Removing J bike carbs

Motorcycles, and Kawasakis in general, and EX250s specifically, are known for not always having all their carb settings in perfect order right out of the box. Here's how to take care of that problem.

Start by removing the fairings. Then, once the fairings are out of the way, you get to see all the different things that are still in your way to get at the carbs. There's a lot; no 10-minute carb removals on this bike, that's for sure.

So, what should you do next? Well, after you've done this once you may just want to put the fairings back on and sell the bike. If you're stubborn and/or foolhardy, continue reading.

First, you might want to remove the gas tank. You can wait until later, but it'll go easier on you if you do it now.

So, now the tank's out of the way, but you still can't really get the carbs out easily. Go to the right side, bring your #2 phillips, and remove the screw holding the throttle cable plate to the carb. Remove the cables from the carbs.

Now, grab a 10mm and an 8mm socket and, on the right side, remove the bolts holding the coolant tank to the bike and the bracket where the upper rear 5mm headed bolt mounts the fairing. Two 8mm headed bolts hold the coolant tank, and three 10mm headed bolts hold the brackets. On the left side, pop the idle speed screw out of the bracket, and remove the bolts holding the fairing bracket thing out of the way.

Oh yeah, they routed the clutch cable through a loop that is part of the coolant reservoir bottle. Good luck moving it out of the way enough to remove the 8mm headed bolt at the bracket. Bastards.

So, now you are getting closer to removing the carbs, but you aren't there yet. Remove the 3 phillips screws holding the battery box and its cover. Remove the battery.

Pull out the foam that the battery was sitting in, and remove the final two phillips screws holding the tray in and the battery tray.

Now, the rail that the gas tank mounts to is held down by four 10mm headed bolts. There is also a 5mm headed bolt on the right that attaches the airbox to that bracket. Remove them all, and move the bracket out of the way.

Down on the left side of the airbox behind the S tube is the other 5mm bolt that holds the airbox to the frame. Remove it.

Now, loosen the 3mm allen bolts that hold the airbox to the inlet side of the carbs, and push it as far back as you can. Just like the old airbox, it won't go far. You can remove the air injection tube on the top of the airbox for a couple more mm.

Now, just like the old bike, loosen the two clamps holding the intake boots to the carbs/head and pop the carbs back. Use a screwdriver and remove the left intake boot from the engine. This takes finesse. If you've done it on the old bike, you will notice that it's a bit harder to do it on the new bike. Why? Because you can't remove the carb to airbox boots for extra room. Bastards.

Now, remove the choke cable from the carbs and the vacuum hose from the left carb. Use some more finesse and pull the carbs out of the left side of the bike. If you've done this on the old bike, then you know what to do.

So, now you have the carbs in your hands. If you think the gas is new and good you can just drain the carbs into the tank. Otherwise, use a correct container. You need that 3mm allen key again.

Now you just need to remove the phillips screws holding the float bowls to the carb bodies and drill out the mixture screw protective caps, and you can then make all the adjustments you need to the carbs.

Amazingly, both floats were perfectly set to 17mm's. Mixture screws on this bike, for reference, were approximately set to 1.5 to 2 turns out for the left cylinder, and 2.5 to 3 turns out for the right cylinder. That just ain't right, as you all know. Set them both to 2.5 turns.

Put everything back together (much faster than taking it off) and set the petcock to prime. The bike fired right up after 3 seconds of cranking with the choke on full. Don't forget to switch back to the on position. Don't need a flooded engine in the near future.

So what was the outcome? A bike that fires up easily when ice cold, takes off better from a standing start, and idles better. And now the throttle actually feels like it is controlling the engine when you get past the 1/4 throttle position.

The bike now feels so much better than when it left the showroom.