KAWASAKI Z550F
How on earth is John going to lever that bank of carbs back into his Kawasaki Z550F? Well, let’s ask him…
John Vassallo carries on with his resto!
Hello again readers. Hope you’re enjoying my attempt at re-commissioning my big, bad Z1000 (well, ok, my 550!).
I don’t have the expertise of this magazine’s Ralph Ferrand, but luckily I do have friends who are happy to help. Bet you thought I’d call Ralph a guru? No, because I hate it when people say that and it’s over-used anyway. Do people know the true definition? It’s a Hindu word meaning spiritual teacher. Ralph doesn’t look like a Hindu to me.
Now, let’s see where we are. I think I’ve told you I’ve ordered a secondhand master cylinder for the front brakes. The original had a seized piston, which I gave up on. The replacement came from ebay and was £23 posted. It looks identical apart from the Kawasaki lettering looks sprayed on, rather than engraved like the original.
Would you believe the cap screws came undone straight away? Not the usual two-man battle I’ve had before. The piston moves freely, so I’ll leave it alone. One thing I did notice was that one of the connections on the switch had broken: something to fix then.
As you can imagine, the screw holding this on is small and hard to grip and thus, harder to remove. Screwdrivers were no use as none of mine would grip: time for the cordless drill then. The only other way I could think of was pilot drilling, then stepping up in sizes the screw head finally broke off, detaching the switch. Caution was essential here, making sure I didn’t destroy the switch itself. I’m getting better! Luckily the switch on the original cylinder came off easier, so now I was able to swap them over, I was really pleased with that.
So far I’ve got by on minimum tools and a drill/driver set. The only real specialist tool I have is a clutch puller for an LC! Over the last couple of years I’ve got hooked on Lidl tools, their brand being Parkside. It started with a 52-piece socket set. Then a T-handle hex and star key set, ratchet spanners, mini tool accessory set, soldering iron, set of files, screwdrivers, multi ratchet and a multi-tool for house jobs: all good quality stuff for such little money. I wonder how many of you readers have discovered this?
Meanwhile, my parts from Z-power had arrived. Just as I had thought, the list was to grow. I needed the black plastic caps that cover the holes used for balancing the carbs. Tying in with these, I was missing a couple of those tiny plastic caps which cover the air adjustment screws, so then it was back on the phone to Z-power.
Luckily I got the main man Phil Alford again, who was really helpful last time. I ordered four of each.
In part three I talked about removing those carbs and the need for overhauling. There are plenty of people who offer this service, and I decided to use a local man called Ritchie Knight. With his son Shane, he runs a company called RSK Two Strokes. I’ve used them before to set up my LC on their dyno.
The first time I went there I couldn’t believe my eyes: customers’ bikes in a bike repair shop and all two-strokes. It seemed like the 1980s again. Mainly RDS, LCS and Kawasaki triples.
After showing me his workshop equipment Ritchie talked me through his customers’ bikes, and what they were in for. I also met two other LC owners, Darren and Jason, who both had hybrid versions. Their bikes became instant talking points. They both gave me valuable advice on mine. Nice blokes.
However, this time I was in for a four-stroke issue, my Z carbs. After a full strip, Ritchie found it had its original jets, which he cleaned along with the fuel inlets. The whole lot was then ultrasonically cleaned. Then for some vapour blasting. They then needed drying for two whole days in the dyno room. Any residue came off with a gentle tap. It was then ready for re-assembly. I got them back looking like new – you get really good service from RSK.
With the carbs back home, I had the not so easy task of re-fitting them with that standard air-box. I can see why people fit pod filters. Not just for racy looks, but
ease of fitting. The air-box curves round the frame, which adds to the difficulty of fitting. Firstly we fitted the parts I’d ordered from Z-power, i.e., the vacuum blank offs and the air adjustment screw caps. Tiny things they are. With carbs on and throttle linkage located, now for the air-box. Only now could I see what little room there was for this and its rubbers.
After several failed attempts, we saw there were some excess bits of weld taking up precious millimetres, thus restricting access. We filed them flat, giving extra room. This extra space, however, was no use, so it was time for some thinking. Time for a bit of Facebooking I thought, as there was bound to be someone on there who could help.
Searching for appropriate groups, I found the Kawasaki GT550/750 Owners page. Yes, GT, not Z, but a similar bike – the main difference being the shaft drive. A very helpful response to my post came from an Andy Wallace, giving me his full procedure of this awkward job. Firstly he said put the air-box in first, with the two rear sections off, also checking that the rubbers were not rock hard with age. Luckily mine were okay. Then, feed the bank of carbs in from right to left, as if you’re sitting on it. They needed quite a shove, making sure of the correct angle, too. Don’t think I could do this alone, so friend Dave was here with me! One of us then held the throttle linkage open while the other connected it. Now, with more brute force we engaged carbs to the inlets on the head, we were almost there now...
With more wiggling it was time to engage the carbs to the air-box rubbers. For this you’ll need a right-angled pick tool (one each if two of you). It’s important you do the middle two first, but it’s not as hard as it sounds if you follow the correct procedure, so thanks for that Andy! I was really pleased at getting them on. Next time we’ll run the engine again and balance those carbs!