well ive been frantically doing research to find out why my bike runs like crap (92ex500, theres a post in here with all the problems i found today), so i was checking out bikebandit.com, and I see that my 130 main jet is listed as an option and Off road use only?? any ideas whats up with that?

 

It may be a richer jet than factory, meaning not so "emissions friendly", hence, offroad use only. Also, if you're running a richer jet without doing any other mods to flow more air, then that may explain why your bike doesn't run so good.

 

well i just got my clymer manual and it says that 130 is the stock jet... so im lost again, haha, the book didnt really give me any insight on setting the valve clearance, any help?

 

I'm sorry for your current woes, but I hope anyone considering F*&king up their bike right now reads your thread.

So many of us motorcycle riders buy a perfectly-running stock machine, then eventually despise the bike for "lacking character" (i.e. being too perfect) so we have to screw it up. (Kinda reminds me of the story of Adam, Eve and the Apple.) After screwing it up and being too proud to return it to harmonious stock settings, we sell this monument to our own folly and shame. Some even lie to cover up their shame by saying, "I outgrew it."/"I needed something with more power." etc)

#132 is the stock MAIN jet, but who knows what else this previous owner/backwoods, inbred hamfisted dufus has done? If you don't have access to the stock main jets and [ashamed] previous owner, here are your two courses of action that are most likely to result in a running bike:

~take the bike into a Kawasaki dealership and ask them to restore the stock carb settings completely. (You can probably deflect their amusement by saying the previous owner was an idiot, and you certainly wouldn't be lying to them.)

~get the factory Service Manual and follow the instructions closely, including an inspection of the airbox (some dummies like to drill holes in their airbox to get more flow, but I've seen holes on the wrong side of the air cleaner element (allowing UNFILTERED air into the carb throats); the pilot screw backed out to the stock settings (plus about 1/3 to 1/2 a turn); and any other evidence of gorilla-tampering.

The Factory Service Manual and Supplement will tell you everything you need to know to adjust the valves. I started a free online how-to, (http://www.calamarichris.com/ex500/valveadj1.htm) but haven't had time to finish it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
-Chris in C'bad

 

Chris, I knew it was only a matter of time before you would stop by and lay down the law! lol

Very helpful post BTW.

 

CC knows how to regulate. lol

 

Dang Chris, about time you put in your .10 worth!

 

Sorry for getting dogmatic, but this is one of my buttons and pet-peeves. Here are three empirical, personal observations that tell me some of us are not applying reason when making modifications to jetting & intake:

~Whenever I'm riding my bicycle I can always (not sometimes, not usually, but always) tell when a passing bike has been re-jetted. The exhaust stinks to high-heaven! And now as a result, California (and also the Federal Government) are considering mandatory periodic smog test for motorcycles. Don't blame the tree-huggers. Don't blame the People's Republic of Kalifornia. Blame the dummies whose answer to every unasked question is "ya gotta rejet these things for more horsepowah."

~I've helped with two rebuilds that were arguably the result of carbon-buildup due to over-rich jetting. Sure a richer bike runs cooler, but it also generates more carbon (unburnt fuel) that will build up on your piston crown, in your valve seats (leaving pits that will eventually kill your compression.)

~When I used to ride Harleys I had the fastest Sportster around. Everyone in Pueblo, Colorado accused me of putting an "883" tank and colors on my "1200" because my stock 883 Sportster (aka "bitchbike") was humiliating all these big-bore 13XX-cc engines with straight pipes, stage-III jet kits and even polished intake tracts. I later learned that the reason I was beating them all was because fuel intake tracts rely on some turbulence to more completely atomize the fuel and the large globs of unatomized fuel in their chambers weren't burning as efficiently as they did for a stock machine.
All these poor dummies who spent all this money getting their intakes honed and polished were removing this turbulence! Then insisting that their bikes had more power! THEN insisting that I was lying about my bike being an 883!

Those who would trade a little bit of fuel efficiency and dirtier exhaust for a little bit of horsepower, deserve neither. --Ben Franklin

If you want a faster bike, get a 600 or a literbike, (and then bring it to Palomar so I can humiliate you with my stock 500.)
-Chris in Carlsbad, CA

 

Ok, I'm gonna regret this, but I call BS on the Franklin quote

 

Okay, so I paraphrased a little:

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 (More quotations on: [Freedom])