83 KZ 650 Died...Please Help

Hello, I was riding my Kawasaki KZ 650 the other day, and the engine
just quit running. I tried to re-start it, but no luck. When I turn
on the key, everything lights up, but the starter does not engage.
I even tried push starting the darn thing, and again, it would turn
over, but immediately shut off.
Just before it crapped out, I heard a chug chug chug sound, like
it was out of gas...this wasn’t the case however, because I had just
filled the tank.

Any help is good help

MooseVegas

 

Riders describing symptoms often mislead the responders trying to help,
as we misunderstand the description. I suppose by "the starter does not
engage" you mean that the starter doesn't CRANK the engine, you don't
hear it going "nnngh-nnngh-nnngh"...

Could be loose battery cables, dead battery, loose cables on the
starter solenoid, kill switch in the OFF position, loose control wiring
to the solenoid, dirty contacts on the starter button, bad contacts in
the ignition switch, dirty contacts on the side stand switch...

I understand that what you're saying is that the engine started
momentarily and actually ran, then it quit?

This would happen if the battery was really old and sulfated and was
just taking a "surface charge". Lead sulfate forms on the plates and
the electrolyte can't get down into the spongy lead inside the lead
grid of the plates and the battery will charge up to 13.2 volts , the
electrolyte will have the correct specific gravity, but the battery
will have very little power.

Another possibility is a loose wire somewhere in the ignition circuit
that supplies power to the ignition coils.

When an engine runs out of gas, it doesn't "chug", it "wheezes" like it
has asthma. It will start running on three cylinders, then two
cylinders, then one, then none...

The petcock on your gas tank is probably an automatic type. It probably
has a vacuum hose that goes to the carburetor and vacuum opens a little
valve in the back of the petcock to allow fuel to flow through the ON
or RES port of the petcock...

But, there is probably also a PRI position on your petcock. This allows
fuel to flow even when you have a dead battery and the float bowls of
your carburetor are dry from letting the motorbike set unridden for a
long time.

So, if you want to try push starting the motorbike with the petcock
lever in PRI, that might help. It won't fix any dead battery problem or
loose wiring problem, but it will eliminate the possibility that you're
not getting any gas to the carburetors. If this helps, be sure to put
the petcock lever back to the ON position when you quit fooling around
with the
motorbike. if you leave the petcock lever in the PRI position, the
carburetors might flood and gasoline might even run down the intake
tract into the crankcase, diluting your oil with gasoline. And that's
BAD!

 

I seem to be following Krusty around this page today.

My recent postings have been because I was trying to fire up an engine
on 100% diesel delivered by my wife after running out of fuel near
home.

Your symptoms are reminiscent of how my bike might have sounded on,
say, a 70% diesel/petrol ratio after refuelling a partially empty tank.

I know that normal, intelligent people cannot make this sort of
mistake, but its worth considering!!

 

Quite correct. Back in 1990 I bought a used S-10 pickup. After having
owned it a couple of months my dad used it and filled it for me at the
local grain elevator/farm supply store that also delivered fuel to the
farm and had a gas pump. It was around Christmas so I went out the next
morning to start it as I had some errands to run. I couldn't get it
started and running for love or money.

After about a half hour of trying to get it going and finally getting it
to run after a fashion, dear dad told me he had refueled it. Well, I
sputtered and coughed my way over there and learned the rest of the story.
It seems the guy that normally took care of the gas pumps was on vacation
so the job fell to one of the drunks on duty (seriously). He started
filling the tank and noticed after about 100 gallons in a 300 gallon tank
that he was pumping diesel. So, rather than tell anyone, he merely
stopped pumping and continued with unleaded.

They were quite nervous to learn I was having problems and offered to pay
for any repairs. I think that turned out to be a hidden blessing as the
unburned diesel ran into the crankcase and cleaned that engine out so well
that I think I got an extra 100,000 miles out of it.

Right now the truck is sitting nearly 15 years later with 210,000 miles on
the clock, but has no low end power even though I rebuilt the carb last
week. I plan to do a compression test, but I'm not optimistic. The rest
of the truck is nearly shot so I may just have to salvage it. In all
those miles it never left me stranded.

To the OP, look for bad gas. Do you have an inline filter? Make sure
it's not plugged. If there is no filter then you may need to make sure
the screen in the tank isn't plugged (if it's still there) or that crud
hasn't gotten into your carbs and plugged them. It's frustrating. At
least the last time I had this happen on my 650 I had really run out of
gas, but the idiot light didn't tell the idiot who wasn't using the trip
odometer as he does now.

- Nate >>

 

About the only thing I can think of that might match all these
symptoms would be a flat battery that was too far discharged
to drive the ignition. You might as well start by checking
the battery fluid levels, charging the battery and checking
the battery wires, then see if the starting problem gets any
better.