[05RedKat600]

Sync your carbs....or you have a vacuum leak. Out of sync carbs is essentially a vacuum leak. Or the throttle cable is out of adjustment. Turn your handlebars, does the idle change? If so, the cables are too tight. Also, did you lube the throttle tube while you had it apart and the mechanism inside the right hand side switch pod? If not, you should do that. Might be sticking.

[sonosam]

Carbs are synced, did a leak test with propane and found nothing, turning the bars does not change idle, tried to lube the cable but cannot get the lube down the length of the tube. Any clever ideas to accomplish this?

[Wild-Bill]

Cut the corner off a plastic sandwich bag, slip the end of the cable in through the hole and tape the bag tight around the cable housing to form a funnel. pour a little motor oil in the bag and hang it up until the oil starts to come out at the other end of the cable.

[Kreylyn]

What you describe isn't the cables, but... the simple check is to take the tank off, rev it up with the throttle, then let it "snap" closed. Then immediately press down on the throttle plate to see if you can push it further closed against the idle stop. If that doesn't do anything for ya, then it isn't the throttle cables.

The most likely cuase of a hanging idle like that is lean pilot circuit. Either turn out the a/f screws more to fix, or if that doesn't make a change then the circuit needs cleaned.

Krey

[sonosam]

So, Krey, 2.5 turns out isn't enough is what you are saying? Should I turn it until it stops hanging or is there another recommended ratio that I should be using?

[05RedKat600]

So, Krey, 2.5 turns out isn't enough is what you are saying? Should I turn it until it stops hanging or is there another recommended ratio that I should be using?

What he's saying is that if you have no vacuum leaks, you have vacuum synced the carbs, AND the screws are at 2.5 turns out, your carbs are still dirty.

You running stock exhaust?

[Wild-Bill]

Two possible sources for an air leak that are really hard to find with propane/starting fluid/WD-40 or whatever:
The o-rings between the rubber boots and the head - usually leak worse when the engine's warm.
The intake boots between the carbs and the airbox - these should be glued to the airbox and frequently aren't fully seated onto the carbs if you try to install the airbox after the carbs are already on the engine.

[arsenic]

99.9% of the responses on running issues are going to be "clean the carbs". Why? Because it is definately the highest % cause of running issues. The problem comes in when it's not the carbs. Some people will give other options, alot of people simply can't let the "it's the carbs" issue go. This might be from personal experiance (thought it was right, turned out wasn't, so it's still the most likely cause for them) or simply they don't have another answer (don't know or don't understand how something else could be the issue).

I've got and dealt with alot of Katanas. Every day I learn something new. I find new issues or causes for issues I never knew of thought about before. Due to this I have a series of steps I take in my garage to reduce "hunting" for issues and just rule them out right off the bat.

I will pretty much pull a set of carbs, clean them fully, do a valve job, chang the oil, inspect all the rubber and orings, auto change some orings (like the engine boot orings) etc... on any kat that comes into my pesonal garage. That process generally has greatly reduced my frustration of trying to find a specific "problem" by just making everything "right" to start with. While each step has it's own very specific things to look for, I've found that many times new to me bikes show up with many more than just 1 or 2 issues. And sometimes they contribute to each other making it harder to really narrow down "just one".

Krey

What he's saying is that if you have no vacuum leaks, you have vacuum synced the carbs, AND the screws are at 2.5 turns out, your carbs are still dirty.

You running stock exhaust?

[05RedKat600]

Thought....are all of your airbox boots still firmly on the carbs? I know those can be a pain when doing the cables. Also, check to be sure all of your vacuum caps are still installed.

[arsenic]

They all have clips on them.

Thought....are all of your airbox boots still firmly on the carbs? I know those can be a pain when doing the cables. Also, check to be sure all of your vacuum caps are still installed.

[05RedKat600]

They all have clips on them.

Mine do too. Still managed to knock one off once. Luckily for me it fell down by the alternator and I was able to fish it out!

[Wild-Bill]

Or they did the last time you saw the carbs... Were you there for the vacuum sync?

[arsenic]

Or they did the last time you saw the carbs... Were you there for the vacuum sync?

Sure wasn't. They are new also because the old ones where dry rotted and I knew they cause problem... like this.

[sonosam]

The caps are all back with the clips. I will recheck for vac leaks either this afternoon or tomorrow. The carbs haven't been apart (other than number 3 because I need to reseat the bowl gasket) since Arsenic cleaned them. I think vacuum leak here makes much more sense. Throttle response is crisp like it should be with the exception of coming down from high rpms.

[sonosam]

Got everything finished. FINALLY! Got some O-rings for the engine side of the intake boots to seal up any possible vacuum leaks and that seems to have done the trick (I haven't gotten it up to highway speeds or had it running for longer than 30mins yet). Buttoned it all back up in preparation for a test ride, rolled it down the driveway, put it in gear, let out the clutch lever and....NOTHING. It was like being in neutral. Figured I must've messed with the clutch cable at some point and forgot to mark it so that I would adjust it when I was done.

Adjusted the clutch cable and everything works. I finally have the bike in rideable condition. It has only been 4 months since I started, but hey I really only have a couple weekends of actual work into it. Getting it inspected today so that I can use it as my DD agian. Thanks to everyone who helped me out.