Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hi,

Picked up the zx-6 tonight. man it is so spotlessly clean I love it . One issue, the choke is sticking on when I pull the lever down. I had a look and tried adjusting the cable but no luck. lubed up the various bits but something gets stuck and the tension in the spring isn't enough the 'push' the cable back....

Should I just keep trying the lube the cable? Theres no kink or anything....

You should lube the entire cable if you haven't already, Suggest pulling off the top lever hold the cable up & dribble WD40 into the cable sleeve, enough to come out the other end.
Or use a cable oiler like this :

These are available at accessories stores & are quite cheep & do the perfect job of keeping your cables moving, they are dead simple to use.
Have you had the tank off to see if the cable is the problem?

Not sure what model you have, but from memory all carbed 6's came with a standard handlebar mounted choke. They stick for a few reasons.

1. The lever itself is binding on it's slide. Remove, clean, lube and refit.

2. The cable is old and rusty. Follow RR's suggestion and lube the cable properly

3. The cable is kinked, or has been kinked. Once the cable is kinked and the cable casing has been bent, they don't often return to normal functionality. Best bet is to remove and replace with a newie!!!

thank you, I wil keep trying!

Some choke cables stick by design.
Personally i hate the ones that spring back, i have to sit there and hold em while i let the bike warm up.

My 9's choke doesnt spring back, neither did my 7's or my little 250's.

+1 to above..

On all the bikes I've owned, it's been normal for the choke to stick when you pull the lever.. so you don't have to manually hold the thing for a few minutes..

then how do you get it to idle normal again? the problem with mine is, when I push to lever back it still idles high

ah.... different problem to what i was thinking.

Start lubing the points at the carby then as it sounds like its sticking at that point rather than the cable end.

I would have thought that unless the cable were broken, even if it were stiff, pushing the lever would dis-engage the choke.
Im thinking the cable is fine and something is binding/sticking/not doing what its spose to do elsewhere.

**Edit**
Or exactly what he said above.

adge82 wrote:I would have thought that unless the cable were broken, even if it were stiff, pushing the lever would dis-engage the choke.
Im thinking the cable is fine and something is binding/sticking/not doing what its spose to do elsewhere.

**Edit**
Or exactly what he said above.

Then you would be wrong! If the cable is binding on the inside of the cable casing, then often returning the lever will have no effect. All it will do is scrunch up the cable in the part of the casing the isn't binding, till it get's to the bit where it binds and then won't go any further. Now, I'm not saying that is the cause, as I haven't seen the bike, but, to assume that it couldn't be the cable is not correct.

Shouldnt be able to scrunch a steel cable casing without enough force to break the cable.
The whole cable system from lever to choke mechanism should either feel wrong (be able to feel the binding) or it wont be the problem.

If you think about the path the cable takes, its a metal cable inside a metal tube held in place by metal fixtures. It should either break or bind and possible stretch the tiniest bit. But if the lever moves through the full action then either the cable is attached to nothing or broken. Or the problem is elsewhere.

In any case, i would be taking the tank off and visibly watching what happens when the choke is engaged and dis-engaged to see exactly what is going on at the carby end.