Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Is the oil filter in the tank clear.

It does not 4 stroke
Good compression, near or at 150 psi on all cylinders
I don't think its a coil, all plugs are light brown and I get 36 mpg. That's why I am hesitant to lower the needles but I think I'll try it anyway. When I lowered the needles the surging got worse. I had almost no surging with the needles in stock position.
Also, i don't know what brand the air filters are but they do have chrome ends. The filters are at least 25 years old because it hasn't run in 25+ years.

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74 H1

Some report bad air flow with a brand of filters called Emglo that have a chrome end cap.
As I recall, I had the K&N version of these filters on an H1 and it didn't have this problem.
Since they are old and questionable, you might try Uni foam filters as these are known to be good with triples.
You could also try running without filters to see if the condition goes away but I have never been a fan of this with any vehicle (other than at the drag strip).

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There are only two types of motor sport racing:
Nitro and everything else
(Sometimes referred to as fast and slow)

The most likely problem for significant power loss due to heat is the ignition coil. It is not easily diagnosed as it will heal itself when it cools off. If it is a bad coil due to heating the bike will stumble bad or have significant drop in idle rpm when hot. Once the failed cylinder is identified the coils can be swapped to see if the failed cylinder follows the coil. Coils can be checked with an ohmmeter.... primary should be 0.8ohms, secondary about 4.5Kohms.... but a bad one may check ok when cold. Plug color means nothing for this fault.

It is very unlikely that stock needle in a stock carb would run best with clip in #5 position IF the pilot circuit is setup correctly. In fact it could cause piston damage.

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Answers are here: http://kawatriple.com/

Two things to consider - Ignition problems can very easily be mistaken for a carb problem. Weird carb tuning is an indicator of this. Another area to check is your crank seals. You said it has sat for over 25 years. Do a pressure test, your seals may be bad. Weird carb tuning can also indicate bad seals. You cannot tune away an ignition problem or bad seals. Ignition problems typically get worse as the engine heats up. Crank seal problems may get better as the bike warms up since the seals get a little softer as they heat up. But if they are really bad temp usually won't matter.

What have you done to the bike to get it running after it sat? Did you do a thorough carb rebuild (not a spray job)? Check and set timing? Remove heads to inspect bore?

Did you super clean the carbs? (total tear down) And if you did, did you use rebuild kits? If you did, that parts are total crap and you will need to put the old parts in. (fuel needle and seat is usable)

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Needle position- it's now in the needle highest (richest) position
Ignition - checked the pointer position with dial indicator and it was dead on. Timing is set maybe a couple of degrees advanced past pointer using timing light. I tend to discount the ignition as cause because it runs strong past 7,000 even past redline.
What I did to get it running - carbs thorough cleaned using the original parts. The only anomaly with the carbs is that the air bleeds are about three turns out. Carbs are synced and slide idle position is about the same on all three. The reason it was initially parked was because the stator failed so the previous owner pulled it apart and that's the way the bike and bucket of parts sat outside. The compression was good (all near or at 150psi) so I didn't go inside. It has 9,000 miles on it. I cleaned the baffles and replaced the packing. Three of the five brushes were bad from sitting in the bucket and both pickups were shot. I replaced them with one new and one used pickup. I found two broken wires in the stator pigtail and repaired them. Replaced the voltage regulator with a Lakeland. All ohms readings are correct except I did not check the coils since I was getting spark.
Since it w as so easy, I removed the pods and stuck on some 3" velocity stacks to try and capture some of the reversion gasses. The problem got worse but I don't put a lot of stock in that test. I think the reversion was messing it up. Again WOT at high rpm was very good.
About the crank seals - with the electrical problems it had, I think it ended up with a lot of oil in the crank case. When I finally got it started, you couldn't see across the garage. I was hoping the excess oil in the crankcase may have preserved the seals. Wishful thinking, probably.
After I made my last reply I looked at it and said to myself "Self, why are you wanting to rejet when you have you air filter situation squared away? You are just going to have to do it all over again." This leads me to the me next question, should I put new Uni filters on or will the original duct give me more torque?

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74 H1

Also, I appreciated all the replies. If I didn't comment your specific suggestion doesn't mean I didn't give it significant consideration. I do think I will resolve the air filter situation before I spend a lot more time on it.

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74 H1

I couldn't leave it alone. I had to follow Ja-Moo's advice and moved the needle to the center position. Much better. While his advice sounded correct, I never heard of stock settings being too rich unless there is an altitude issue. Sometimes you just tend to overthink things.
Thanks everyone. I still need to decide on the air filters.

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74 H1

Good to hear, another problem is the air screw, if you are getting highest idle at 3 turns out, then the pilot is too big by a couple of sizes.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........