Katana 750 cylinders 1 and 4 not firing

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#11 Unread post by **Sev** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:32 am

Hope it works out for you

Keep us updated at least. This armchair wrenching is tough sometimes, so it's nice to know what worked and what didn't.

BananaKatana · Mon May 21, 2007 8:25 am

Just checked coil power, each connection is getting at least 11 to 12 volts both off and while running. I also cleaned up each spark plug and they definatly arent the problem anyway.

The bike runs 100% until it is warmed up, then it gradually gets worse and worse. I know this thing is oil cooled, but does it have some kind of thermostat or something that could be making it overheat??

Thanks, Sam

BananaKatana · Mon May 21, 2007 9:26 am

WOO HOO! I was just outside with the bike about to give up all hope and take it to my buddy's shop (week's wait at the least) when all the sudden my bike breathed life into itself and started running fine. Although it doesn't make much sense to me considering the symptoms, it started running fine right after I gave the carb's float bowls a few good wacks with the old 3/8ths.

This doesnt make any sense to me, but oh well. I just got my full license this morning, so this is a big relief. Thanks for the help all.

flynrider · Mon May 21, 2007 10:28 am

Carb whack? That sounds familiar. I had a KZ400 that would randomly start running on 1 out of 2 cylinders. The carb whack trick worked for me. I never rode anywhere without a big wrench in my pocket.

What is probably happening is your floats are sticking. When the fuel level in the bowl goes down, the floats are not going down with it. Eventually the carb starves the cylinder of fuel. Give the carb a whack and the floats drop and you're on your way again.

Carb whacking is easy when it's on the left side carb of a twin. Not so on an inline 4. I imagine you'll probably have to pull the bowls off the Kat and find out what's going on in there. It's usually just a piece of gunk on the float mechanism.

BananaKatana · Mon May 21, 2007 4:47 pm

Yep I had to pull the K&N's off to get to the bottom of the carbs, but that was about it. The seafoam product I used was supposed to help any gunked up areas such as that, its an awesome $8 bottle and pretty much the exact same chemical that shops and dealerships use in their super expensive (70$ to 180$ at the shops ive worked at) de-carbonation services.

Not awesome enough I guess, maybe the summer will bring me enough time for some deep carb cleaning.