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I Just Received My Used Carbs

I’m really excited, yesterday I received my used carbs that I won on eBay. My carbs on my GS 750 have been sitting with a busted Idle Adjuster since I bought the bike.

when I tried to ride the bike that one day last fall, the bike wouldn’t idle, that is when I figured out that I could not adjust the idle on the bike. Since later this spring, my carbs have been at my co-worker friend’s house, while he tries to get the adjuster fixed. He ended up finding out that the threads for the adjuster are a very unique thread, one that he hasn’t been able to find a tap for… since I did buy a Idle Adjuster that was in nice shape from a different co-worker. I just needed the bad adjuster removed & the threads cleaned up.

Well it’s been a long time, so I finally started looking at carbs on eBay to either replace my carbs or to take parts from them & just repair my carbs.

My co-worker friend confirmed that this cheap set of ‘78 Kawasaki KZ 650 carbs uses the same Rack & Idle Adjuster as the carbs on my ‘77 Suzuki GS 750. So yea, now it’s just a matter of replacing the parts that need to be fixed on my GS carbs, getting them sync’d & hopefully firing the bike up for a test ride, finally.

With any luck, in a few days I’ll be posting about my test ride of the GS.

My care package arrived from Canada!!
Looking at that poking out, something for me...
Hey, is that an Idle Adjuster?!!

This Idle Adjuster works, unlike the one on my GS.
The Kawi adjuster is all metal, the Suzuki adjuster knob is plastic.
Another view of the replacement Idle Adjuster

The back view of the '78 KZ 650 carbs
Front view of the '78 KZ 650 carbs
Final close up shot of the KZ carbs


This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under The GS Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “I Just Received My Used Carbs”

  1. Casey Says:
    August 19th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    Wow…how exciting to have waited all that time to finally get the ball rolling. This is a huge piece of the puzzle. Good luck at getting everything up to “speed” I’ve went throught the carb thing recently, and I’ll tell you this much, IMHO. If you have to sync the carbs, unless you have a friend that has the tool, you’re better off getting the carb sync tool and doing it yourself. You can buy the carb gauges from z1enterprises for about $60 and it would probably cost you at least that much to get a mechanic to it for you. Wish all the best for you. Won’t be long you’ll be screaming down the roads of IL and WI. At least back and forth to work. :-) see ya around.

    BTW..just got my carbs sync’d and back on the road…what a difference a good sync makes…. I actually have power in this ole’ girl!

  2. Bill Says:
    August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am

    Hey Casey,

    I’m with you on the carb sync’ing… I know that I’ll need to get that accomplished. I’m not sure yet as of how I’m going to get that done. I mean, I’m not sure if I’ll just reply on some friends who have done it themselves, or if I’ll buy the proper tools & learn to do it myself.

    I’m hoping to have the carbs back together & my wiring issue resolved by this Saturday, if all goes well… so then I can take the GS out for a trial run. There is still the big unknown variable if some other unknown problem might rise the the surface when I go to fire it up & ride it… but that’s what I’m ready to do, or where I’m at with it.

    Thanks,
    Bill

  3. Casey Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 7:03 am

    Bill

    The fact that you went through the carb reqbuild, must mean that you have already done a bench sync. (per the instructions) I can tell you this, I’m an IT guy with 0 experience working on a bike. I was able to follow the instructions and get a sync for my 4 banger. I would rate the difficulty from 1-10 (1 being the easiest) about a 2. I mean it’s really that easy. More than anything was setting up a make shift tank, so I could get at the carbs while running. Essentially, I would wait until the last thing to do the carbs. Make sure and try to get your fuel/air mix pretty close first. Then you can run your sync afterwards. For me I had the pilot circuit running rich and fouled out plugs before I could finally get to the final sync. Of course, everything I’ve learned has been through searching through the GSResources forum. It’s been a huge help.

    From the sounds of it, you’re a somewhat heavier rider. You may be good to do the investment of the tool. Especailly if buying up older bikes and fixing them up is going to be a habbit for you. I bought this one http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=2727 from z1. It’s the cheapest one they have, but did the job pretty good. Good luck and shoot me an email if you run into questions on the carbs. Chances are I’ve already done it, or I’ve read about. I could save you some research and read time.

    Casey

  4. Bill Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 am

    Thanks Casey, I appreciate the help & advice.

    At this point, I have not done the vacuum sync, just the mechanical sync of making sure the slides are physically moving up/down the same amount, or stopping at the same point is maybe more accurate the call it.

    Honestly, at this point, I’m at the stage where I’m just trying to do a “proof of concept” if you will. I still need to verify that my GS will run on the road, keep running, if my battery is being re-charged (last fall, I was given the suspicion that it might not be) & etc. Once I know that the bike is runnable, then I plan on diving in more & do the “tune-up” type things, such as a proper vacuum sync & etc. I’m anxious to get the bike on the road & know where I’m at with it. My first couple of rides with it should help to reveal what issues still might be lurking in it. My basics are covered, I have on it new Chain, Tires & Brakes… so I feel it’s safe enough that I just want to get it out on the road & do a shake-down & see how/if it runs.

    Last fall, I put in carb rebuild kits, except I overlooked the whole Idle Adjuster at that time, hence my process to fix that this year… but last fall, it ran down the road the one day I rode it… but it didn’t idle (I presume as this point now that my Idle Adjuster is fixed, that the bike will idle) & it popped some while crising at a steady speed… again, I never did sync the carbs at that time.

    So yea, I’m optimistic that my GS will prove to be worth keeping, well I think I’ve already proved that to myself… but that I’ll also only need to do some carb tuning to make it a daily commuter bike.

    Thanks for the link on the vacuum gauges, I’ll check them out further… as I do plan on learning to do that myself.

    And hey !!! Where on my posts have you determined that I’m a big fat ass???!!!!??!! ;) Just giving you a hard time… but you did call me a heavier rider

    Thanks again for the advice & I will keep it in mind if I struggle with my carbs.

    Bill

  5. Casey Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Crikey!!!! :-) I meant by “heavier rider” that you’re a “frequent rider” not PHYSICALLY heavy… ;-) Meaning you ride a lot…. I seen your interest by the pics.

    :-)

    Casey

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