Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Was going to stick with 32mm, so I don't have to change the adapter setup...guess that's prob the easiest thing to do.
And don't want to spend a ton.

Looking at Mikuni VM32-33's Round-slides- $80 each or OKO 32mm flat-slides(Keihin/Taiwan copies)- $60 each

The Mikuni's are more $. But I have extra's- needles, jets, slides, and the rest.
Seem to be the good basic carb/known brand.

The OKO's are less $, smaller width so my filters fit better.
But would have to buy all the extra bits, and not really sure about the brand/quality or running flat/d slides of this size?

Anyone have experience with either?
or maybe a nice set of 32's for sale?

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Greg

Why do you want 32s? VM34s work well on the 500 and might be easier to find.....

J

Was thinking 32's because of my current adapters. Would have to get new ones for 34's and prob have to reshape intake to size to...guess could be option if its a better Carb for the 500?

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Greg

They have been selling the Keihin knockoffs for xs650's, and the consensus is they are crap. Multiple problems mostly due to very poor manufacturing quality. Mikesxs.com sells them, and you could find threads on xs650.com.

I'd stick with the Mikunis.

John

Have a look at sudco or Mikuni online for the spigot dimensions of the VM34. I suspect it will fit the same rubber mounts as a VM32.
Many people run 34s on the 500 with good results. You will need to ride with a light throttle hand with a piston port until on the pipes though.

Once on the pipes a 500 will easily swallow everything a VM34 can throw at it!

J

Edit: I just saw the spigot dimensions listed in the Mikuni manual. The VM30, 32 and 34 all share a 40mm spigot. This means the 34s will plug into your manifolds without issue. Be sure to get the "large body" (big intake mouth) as the parts are more common (the carbs look better than the small mouthed ones too).

I bought OKO carbs and they worked like crap until I bought different emulsion tubes.
It took lots of work to get them working correctly and would have been cheaper to buy
original Mikuni or Keihin carbs.

I'm using 34mm Keihin PJ's on my 500...
There was a time that I didn't think I'd ever get them sorted but now I finally have the right needles, I find they work great! Providing the temperature isn't above 30... North of that, they become a wee bit rich on the main. Last weekends rally was mid 20's and the bike has never worked better.
They are very easy carbs to work on IMO and can be found used in the $60 range.
I would like to get a set of VM34's at some point for a comparison though, or maybe just swap carbs with LC for a weekend some time. I suspect VM 34's with UFO's would be very similar but I won't know for sure without testing.

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http://kawatriple.com/wtf/

Ive got VM34's on my H1 and it runs nice. With the longer intake rubbers (see battleaxe's posts on the subject), the bike pulls fine off idle and hard up top....and this is with Denco's 75HP porting. A stock-port H1 would run even better down low.

a little secret. Watch ebay for polaris XLT583 VM34's. They are a smaller body than the regular VM32/34 and fit nicer in the space behind the cylinders. I purchased the ones on my bike for something ludicrous like $65.00 (FOR ALL THREE) + shipping. So well under $100.00 to the door...

I already had the necessary brass.

The only thing about the XLT carbs is that the slides are reversed from the standard VM32's/34's, so I was stuck with what came with the carbs. Thankfully, this bike likes a rich slide (2.0), so it worked out fine.

Mikuni VM's are the best bang for your buck on these old bikes......

Cody, I looked up your carbs from the XLT and they appear to be the carbs that LC says to avoid... Maybe you 2 can sort out the difficult parts to find for these carbs and also there is a question as to the bell of the carb being smaller... Is this a big performance issue or is it just a visual thing???

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http://kawatriple.com/wtf/

The small body 34s have unique slides (idle stop and locating groove is opposite to the more common large body carbs). As such it may be difficult to get different slides for the small body carbs if the CA is wrong (as Cody has indicated).

The performance difference between the two carbs at WFO is probably small, but the large intake mouth looks kewl.

J