Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Where in Melbourne are you living mate, I'm in Oakleigh and should have all that is required

I'm in Boronia

Too easy mate. Your about 30 minutes max from my place. Let me know when the girl arrives and we'll arrange a time for you to drop over.

Woo that sounds great Stace, thanks a lot, I'll let you know when she gets here. I'm shopping around online for a carb kit, but I can only find ebay ones which im not too sure about can anyone steer me in the right direction?

I'd hold onto you cash for a little while longer mate. By all means do your research but hang of until we check the little beasty out.

I have some more updates on this;

I finally got the bike down here (Melbourne) and she still wasn't starting. I asked my dad to try and kick it over before it got shipped and he said he couldn't get it started either. So I got right into it, and took the carbies out and took them apart. As we had already taken them apart a couple of months previously, and it had barely ran since then, they were quite clean. The jets had a small amount of gunk in them (didn't clean them previously), but other than that, everything was pretty damned clean.

I put everything back in the bike and tryed to start her up, but to no avail. Fuel is definitely getting into the carbs as i unscrewed both drain's in the bowls and clean fuel came out of both. So whats going on?

I can rule out the following;
Carbies are clean
Fuel and fuel tank/tap isn't the problem (clean fuel, new fuel tap)
Throttle cables isn't the problem (were snapped, since been replaced)
Spark plugs are brand new

What else can I try? I'm running out of ideas :/ Any help would be much appreciated

you could try cranking it with the plugs out.. see if u smell fuel and while plugs are out see if they spark..

What would being able to smell the fuel prove? that fuel is getting into the engine? I'm taking the spark plugs out again today to do a compression test, ill give em a sniff and the plugs a spark as well.

OK I attempted to take the plugs out again, which failed as I could only get one out for some reason, so I didn't compression test either. The one plug I did get out didn't smell petrolly at all, 'twas slightly oily though.

I'm running out of patience and don't want to venture much further into the unknown in case I do anymore damage to the poor bike, and I have not the money for a mechanic to diagnose the problem.

Any more help/ideas would be much appreciated as I desperately need her up and running. thanks to everyone that's helped out so far

This all sounds dreadfully familiar. I have a 1991 GPX. In the end we replaced the fuel tap and got a mechanic to re-seat and needle both carbies and sync of course. Fixed.

did your problem prevent the bike from starting though? and do the carbs need to be in the bike to be synced? i am unfamiliar with the process.

Without rereading the whole two pages, have you pulled out the plugs and turned it over to make sue you have spark?

Oh, also, will it run if you spray aerostart down the throttle bodies while cranking it over. That will tll you if fuel is the issue.

Yeah theres spark mate. and no I haven't tried aerostart.

OK, So I have more updates on this. One of the vacuum diaphragms in the carbs had a small tear in it, so I replaced both of those. She then sounded like she wanted to kick over, but didnt have the battery power to do it.

So I went and got the battery charged up today, and still wouldn't start. So i remembered what got it starting previously; disconnecting the choke cable from the carbies.

Well hell it worked.

Although still had the same symptoms: Throttle response = disastrous: i could have the throttle 100% open and it would take a few seconds for her to roar, pumping the throttle open and closed would barely respond. And it was still a bit of a challenge to start her.
A new problem has now arisen, with petrol leaking from what looks like from one of the float bowls (clean fuel mind you) not really bothering me at this point; an easy fix.
I took the fuel line out of the tank and let all the fuel gush out of the carbies, and there was A LOT, and still more came out of the drains when i opened them, so I'm guessing the fuel height is now out of whack.

So i'm pretty sure that carbies is DEFINETLY the problem now. but what should I do? take them to a mechanic to get new needle/seat/sync/fuel heigh done etc? or just buy some good carbs from a wreckers?
Some advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated.