Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

A ZX12R will fix it

Yeah, I'm itching to get out. Work is driving me mad at the moment, and I have plans for a little overnight trip north soonish if you're keen. WTB Good weekend weather!

SH!T in the Fuel tank, it's either corroding, got a gut full of water or probably both. Replace filter, strip the carbies, clean the tap, drain the tank & if it's surface rusty. It's Time to coat it with some tank creme.
I'd bet Neka's Knackers on it

Thanks for all the feed back!

Would love to replace the thing completley (would definitly be a ZX12 over a Yamaha!!!!!! - ZX10 would be my choice!) - however there are "greater powers" that must be convinced of these things!!!!

Heres another twist to the tale - before riding home yesterday - I switched the fuel tap to reserve - It didnt die at all on the way home - and then again on the way to work this morning - no problems!!! - could be a coincidence. - will monitor it - however I will still strip the thing down this weekend and go over it.

Ah fun fun!

marty

You have tried putting more than fiddy cents worth of fuel in

That may indicate the tap staw inside the tank is clogged up. 145k is alot of juice to have consumed. While in that time no doubt the inline fuel filter has been replaced several times but the guaze inside the tank has probably never even been thought about. Since the majority of this fuel has been sucked through the main straw - the longest of the 2 - it stands to reason that it may be blocked.
Remove the tank and drain it. Flip it upside down and remove the tap - Tip don't try and do it with the philips head screwdriver, guarenteed you will strip the heads and then reach for a spanner. Just go for the spanner first. Be careful when you remove the tap to do it slowly so as not to damage the gasket / rubber seals. Clean the pick up straws carefully with an old toothbrush if its required.

What he said, and while you have got the tank off, check the fuel pump contact points.

Similar problem recently with my B1, idle, rev in the garage on the race stand no problem. Take it out to ride and it would get 150mtrs up the road and then drop sometimes 1 cylinder, sometimes 2. Going around a left hand turn with a fair bit of lean would have the bike clear for 50 metres. Turned out to be worn needle and seat in 2 carbs (cyl 3&4) causing excessive richness. How to check... take the air box off, hook up a fuel supply and run. crack the throttle open observing the intakes. If they're worn like mine then you will have excessive and heavy fuel mist from around the needle seat.

Checked / set the float heights
dropped needles 1 notch
adjusted off idle / 1/8 - 1/4 throttle running by idle mixture screw to compensate. Factory default setting for the idle mixture screws is usually '1 & 1/2 turns' out from fully closed.

Not 100% the right way to do it, but $40 a needle and $60 per seat ( emulsion tube ), economics won the day.

oldmanmike wrote:Similar problem recently with my B1, idle, rev in the garage on the race stand no problem. Take it out to ride and it would get 150mtrs up the road and then drop sometimes 1 cylinder, sometimes 2. Going around a left hand turn with a fair bit of lean would have the bike clear for 50 metres. Turned out to be worn needle and seat in 2 carbs (cyl 3&4) causing excessive richness. How to check... take the air box off, hook up a fuel supply and run. crack the throttle open observing the intakes. If they're worn like mine then you will have excessive and heavy fuel mist from around the needle seat.

Checked / set the float heights
dropped needles 1 notch
adjusted off idle / 1/8 - 1/4 throttle running by idle mixture screw to compensate. Factory default setting for the idle mixture screws is usually '1 & 1/2 turns' out from fully closed.

Not 100% the right way to do it, but $40 a needle and $60 per seat ( emulsion tube ), economics won the day.

Fair call also.
But...
E model carbs are without needle clips so if this turns out to be the issue then washers are required to raise the needle. Can be had from Show and Go for $1 each to suit the application.
It's all conjecture and guess work troubleshooting over the net but all ideas and experience are relevant.

Note : to correct excessive richness on the needle, the needle has to be dropped not raised.

Adding washers under the the needle clip will raise the needle making it RICHER not leaner.

Could be the regulator etc. Should allow charging for the battery etc when riding as rpm goes up and down and also the lights and the rest. one of the ignition coils on the plugs mt not be receiving enough current or not allowing enough to the plug.

marty wrote:Thanks for all the feed back!

Would love to replace the thing completley (would definitly be a ZX12 over a Yamaha!!!!!! - ZX10 would be my choice!) - however there are "greater powers" that must be convinced of these things!!!!

Heres another twist to the tale - before riding home yesterday - I switched the fuel tap to reserve - It didnt die at all on the way home - and then again on the way to work this morning - no problems!!! - could be a coincidence. - will monitor it - however I will still strip the thing down this weekend and go over it.

Ah fun fun!

marty

...you would choose correctly if it were a 10 over the 12 over one of them (how fragile is your gearbox) Yamaha's

[We all know that extra 200cc's still don't cut it don't we!!.....stir...stir.... ]


Given this update of yours , rip your tank off and unbolt the fuel tap assembly (using a socket not a screwdriver).

I'd almost bet my lefty the main (tall) tap screen is blocked or you have crap in the tap itself.

I know its been awhile - and I promised an update on the outcome - so for anyone who is interested (and by now I would say that would be no one!!!!) - but - after a lot of money and time , I finaly found the cause of the issue! - See , I asked the bike shop to test the fuel pump when I took it in for a a service, they reported to me that they did this by doing a flow test and it checked out fine. So I dissmissed the fuel pump as an issue! - Wrong !!!! - What I presumed was that they examined the fuel pump in the process - which as it turns out the didnt! - As one poster stated - the fuel pump contacts where burnt out ,fused together , broken, smashed , not working - soooo after all that I replaced the fuel pump (which is what I had originally thought it was ) and all is good. (now got 155,000 on the the clock and still going strong)

So thank you one and all for your input.

Marty

All good in the end Marty

woo hoo, gotta love the 9 aye, you're beating phil too in terms of kms travelled... and his is a 98... he wont like to hear that...