I finally got around to replacing my OE idle mix screw with one from another brand of bike that had a longer head on it. The replacement screw's taper at the pointed end was just a teeny bit fatter, so I spent some time with it in my drill trying to whittle it down some, but I'm not sure I accomplished much..

I finally just re-installed everything - hit the Start button and - it started very quickly and idled at least as good as it did before the swap-maybe even better!


Taking a look at another carb I have here, the idle screw from that one seems to be a perfect match to the taper of the Kawasaki screw. Hmm.

New ones from Ron Ayers are something like $13. No minimum charges to deal with and no concerns about a heavier aftermarket screw wiggling itself out if it's turned out a little too far. (I'm only 2 turns out)

The bottom screw in the photo is the original Kawasaki part, and the one above it is the one out of the spare carb mentioned above. (It's not the one in the carb now)





The red arrow in the second photo shows the exposed screw driver slot now in the open.

I have more than two month wait before my TM36-68 arrives. If I get energetic I will pull the CV carb again and file down the carb tube boss that surrounds the screw until it's closer to the start of the threaded section to expose more of the ilde mix screw's head and probably epoxy a piece of rod into the screw driver slot to make a T screw out of it.

Until then I can get by using a section of fuel line with a safety poked thru the center on one end to twist my new idle mix screw.