Trying to get my 87 running...

[Grafix]

Hello everyone

I picked up an 87 last September for a whole $450. It had 42k on the clock and the plastics were a little rough and hadn't been on the road for 4 years.

The first thing I noticed, parts are a nightmare to get. We've had the bike running but would complete die after about a mile down the road.

The first thing I did was pull the spark plugs and oil the cylinders with marvel mystery oil, and turned the pistons by hand. Cleaned the airbox which mice had started to call home, but did not chew any of the wiring harness, thank god. We also checked fuses ect...

Eventually we checked the gas tank with a scope, it was a little rough but I had seen worse. We had it running but it was rough and died. We found the fuel pump had died, my dad was able to rebuild it and it works fine. After pulling the pump the hose end dry rotted and broke, I just ordered a new one today.

My dad pulled the carbs 3 separate times, could not find a single vacuum leak, checked the floats and gave them a good cleaning. Each time the bike would idle fine but anytime gas was applied it would need to be over half choked to run halfway decent. On the 3rd time out the throttle cable mount on the carbs snapped. No matter how many adjustments we could never get them dialed in. I ordered a new set of carbs today off of a 02 voyager.

I assume it needs a carb replacement of rebuild based solely on the fact I found these were a set of 86 carbs due to no cruise control on them, but there is a plug on the harness for one. That tells me it someone might have messed something up on the carbs or didn't know what they were doing.


We eventually had to give up on the bike for the season in October of last year. When I was able to take it for a ride I would make it about 3/4 of a mile the bike would fall flat on its face and die, I would lose all power and the bike would sound like it was snorting.

If these carbs and hose don't fix the issue do you seasoned guys have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[cushman eagle]

It sounds to me like you do not have adequate gas flow to the carbs,that is the first thing I would check.Did you check the fuel flow to the fuel pump,when you had it off?
The fuel pump is near the bottom of the tank,and unless the tank was near empty,the flow should have been pretty good.
Check that out and give us the results

[Grafix]

It sounds to me like you do not have adequate gas flow to the carbs,that is the first thing I would check.Did you check the fuel flow to the fuel pump,when you had it off?
The fuel pump is near the bottom of the tank,and unless the tank was near empty,the flow should have been pretty good.
Check that out and give us the results

Thanks for the reply. The fuel tank got restricted at one point, we cleaned it and looks good now. We had to use a gas line from the tank because the modeled one dry rotted, I ordered one. We think it might be impeding the flow. Fuel filter looks good too...

I will keep you all updated, I really just wanna ride this thing.

[Barry]

Are you running it will the air box & air filter installed? Without them, the carbs definitely don't work correctly. Also, do you have the updated ignition module on top of the air box? Part number ends in 1248. The original ignition had too much timing advance when starting. Are you aware of the problems the 86-87's had with breaking starter chains? Kawasaki changed the design and made many repairs for the original owners.

[Grafix]

Are you running it will the air box & air filter installed? Without them, the carbs definitely don't work correctly. Also, do you have the updated ignition module on top of the air box? Part number ends in 1248. The original ignition had too much timing advance when starting. Are you aware of the problems the 86-87's had with breaking starter chains? Kawasaki changed the design and made many repairs for the original owners.

The ignition box ends in a 1179. The rest of the numbers are hard to see, I don't think the starter chain is broken because it will idle and start just dies after a while. I just ordered a new OEM air filter.

[Nails]

You might want to search this site for "1179".

[Barry]

Another idea. Is your gas tank vented? Try cracking the gas cap and see if the problem goes away.