2000 KZ1000 ENGINE FAILURE

Hello Everyone,

I am impressed with the amount of replies my post has received. I feel very lucky that this forum exists and that I have found it. Many thanks for all your good advice, I really appreciate it.

Most of you are saying my bike needs carb cleaning or valve adjustment. Some of you say it could also be a bad coil. Since the early replies focused more on valve adjustment, that's where I started. I found 2 valves that needed adjustment and I'm waiting for the tool to arrive by the mail to swap shims. Once that is solved I'll run the engine to see what happens, and if nothing changes, I'll work on the carbs. Since the carb kit is not expensive, I think I'll order one in advance, just in case. If all that doesn't work, I'll move to the coils.

You asked me a few specific questions, here are the replies:

- I have never cleaned the carbs and I don't know if it was ever done. I'm not an experienced motorcycle mechanic, and I don't have easy access to spare parts, so I don't want to fool around with the carbs unless I have to.
- It's not the fuel tank, filter or petcock. I have ran the engine without them and the problem remained. The hoses were inspected too.
- When failing, the engine runs better at high RPMs than at idle. The first symptom is having no idle, the lack of power takes a few minutes more.
- The bike is worth about US$5K to US$8K in Brazil. I know it sounds too much, but that's the way things are here, government is a thief and duties are very expensive.
- Yes, pure ethanol is widely used in Brazil as a fuel and our gas can have up to 25% ethanol mixed in it. But that is not the issue, I have several other bikes, from a 1975 Yamaha GT80 to a 2007 HD Road King and they run just fine with our gas.
- The engine oil is clean and at level. I haven't smelled it but I guess it's too late now. My plan is to change the oil as soon as the problem is solved.

Thank you all and have a great weekend!

Rafael.

By the way, when I look online all I find is carb kits for early KZ1000s, from the 1970s and 80s, but not for later ones, such as my 2000. Will earlier kits fit my bike?

Chances are you don't need a kit, just a cleaning. Something to look at.
Steve
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/598262-kz-...-will-it-live#672882

Wow awesome bike! Where is this crated bike your speak of? Id love to come get it! I have some friends that live in brazil so it would so fun to ride through your beautiful country.

I have to concur with MDZ1rider, A fuel flow restriction.

You already proved it is as I said initially. You probably have gummed up carbs issues. Suck it up and remove carb's. You have to do it.
It is not that hard and there are dozens here that do all the time.
I pulled mine off, striped them down, cleaned, reassembled and installed three times one afternoon after pulling my bike out of 3-4 years of mothballs. You just need to do it.

Barry2 wrote: I have to concur with MDZ1rider, A fuel flow restriction.

Sounds like a restriction in fuel getting to the carbs, when it sits the float bowls fill up so it runs for a while but because the fuel flow is too low, after a while it starts to be starved of fuel. Perhaps something like a clogged filter or petcock is causing it. The issue with the valves does not sound severe enough to cause this issue, although they obviously do need to be adjusted for long term reliability and peak performance.

I looked for the ad of that brand new KZ, but couldn't find ir. However, there are other low-mileage ones in the market.

www.moto.com.br/anunciosv2/anuncio/moto_...er01:server-anuncios

moto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-734540927-kawasaki-police-1000-_JM

moto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-745218799-m...anco-toda-em-dia-_JM

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sp.olx.com.br/sao-paulo-e-regiao/veiculo...olice&xtnp=1&xtcr=10

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The exchange rate is 1:4

You're right, but there are no parts in Brazil, so I'd rather spend $100 in advance just in case, than having to wait 2 weeks for a kit to arrive to finish the work, just because of a single bad gasket..

So, do the older kits fit my bike?

OK! The valves have been adjusted. I had to replace 3 valve lifter shims. On 2 valves the gap was too narrow, on 1 valve the gap was too wide. I assume we need to adjust the valves from time to time because parts wear out and the gaps get too wide. So I wonder how there were 2 valves with gaps below specs.

Unfortunately that didn't help the problem at all, the symptoms were still exactly the same. After running nicely for about 10 minutes, the engine started to lose power, until it couldn't even idle.

So I moved on to the carbs. I removed and disassembled them, the float heights and the float valve needles were ok, but there was A LOT of sludge and the pilot jet o'ríngs were damaged. I cleaned everything well, replaced the damaged o'rings, reassembled and reinstalled the carbs, and adjusted the pilot screws.

The engine ran smoothly like never before, but again after 10 minutes the RPM started to drop until the engine failed completely, exactly like before I started any work.

Note that the tests were done with no gas tank, no gas petcock and no gas filter, with a fresh gas bottle and a hose going straight to the carbs.

Now the only thing I can think of are the coils. I checked the temperature of the exhaust pipes with an infra red meter, and curiously, the #1 and #4 pipes (RH coil) were operating at 140 degrees, which was almost HALF of the temperature of the #2 and #3 pipes (LH coil), operating at 250 degrees. To my knowledge the cylinders operating at low temperatures are not working properly. The fact that these 2 cylinders are fed by the same coil, and that everything else has already been checked, indicates that the coil is the problem.

Any other suggestions before I buy a new coil? I usually buy from Partzilla. Can you recommend any other online suppliers?

You might look into Dyna coils and a Dyna S ignition. NO MORE PROBLEMS. Z1E has them.
Steve

I went through this once, and it turned out to be the magnetic pickup coil that would start acting up when it got hot. Cold it was fine, heat it up and it would start acting up. Fire the bike up, and as soon as it starts acting bad hit the magnetic pickup coil with some cold spray like contact cleaner, or the freeze mist that the TV repairman use, cool it down, and then fire it up again.