I bought a 98 zx9r a few months ago that was cosmetically wrecked. It has about 25k miles on it and it started acting up whenever I would just cruise at any RPM. It started having trouble starting as well , so i decided to buy a carb tuner and see if i could fix it. When I got down to taking the air box off i noticed how filthy it was in there and the carbs as well, so i decided to take them out too and clean them instead. That is the point where im at right now. Ive got them out, disassembled and cleaned . Im not mechanic but i do ahve some skills, but ive got a stupid question(feel free to laugh)..

1.How do the float bowls fill back up once repalced and ready to start?

2.What are some common problems(and solutions) associated with the reassembly and starting after cleaning the carbs?

 

LOL..... LOL..... J/K

The float is attached to a metering needle that allows fuel into the float bowl until the bowl fills up with enough gas to "push" the needle into the fuel inlet hole, effectively "plugging the hole", and stopping fuel flow until the engine consumes enough fuel to drop the level of gas inside the bowl(s) which opens up the fuel inlet hole again allowing more gas in.

Now, the problem(s) you may have is that on a lot of newer bikes, the petcock valve on the gas tank may not have a "prime" function. Without going into too much detail, the petcock valve will NOT allow any fuel out of the gas tank (even on the 'on' position) unless there is engine vacuum present on the petcock's vacuum port. The "prime" function bypasses the petcock's diaphragm fuel shutoff, allowing fuel to flow freely without engine vacuum. So, if you don't have "prime" on your petcock, you're best off manually filling up the fuel bowls via, an auxiliary gas tank. (An old lawnmower gas tank will work fine.) If you by chance have a vacuum gun, (like the ones used to bleed brakes, or to measure vacuum) you could create a vacuum on the petcock diaphragm, allowing the gas to free flow. Having said all of this, it's not really necessary to go through all that hassle, but if you don't, it will take a lot of engine cranking to get the fuel into the bowls.

 

ok, so i finished cleaning the carbs got them reassembled and put back in my bike just a few minutes ago. Put the key in cranked it for a few seconds... and got nothing. cranked it for a few more seconds and all the sudden varrroooommmm, i heard the best idle this bike has ever had. Im very pleased with myself in handling such a large task that i knew very little about. This is just a little pat on my back from myself, but i had to let someone know because my wife doesnt care, she just wants to know when ill be out of the garage.thanks for the advice markmeinteil

 

Congrats on the learning curve and success

 

Glad you got it going again. It wasn't so bad huh?