Carberators kawasaki 1100 A3

I have bought a kwak trike that has K&N filters on.The trike triers to
bog down when I open the throttle wide, some one told me to change the
main jets 25% up.Also what position do I put the needle in.

 

Didn't we discuss this last year?

You didn't say whether you had a 4-into-1 exhaust, but most people who
install K&N separate filters do have an aftermarket pipe. Installing
that stuff may make the machine look racy, but it will lose most of
its low RPM tractability and it will have a big flat spot in the
midrange
from 5000 to 7000 RPM.

And the engine will go from flat spot to lean surging and back and it
can be annoying to try to ride in a lower gear because of the surging
and then the engine will be boggy in the next higher gear.

I recommend reinstalling the stock airbox, including the 14073 air
inlet hose, which is a critical part of the air induction system.

The whole airbox is what is called a "Helmholz Resonator". Air inside
that big ugly plastic box resonates like the air inside an acoustic
guitar. The pulses of air inside the box work with the valve timing to
stop the reverse flow of air through the carbs that occurs during the
valve overlap period.

Resonators like that work best on motorcycles with 4-into-1 exhaust
systems around 5000 to 7000 RPM.

The frequency of the resonation is related to the length of the air
duct leading into the box itself. If you don't have the duct on there,
the frequency changes and the engine might lean surge at around 6000
RPM.

It's probably not the main jets. Constant vacuum carburetors will not
raise the vacuum slides high enough for the carburetor to go on the
main jets until the motorcycle is running on the highway at high
speed.

Your carburetors have a smallish # 37.5 pilot jet. The idle mixtures
screws may already be turned 2.5 turns out from closed. If you have to
turn them 3.0 to 3.5 turns out, you need larger pilot jets, maybe
about # 42.5. Those jets might require less than 1/2 a turn out from
closed.

The larger jets will supply more fuel to the transition ports and that
will help your engine accelerate from low RPM when you whack the
throttle open.

If you haven't already drilled out the 92066 plugs on top of the
carbs, go ahead and do that. I have posted the procedure for drilling
out the plugs many time, and I have also posted the procedure for
cleaning out the idle mixture circuits and adjusting the screws many
times.

Just google for "EPA anti-tamper plugs" and "transition ports" in this
group and you will find a ton of posts.

That's about right, for an engine with K&N separate filters and a 4-
into-1 exhaust. If your stock main jets are
# 112.5, and you go to # 125 mains, the area of the hole in the jet
will be increased by 25%.

If you have something other than # 112.5 mains, work out the area
formula ( pi times radius squared) to get the area of the jet you
have, and add 25% to that to get the jet you want.

The Mikuni and Keihin jetting system is based upon a
# 100 main jet having an orifice hole that is 1.00 millimeters in
diameter.

But main jets are expensive when you start buying them four at a time.
They would cost about $ 5.00 USD each, and, if you make a mistake,
you're stuck with useless brass that you will probably wind up giving
away.

I got most of my brass from people who believed those do-it-yourself
tuning manuals that said you had to start out by selecting a main jet
for wide open throttle riding on a race track so they wouldn't
overheat their engines.

The simple truth is that we don't ride with wide open throttle very
often, we ride with about 1/4 throttle on two-wheeled motorcycles. You
might ride with half throttle on the highway with your heavier trike,
so you would still be getting 75% of the fuel needed from the idle
jets.

Leave the clip in the 2nd slot from the top. Putzing around with the
needle clip is over-rated. Placing the clip in a lower slot usually
just allows far too much fuel for the amount of airflow if the engine
isn't running at high RPM,
like 7000 to 8000 RPM for an engine like yours.

Be very careful with that thing. Trikes are built for slow cruising,
or carrying a lot of weight. Slow down for the turns. The rear end has
so much weight, it's going to try to pass the front when you get into
trouble on the highway.

If I owned a 3-wheeled vehicle, it would have two wheels up front, and
one in the rear like an old Morgan Trike.

 

I have ridden trikes and driven three wheelers with two wheels up front
,and even the builder will tell you you don't ever push them too hard or
you will lose control quickly and never get them back under control you
have to be careful with them ,and when it comes to motorcycle trikes
they will stick to the turns better than most cars and are hell of alot
better going in the rain than most bikes .

 

Drove one of them, decades ago. Fantastic machine.

 

On Apr 10, 5:41�pm, "Dave H."

Balancing a three wheeler like a dirt tracker?

Was a Morgan RWD or FWD? I probably threw out the late 1980's
motorcycle magazine that had an article about several three-wheelers,
and I seem to recall a TriKing. There was something that had a Citroen
engine in it in that article.

Almost anything imaginable has been cobbled into a trike or a three
wheeler.

VW and Corvair engines and modified VW bug chassis pans have been
spliced to motorcycle frames, placing the heaviest weight in the
vehicle in the worst possible location, i.e., behind the driver.

Trike riders are fond of pointing out that their machine can carry
four or more passengers. That aggravates the rear weight bias.

Three wheelers can have the engine directly between the front wheels,
if a transversely mounted engine of automotive origin is used.

The weight of the driver and passenger can balance the rather heavy
engine which must weigh around 300 pounds, if it came from a car.

Trying to use a motorcycle engine in a front wheel drive configuration
would result in the weight being carried even further forward,
although the engine itself might weigh less than 200 pounds.

The Renault Alliance had a smaller displacement I-4 engine, maybe
around 1500cc's or less, and it was mounted to a nice subframe that
bolted to the unibody chassis.

This subframe became the basis for a Sports Car Club of America sports
racing car class called "Sport Renault".

Two subframes were used in the car. It had rear wheel drive using the
front wheel drive subframe with the two steering uprights tied
together by a rod so they couldn't steer.

The same subframe was used for the front suspension, without the
engine of course.

As Renault parts became harder to acquire, Sport renault owners agreed
to use Ford engines made in England.

I haven't investigated what more recent cars have subframes and front
wheel drive engines, but something like that would be ideal for a
hobbyist who was some reason enamored with the mysterious allure of
three wheels.

The motorcyclist would want to use a motorcycle engine, and perhaps be
out in the sun and wind. Somebody who lives where it rains a lot might
want weather protection and consider bodywork and a convertible top.

That sort of person might be better off with a Mazda Miata. It would
cost less and the sporty type individual could go on Miata runs with
like minded individuals, just like MG owners did in the 1950's...

Another design alternative is to take an entire motorcycle and lop off
the front end and splice it to something that looks like an open
wheeled GP car.

Such contraptions are extremely long. One of the weirdest GP car/
motorcycle contraptions I ever saw
used motorcycle wheels for steering. The builder made structures that
supported the front axles on both sides and pivoted those structures ,
instead of using kingpins, tapered axles, and automotive hubs and
wheels.

But the most utterly bizaare device in the car was
*cable steering*. The builder wrapped a steel cable many times around
a large diameter tube attached to the steering wheel and connected the
ends of the cable to the weird pivoting frames holding the front
axles.

The best approach to a single passenger three wheeler using a
motorcycle engine that I ever read about was called the "Badsey
Bullet."

It wasn't too long, it used a Yamaha or Suzuki engine and was rear
wheel drive. The driver sat beside the engine, which was separated
from him by a firewall, of course.

This configuration centralized the weight of driver and engine, but
naturally limited the vehicle to one passenger.

Motojournalists claimed that Jaguar's small 2.4 and 3.4 liter sedans
were less stable because of the difference between a wider front track
and a substantially narrower rear track.

That difference *may* have had something to do with my backwards off-
road excursion on a rainy night. Or it might have had something to do
with bald tires.

Anyway, Jaguar's next offering in a small sedan had a wider rear track
for more stability.

I'm sure that we can learn *something* from every racing milieu that
may be applicable to engineering vehicles for the street. And drag
racing is one of those hobbyist sports that evolves because of various
mishaps that occurred during the short, furious drag races.

But it would be nice to see a three-wheeler that was designed for
highway use by professional engineers
and mass produced for the public.

Otherwise, we might as well buy small sportscars.

But the public is going to abuse any sporty vehicle they get their
hands on, whether it's a motorcycle, ATV, jet ski, snowmobile or
whatever.

Some crazy Brits actually installed 150+ horsepower Yamaha 500cc GP
engines into quads and raced them around on an airport racetrack. That
was in Bike magazine about 12 years ago...