Gettin' the Carbs Off; Kawasaki ZX-11

[JMHJ]

I'm old and I still don't know any better, but yeah I'll buy that; I went ahead and ordered a couple more bowl o-rings (makin' more $ than I ever have in my life, and still having to watch it... I'd like to go political here, but I won't). The idea was that the others looked good; only took off the nbr 2 one to see if there was any diff in the look of the o-rings between one that was leaking and one that wasn't.

So the guy in the YT video I watched shot carb cleaner through the pilot and main jet circuits, then compressed air. Any prob doing with doing that?

The bowls look pretty good on 2-4 in this pic, but looks like a little something at a few of the allen head screws on the gang rail part. I probably would've tried to change those airbox side boot o-rings (racetrack ones), but I can't find them (unless they are round and you just shape them in...), and they look great compared to the 2 float bowl ones I accessed.

I think I'm going to order the intake boots too.

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[JMHJ]

That doesn't look like rust, it looks like sand from the lake, lol.

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[Rijko]

Good thing you checked :-)
I like how clean they are apart from the dirt in there, guess you don't use fuel with ethanol ?

[JMHJ]

No, we've got access to 100% gas still so I put it in anything that might sit. PO said they used only 100% too unless on a trip and it was unavailable (bike's been all over the place from what I gathered from him and hid dad - coast to coast, way up in Canada, etc.).

My last bike (from the Denver area; not sure what was available up there at the time) had white crud in some of the pilot jets, etc.

[Rob S.]

Let us see a pic when it's back together...or before.

[JMHJ]

Got it back together last night and this morning. Old bowl gaskets were kinda brittle when I removed them. Decided not to change the intake boots yet since the old ones looked/felt pretty good. A bit of vaseline on the carbs, and they went right in. Cleaned and oiled the K&N too (which was dirty).

Bike fired right up once the carbs got gas; ran and rode really well under mild acceleration. Did notice after a few miles though that it was a little different once when opening the throttle more, from lower RPMs; it didn't seem to tolerate that as well as it did before.

I opened it up harder some after that, and it still felt a bit different at first, but not too bad. I opened it up in 2nd shortly before the first ride was done, and everything seemed good, RPMs came up quickly. So whatever was going on seemed to work itself out(?). I need to ride it more to say for sure. I was thinking maybe the filter has more oil on it now than before.

I pulled the tank again when I got home from work to see if I had the filter upside down maybe (not that that would have changed the flow, but ?). Went ahead and turned the flo-commander thing 1/4 turn CCW while I was in there (leaner was the idea). Haven't ridden it again yet.

Oh, the leak's gone now too : )

[steve murdoch]

Glad to hear....so far, so good.

[Nessism]

FYI, you could have bought bowl O-rings and new float valves for $12/each here...https://www.siriusconinc.com/pro-det...roduct_id=1030

[JMHJ]

Thanks for the link. I saved it. Had it out again today, and it ran good (23F, lol, then about 50F coming home). Was hard into it in 1st, 2nd, and just into 3rd getting onto the highway (traffic) and it did fine. Was shifting by the sound, but wasn't at or too near redline I'm fairly certain; felt like it woulda pulled all the way to it though. That cold of air from this morning is about as dense as it's going to ever see, so will see how it does when it warms up.

[JMHJ]

Quick update. Bike's running great; only thing that tells me it might not be 100% correct is it doesn't like choke when (not absolutely cold) - like even after it's been sitting out all day at work. I'm talking like a day in the 60s... It fires up easily if I crack the throttle a bit with no choke in that situation (like a warm start).

Fires right up in the garage with full choke in the morning, and I have to back it off quickly to about half way to keep RPMs around 1500.