This bike belonged to my friend Randy Chabot, a WERA racer who died earlier this year. It's a set up race bike, but to my knowledge hasn't been run in many years. I finally got it running yesterday, and plan to enter it in some V7 races next year. I have some general questions. 1) what engine oil, spark plugs, air filter (stock?) do you guys recommend running? 2) The carbs have two bowl vents or drains on the front of them- continuous with the float bowl and they'll drain if the bike flips over or if the bowls over fill I suppose. Right now there's nothing hooked up to them- it's just two barbs on the front of the carbs that could spill gas out pretty easily in a mishap. Seems hazardous to me- where are they supposed to be connected to, or where do you guys recommend routing them? 3) While I'm at it, I'll check valve clearances. Anybody have a hookup on an electronic shop manual for this bike, or know of the clearance specs? If there are any other quirks that you guys know of for these bikes, I'd appreciate any information.
Is the engine all stock? I have had about 8 of these lol...Sorry to hear about the loss of Randy. Knowing its a Kawi and its sat, I would empty the tank/clean, pull the carbs and clean thoroughly, new fuel filter, and install new plugs like you mentioned. I think I was running NGK CR9EK. Make sure all the ram air tubes are connected as well. As for oil I think I was buying Motul or Mobil 1 back in 2012...but I changed it after every race weekend including filter. Filters were available at Walmart believe it or not. Not sure on the carb bowls. I only remember one drain screw per bowl. http://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/a/kaw/500b23aff8700223e478c44e/carburetor-parts I may have a manual laying around. I will look tonight. Oh and if you decide to sell it, contact me
Thanks for the info. I have no idea on the engine, whether it's stock or not lol. I've already cleaned the hell out of the carbs and emptied the tank, though I haven't looked in there to see if there's any rust. As for the float bowl vents, they're on the front side of the carbs, not the drains on the bowls themselves. There's the one fuel inlet (between 2 and 3) where the fuel pump connects to on the back of the carbs, then two similar barbs on the front side, one between 1 and 2, and the other between 3 and 4. Those are the ones that are not hooked up to anything- I'm thinking maybe they are supposed to go to the airbox, or possibly just a catch can? Fuel pump isn't priming when I turn on the bike, though it primes if I hook it up to the battery. Is this a common issue? Any idea which relay serves the fuel pump?
I believe the stock carb vents had hoses on them that were routed down near the lower rear motor mount, along with airbox drain and battery vent hose: std Japanese practice. Don't know if WERA requires a catch tank for the carb vents, pretty sure it would be mentioned in the rule book.
Sorry Lars I don't have any answers you're looking for, all I can say is that hearing you giving this project some love is just awesome. I really hope to see you and the bike out there on the grid next year. Nothing would make me more proud!
Score, thanks for the info! I'll consult the rulebook too. Thanks man, I'm looking forward to racing it. If things go according to plan (which they never do) and I can get this bike up and running before my trip to China in two weeks, I might be riding it at NCBIKE in October.
yep definately vent tubes... I had the same issue with one of the ZX6R's I had. I found another triger for the fuel pump with the key is turned on. Basically I found a switched power and connected it to fuel pump and it started working....I could never figure out what was the actual issue and I got tired of looking lol...
So you just found an already existing +12V source that supplies voltage any time the key is switched to "on", and hooked that up to the fuel pump? I know very little about fuel pumps and if they're supposed to receive a constant 12V or if priming is different from actual running, etc lol
I'm thinking it could be as simple as a bad relay, just not sure where to start looking for that. I guess I should just go ahead and buy a shop manual for this thing since I'm thinking I'll hang on to it for a long time
Got the fuel pump sorted out. I also ran hoses from the carb vents to the belly pan in case of a tipover, which is where I think the stock hoses went. Over course, when I replaced the inline fuel filter, I managed to break one of the fuel pickup tubes going into the tank-the tall one used for the "on" position. Not a big deal, since I will keep it on reserve, but now I need to plug that hole. It looks like an M10x1.0, I need to get something today after work and I forgot to bring the tube with me to compare against, so I'll take a gamble. I think I'll be able to test the bike this weekend at NCBIKE. Fingers crossed!
