1994 Katana 600 - Help getting her to run

[Boatguy3371]

Ok I was giving a 1994 Katana 600 last week by a friend that just wanted to get rid of it. It has sat in storage for about 2 years. I have drained and replaced all fluids, changed the plugs, next step is cleaning the carbs. Called the local shop and they for some reason or another don't like to work on bikes that are over 10 years old. So, i would greatly appreciate a step by step on cleaning the carbs if it is available. Other issue is that I have gotten her to fire up but, she will only sputter up to around 1500 rpm and then stall. Hopefully the carb clean will take care of that. Now to the point.lol. The choke will not engage when using the control lever, I have to manually pull the choke out on the carbs and hold it to get it to start, any suggestions on this? Also the choke control will go about half way around instead of all the way.

[Dagger969]

Well this i s a long process be careful. I cant tell you how many times I had to do this on my old ninja. Got to Autozone or something and pick up some carb spray and some carb dip. Remove the carbs. I started by cleaning the outside so no grease or anything got in but you can do what you want. On my carbs, I started by draining the fule bowls. Next remove the bowls. Once there, remove the pin that holds the float in there. Be careful because there is a little pin that is attache to the large float. You dont want to lose that. After that you can look aruond under the float and you will probably see a few screws in there. Some of the screws can simply be removed, but others you have to do systematically. There should be a man screw with a big spring around it. The best way that I have found to take that one out is to screw it all the way in and count the turns. That way when you go to put the screw back in you can screw it all the way in and then count the turns back out to where it originally was.
Once there you can remove the top of the carbs which should house the vacuum diaphragm and the main needle. Pull all of those out and then begin dipping all the metal screws. Do not dip anything that isnt metal. The dip will eat it. Shoot a bunch of carb cleaner through all of the passages and use some needles and compressed air to make sure they are all clean. after that remove all your screws from the dip and clean them up. Reinstall all of them and hopefully it will run.

One last thing. I like to keep all of the screws to each carb seperate so the screws from carb 1 go back into carb one. This may not be necessary but im anal. So when you dip the screws, you should probably only dip the scres and needles from carb 1, then 2 and so on. There may be some missing from this little write up but I tried to include it all.

Feel free to add if I forgot something.

[The CyberPoet]

Let's, what he forgot:

(A) The choke cable is broken. Replace it.

(B) Check the inside of the tank for rust. If found, follow these instructions:
CyberPoet's "How to deal with Rust in your motorcycle gas tank" at MotorcycleAnchor.com. Deal with the rust before dealing with the carbs or you will have no joy.

(C) Depending on the condition of the carbs, you may not have to "DIP" them, meaning that you can save yourself the hassles/joys of totally disassembling the floats and certain other parts (you'll still have to take off the covers on both sides and spray your little heart out with carb cleaner).

(D) If you find orange paste in the carbs, that's rust from the tank; deal with the rust in the tank and install a paper-element fuel filter in the fuel line.

(E) If you don't have access to a good compressed air source, you can clean out the smaller passages in the carbs by pushing a nylon bristle from a paint brush through them... the bristle is softer than the metal in the carb, so you can't damage them that way. Some will tell you to use wire; it's more effective (faster), but can do more damage.

(F) If the carbs really need dipping, Ford/Motorcraft makes a particularly good carb dip that is supposed to be plastic safe and came highly recommended by SpecialK (Keith) who knows of such things forwards and backwards. The product name is "Water Base Engine Shampoo ZC-7", comes in a 5-gallon bag-in-box container, part number 046809, spec #ESR-M14P3-A. Unfortunately, it's very pricey (in large part because of the size).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Boatguy3371]

Ok, I checked the tank and thankfully there is no rust. Done the "spray my little heart out" and she still will not stay running for more than a minute. I have a friend thats willing to help me take the carbs apart and clean them. thankfully he has done it several times to his own bikes. So i figured while I had them apart, i would go ahead and rebuild them as well. Can you recommend a good rebuild kit for the factory carbs and if so, where can i find it?

[UFO8MyCow]

In my opinion there is no reason to spend $80 on rebuild kits unless the float valves are bad. All you end up getting is a bunch of parts that never go bad anyway.

[The CyberPoet]

In my opinion there is no reason to spend $80 on rebuild kits unless the float valves are bad. All you end up getting is a bunch of parts that never go bad anyway.

I'm inclined to agree... wait till you have them disassembled and see if you actually need any parts -- which you can order piece-meal through your dealer or a number of online sources (such as ronayers.com or bikebandit.com), as well as from the original carburetor manufacturer cheaply.

If you are going to get a kit, spend the money on a good jet-kit instead and up your power

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[takirb]

inspect the choke movement on the carbs themselves also. the choke wasn't working right on mine. when i pushed on the choke lever, it was only actually moving 1 carb, the others weren't closing at all. it basically had me replacing plugs left and right, but that's 'cause they wouldn't close. it's possible yours may be the opposite causing it to die? something to check since you may have the carbs out anyways...

[illinoiskat]

I would turn the idle screw up on the left side to keep it running and put a can of carb cleaner in the tank and drive it for the day. Fill up with a fresh tank and see if I still need to rip it apart. Also, pull off the air filter on the bike and inspect it. Heck, I would probalby replace it if I could afford the 60 bucks. Mice have been known to live in the air filter.

[Boatguy3371]

shes up and running, just a few more tweaks and she should be purring

[ThAzKat]

Guess I missed out on this one too

you are off to a good start, no pun intended

getting a bike that hasn't run for a while is a nice project but you can run into many issues. You don't know why it hasn't been riden or if it was broke and they just parked it. Carb rebuild is always a good sugestion when you have a bike that has sat for a period of time and that also means carb sync too.

[Special K]

OK..........couldn't resist.............figured I'd chime in.............

Random comments:

Cyber: Thanks for the credit, but that product I've never used! IT cam eto us from Steve and Ryan............ I use the NAPA stuff, which is good, but reportedly nto wuite AS good as the Ford stuff...............

Rebuild kits are seldom if ever available for thesecarbs and if you do find them they seldom have all the parts you actually need!

Here's what you WILL need to (eventually) do:

Remove bolw and clean everythign you can see, bowls and guts. Use carb cleaner and if you don't have compressed air for gosh sakes go to Staples and get a small spray can of it! (NOTE: FOLLOW the directions carefully!)

Next, once that's ALL dry..........remove the jets and clean those out with same stuff. Make sure you can see light up thru each one! If not, repeat!

REPLACE ALL O-rings and rubber stopper plugs (I'll bet they're all bad!)

Next, clean out the float fuel channel with same stuff, (chemicals first, then air) I like to make sure these are actually spraying a fine mist of carb cleaner, then air them out.

Adjust your floats!! I think its 14.6mm, but check......

New Bowl gaskets are probably also in order. Suzuki dealer. If you are too far from one or can't get, PM me. I keep 12 around and will sell you 4.

TOP END:
Pull air diaphragms and clean. DO NOT allow carb cleaner to stay on rubber! Wipe off soon! Pull th needles and check to see tha each one slides and is set all the same. If you're REALLY A.R., pull the valve bodies and change out the O-ring at the bottom like I do! Helps a little.....

Check the choke mechanisms, Remove, clean, reinstall. I like to use just a dab of a light oil on those pistons.....

DEFINTELY new choke cable time! Way to go whoever caught that!

The Katanas NO.1 problem in my book: Chike cable go bad almost yearly!

Then, reassemble it all.

[ThAzKat]

RING RING!

[Special K]

RING RING!

You rang?!

[ThAzKat]

RING RING!

You rang?!

if I am wrong correct me please but you are really making up for lost time post whore

[The CyberPoet]

Cyber: Thanks for the credit, but that product I've never used! IT came to us from Steve and Ryan............ I use the NAPA stuff, which is good, but reportedly not quite AS good as the Ford stuff...

My bad...

DEFINTELY new choke cable time! Way to go whoever caught that!

Thanks

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet