KZ650 will only idle....

[Bud1]

I just bought my first bike. A 1983 Kawasaki KZ650 for $400. I've ridden bikes before just never owned my own. The bike was sarted and ridden around the block last summer (2004). Supposedly it ran good but would not idle. It sat in a garage till I bought it a week or so ago. So far I've cleaned the fuel tank, flushed the fuel lines, bought a shop manual and a new battery. I've disassembled and cleaned the carbs. Repaired a couple of wire connections that were just twisted together. And my reward for all that is a bike that will idle at half choke and dies when any attempt to give it some throttle is made. As a side note, you can rev it up if you give it a shot of starting fluid. Then it returns to idle again. Any suggestions? I'm trying to fix this myself as money is tight. However, still excited about having my first bike and can't wait to get it on the road.

Thanks,
Bud1

[BuzZz]

Sounds very much like the carbs need a good strip-n-clean. Pretty common on bikes that have sat for a few months or more without draining the gas or adding stabilizer to the fuel before storage.

[Bud1]

Well, everytime I take the carbs apart and clean them and put them back together the bike runs better. This will be the fourth time I've taken the carbs apart. Of course it will only be the second time with the manual. I believe there's only one part of the carbs I haven't taken apart. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks,
Bud1

[WicAndThing]

I've worked on a lot of small engines over the years. This sounds like a carb-rebuild issue.

First, totally dissasemble the carb. I'm talking the jets and everything. Make sure to clean off any old gasket material. If you don't have a parts washer, buy a can of the parts cleaner at the auto-parts store and soak that puppy and all the resusable parts overnight. Then, using soapy water, wash and rinse everything really well. Take an air-compressor and blow out all the ports really well and dry everything out good.

Now, reassemble according to the manual. Remember, replace the float, float pin, gaskets, etc.. Once its reassembled, adjust the low/high idle screws like the manual says and give it a try.

[Bud1]

Thanks for the info! I finally got it running pretty good. The only thing I haven't done yet is synchronize the carbs. I'll be doing that tomorrow. Hopefully, that will smooth everything up the way it should.

Bud1