ordering needle/seats next week, but will just put them in the parts drawer for now.

[xssiveone]

Well, to put an end to this... I now have my leaks stopped. The O-ring on #1 bowl is holding, for now. Hopefully it will hold until the proper gasket arrives at the dealer. #3 needle/seat started leaking quite badly. Did the "bit in the reversed drill" fix that someone mentioned on the Yahoo list a while back. Thanks, whoever it was... haven't done a search for it to find out who it was. Still would not stop leaking, so thought it was the O-ring around the seat. Replaced all 4 O-rings to be on the safe side. Still a leak from #3. Discovered in the process of cleaning up the seat, I created a burr on the center of the seat where the needle is supposed to shut off the gas. Cleaned it up with another drill of the proper size and no more leak!!! :->>>>>



Finally got SWMBO on the bike and we went for a 2 hour ride. Other then a very numb butt, bike performed flawlessly. Will order needle/seats for all 4 tomorrow. Hopefully once I get them in I can finally get rid of this gas smell!!