occasional hard-starting when hot

[seventhstreet]

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue starting back up after just pulling off the road for a few minutes. My Kat becomes a pain even though she's plenty warm, eventually kicking over with just a bit of choke.

I've recently cleaned, rebuilt, synced my carbs, air screws at 2.5 turns, cleaned the air filter, plugs are only about 3000 miles deep and still look great, new coils about 6 months ago, and just a bunch of general cleaning and inspection of all electrical connections under the tank.

Now here is the question that may make a few of you chuckle, please forgive my lack of knowledge here but...

My main jets are 140's, Y-1 needles with 2 notches showing, stock replacement K&N filter. Could 2.5 turns not be enough at my altitude (sea level) causing me to run too rich? And would that cause hard-starting after running great on the highway for sometime?

Thanks a bunch in advance!

[Kreylyn]

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue starting back up after just pulling off the road for a few minutes. My Kat becomes a pain even though she's plenty warm, eventually kicking over with just a bit of choke.

I've recently cleaned, rebuilt, synced my carbs, air screws at 2.5 turns, cleaned the air filter, plugs are only about 3000 miles deep and still look great, new coils about 6 months ago, and just a bunch of general cleaning and inspection of all electrical connections under the tank.

Now here is the question that may make a few of you chuckle, please forgive my lack of knowledge here but...

My main jets are 140's, Y-1 needles with 2 notches showing, stock replacement K&N filter. Could 2.5 turns not be enough at my altitude (sea level) causing me to run too rich? And would that cause hard-starting after running great on the highway for sometime?

Thanks a bunch in advance!

I would ditch the K&N filter and use OEM equiv, replace the main jets with something not trying to be stage 3 on a street driven bike.


Krey

[maniac1886]

My first thought was leaky intake boots or vac lines but K&N filters are the devil in the Katana world. Pretty much any issue you have is going to stem from your air filter. Its hard to troubleshoot issues when K&N is installed because it has a laundry list of known detriments to Katanas.

[seventhstreet]

Wait so... 120 miles per tank isn't normal?

Haha, I believe the PO used her as a "for fun" machine only and he also didn't know much about bikes at all which explains the wonky set-up.

I'll order the new mains along with a filter and hopefully my MPGs will return as well. Thanks a bunch for the info!

[Kreylyn]

Wait so... 120 miles per tank isn't normal?

Haha, I believe the PO used her as a "for fun" machine only and he also didn't know much about bikes at all which explains the wonky set-up.

I'll order the new mains along with a filter and hopefully my MPGs will return as well. Thanks a bunch for the info!

Before you order the jets, make sure your getting them to match the needles. Pretty sure you have a dynojet kit installed. OEM jets won't work with those needles. You will need to order DJ jets.


Krey

[seventhstreet]

Copy that, I found the DJ kit for my year for a good price on amazon, I'll have a nice range of sizes to play with along with a few spares.

Thanks again for steering me in the right direction!