Z900 A4 fuel leak any ideas please?

[zed9]

Good idea to solder and drill the ends but think you will still have isses with the size of holes you drilled being larger than the others. From all the expense on carbs you have had i would spend £5 more and get correct micro drill.
1015 may know size whos doing choke plungers for you. Scumbay have sets of 10 from 0.1mm to 1mm for £4.15 just look for micro drills so one of these should be correct size.

[Gray17]

You may well be right, but i reasoned 2 were fully blocked and 2 were opened to 2mm, i have re made hole at 0.5mm which is a 1/4 of what it was, also choke only on for first few seconds on start up, however if still an issue its easy enough to solder up again and re drill, problem i found was even the 0.5mm was too small for my drill even the dremmel wouldnt hold it and if i taped the end it wasnt fully central.hence used fingers, luckily solder is soft.
Im hoping with the 4 new keyster sets and chokes done by Rob there will be a marked inprovement. Oh and ive still got the sticking tachometer it revs fine but sticks on way down at 2k before dropping back to 0 a few Seconds later, didnt do that when i stripped and refurbed them, so guessing its due tobeing stored unused and will free up, otherwise its replacement tacho, more expense, oh and believe you have to cut a chunk off bracket to fit the new ones, so rather keep original if possible.
Ironically weather taken a turn for the better around here, so if bike had been running well i would have been out on it over easter, oh well least theres next weekend weather permitting!
Cheers

[wilsonsjw11]

Send the tachometer to Al Marshall for a quick turnaround too.
Regards
Steve

[Gray17]

Thanks Steve yes heard his name mentioned before, need to get running sorted first thats something i can get done in the winter when back off the road, if i ever get it on the road that is!
Update carbs fully stripped, andcre cleaned 4 brand new Keyster kits ordered from Nigel just awaiting their arrival. To get them fitted.
Choke Plungers, fully stripped and packaged off to Rob to have seals replaced, again due to bank holiday everything put back a day or 2.
When your retired B/H not the same they become a bit of a nuisance, whereas when at work looked forward to them.
Whilst waiting i've also done the George relay mod, now getting battery voltage at coils so big fat spark assured. When i did this bought relay with built in fuse so wiring is all protected, easiest place to fit is under tank, however not easy to get at if fuse blows or you have a problem starting, so i have run a mini loom of 2 wires to the battery box area and installed relay there, irs under seat so out of harms way and wont be effected by heat, its rubber mounted so vibration shouldnt be an issue, used thick modern cables too so no volt drop. Whether it will make a difference? But as they say every little helps!
Just need carbs back together now.
Will keep you all posted and thanks for all the comments

[TGreenfield]

Hi, when you put another washer under the float valve seat did the float still move freely? You sometime have to put a chamfer on the seat to allow it to move freely. An alternative to the second washer is to fit a Yamaha XS 750 needle float valve. They are fractionally longer than the Kawasaki ones and allow you to set the float high correctly and have the tab on the float straight (not bent down ) so that it operates the valve properly and shuts off the fuel. You can get one from Zpower. If you want to try another float drop me a line and I will get one to you. Trev trev.greenfield@gmail.com

[Gray17]

Thanks for reply Trev, im currently awaiting the new Keyster gasket sets which come complete with not only all the jets but also matched pair of float valve and seat, so hoping this will resolve most if not all my leaking issues. Hopefully Robs new viton seals will help with the rich running too.
I have floated each float in a beaker and each float at exactly the same height so hoping their all ok.
But will keep you all posted, and appreciate the offer.
Thanks

[Mally]

Haven’t fully read the post yet , but noticed the comment about about Keyster kit , not sure if you are going to use the jets ( main /pilot ? )

I would not recommend doing this but to use Genuine Mikuni every time ( Keyster jets caused me loads of issues with my RD250 ) , you can get genuine Mikuni from Motocarb or Allen’s Performance. I used the Keyster gaskets on my Zed without any issues though .

For float height check I use a tool like the Kawasaki tool part which is basically a clear tube with an insert that goes into the drain screw on the float bowl ( I bought it off a member in here years ago ) that shows the fuel height in each bowl once carbs are fitted . I will add a photo , I took loads when I rebuilt my carbs a few years ago .

[Gray17]

Thanks for reply, i do hope thats not the case as i AM using all of the keyster jets, in fact everything in the kits these are supposed to be as near to OEM as possible these days, and made in Japan like the originals. They have been recomended by Nigel Aire Valley Classics who endorses their quality and uses them on his rebuilds.
My bike was running so badly with incorrect sized cheap pattern parts, that sure there will be an improvement. Fingers crossed.
Yes i do know about the gauge bid on 1 on ebay but lost it at last second! Was going to try and get a spigot with 6mm course thread and make up one myself using clear tube, but also note a member made up a clear float bowl so you can actually see the fuel level and it opening and shutting off on the bench so thats another option.
Everything has now arrived parts wise so set about re fitting all the parts done 2 carbs so far these have also been fitted with the new style viton seal choke plungers from Rob.
Everything has been re cleaned spotless, blown through every orifice with air and fitted with care. However until I've got them all complete and set up i wont know for sure. What i can say so far is the keyster float valves seem so much more positive then prev fitted ones and def slightly longer so tab no longer needs to be bent at silly angles.

What i also found which may help others, is the throttle valve screws are very tight and in a small recess, luckily all undid apart from 1, this refused point blank and resisted all attempts to loosen as head damaged, as its recessed into the throttle body and has the operating mechanism in place its impossible to cut a slot or even use mole grips, so had to get creative. Left soaking in wd40 overnight, then tried again , still no joy, tried heating it, still no use so using a 3mm cobalt drill, drilled a 3mm deep hole in screw head, not enough to break head off though then tapped in a 3mm star torq bit this undid the screw and came out without causing any damage. I have replaced it with a new 4mm one. Nigel did say that needles unlikely to be worn so could probably be left as is, but i wanted all 4 carbs to have exactly same parts in and to ensure all needles had correct hole spacing height ie position 3 of 5
Will keep you all posted on my findings

[warren3200gt]

Nothing wrong with Keyster kits Graham.

[Mally]

Nothing wrong with Keyster kits Graham.

Sorry not from my experience jets I am talking about , genuine Mikuni every time . Each to their own .

[warren3200gt]

Nothing wrong with Keyster kits Graham.

Sorry not from my experience jets I am talking about , genuine Mikuni every time . Each to their own .

I'm talking Keyster jets (which are in the kits) I've used probably 40 - 50 Keyster kits over the years and never had an issue.
If I were just replacing individual parts I'd go genuine.

[Gray17]

Thanks for replies, As you say each to there own, but the Keyster kits wernt exactly cheap and recomended by many, you can buy other kits at a lot cheaper price but probably inferior quality components. Best avoided
Im sure genuine Mikuni are as good if not better but a lot harder to get hold of and theres a lot of chinese copies out there pretending to be Mikuni as im sure there are Keyster. I bought from someone who imports them and uses them all the time so sure theyl be genuine.
Either way im sure mine will run a lot better with these then what it had in originally which was not even model correct.
Time will tell of course, and proof of pudding is in the riding (or in my case running right) once its back together.

[ADRIAN H]

Keyster kits for Kawasaki are good, have heard of problems with kits for 2 stroke Yamaha’s.

[zed1015]

Keyster kits for the Kawasaki Z and Suzuki GS VM carbs work fine.
I have used Keyster kits intended for the VM28's to replace the entire internals on VM26's i have bored out to 30mm and they have performed faultlessly..

[Gray17]

Thanks thats good to know, everything from kit all now fitted, along with the replacement viton plungers. Just got to set up float heights correctly then ready to go back on bike and can give it another try.
One thing i have noticed the fuel supply T pieces (2 of) has 2 rubber o rings at each end only 1seems to fully enter each carb, the 2nd is on edge of the carb receptical. Is this correct? as all carbs are screwed tight to the mounting plate so cant move, its almost like the T pieces have shrunk slightly but know thats not possible so?
Also noticed the choke plunger plastic lifter which sits on top of plunger assembly doesnt seem to fit the metal lifter arms attached to choke bar properly on all 4, the plastic looks the same either way up but is it slightly smaller 1 side then the other? Or doesn't it realky mayter, they do seem to close properly.
Never noticed when i did them first time around or when stripping, guess im taking a lot more care this time.
Thanks