Synchronising Throttle Bodies

[MrFaulty]

Hi, Im am going to check (and likely adjust) the valve shims over the break and I was just doing abit of reading on some sites and they say you should sychronise the throttle bodies at the same time. Reading further it sounds like this is a bitch of a joib, needing special tools and computer software. Anyone had this done or done it yourself? any idea what the kawasaki dealer would charge? I was going to strip it down and take it in to have the valves checked anyway.

Thanks
Ben

[BrettZZR]

It's a bit fiddly to do, but not high tech at all. Probably the hardest bit is setting it up so that it can run without the tank in place - harder for you fuel injected guys, not so hard for carbed bikes:


You want to equalise the vacuum in each throttle runner. I used to have a bottle of mercury (explains a few things!) and just put each or the four tubes into that, but now (think of the children!) I use a set-up with diesel, and tee-d them into each other, so you need to equalise each pair of tubes:


One mod I want to do is to put a small (~1mm) jet into each tube to smooth it a bit - the fluid level is a bit jumpy at idle.

(-8

[Gosling1]

diesel - that's an interesting idea. A few blokes I know who have made up their own manometers use auto trans fluid.

Mercury resists the problem you get at idle with the big fluctuations - but its not something you really want to be dicking around with.

Mr Faulty - do the valve-clearances first, so the engine is pulling the right amount of air through each cylinder. Then do the balance. Not the other way around.

[MrFaulty]

Fantastic, thanks!

[mick12]

to dampen the bouncing gauges i use small irrigation taps available from just about any hardware store for about 60 cents each and a couple of polly risers as adaptors on the old suzuki the adapters go into the intake manifolds so the pionty polly adapters screw straight in on the 12 i have 4 vacume hoses in place numbered and pluged just pull them outone side unplug em connect the gauges adjust the taps to dampen piece of piss really i tried to upload pics but its much easier to do the job than resize the photo

[MrFaulty]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Anyone have any idea how much it would cost to have it done - I will be stripping it down and checking the valve gaps

[greenman43]

Another thought, per the FCRs I used to run on the old ZXR, I synced my TBs by eye (bought a spare set, pulled them apart to remove the secondary butterfly shaft and servo, hence they needed syncing). From memory there's a single screw between the two pairs, turn the idle screw right down so that there is a tiny crescent of light under the butterfly,and it's very simple getting a 'close enough' match - 'close enough' for me as the bike is a trackie only, hence a rough idle is not of any concern.

Cheers,
Brian

[MrFaulty]

Hi again. I have just spoken with a mechanic at kawasaki and he said the simplest way is to purchase a vacuum guage - from supercheap ebay etc.

Has anyone adjusted the throttle bodies using one of these and is it fairly straight forward?

Thanks
Ben

[bonester]

Nope - you need a specific vacuum guage for a bike- someone I know (ahem) bought 4 car ones years ago with no dampening and the needles jumped around like crazy- of no use at all. Best thing- buy a morgan carbtune- cheap $180 or so last time I checked, and tough- mercury gauges break really easily- had two sets before the morgan. Never again.

[kawadave]

As above "Morgan carbtune"...$124.00 oz... delivered from Belfast. http://www.carbtune.com/

[MrFaulty]

Thanks, just found a bike mechanic who said he'll do it for $100 so might get him to do it and if it makes a notable difference, then I'll buy the correct tool and do it myself next time.

Thanks again
Ben