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Weird carb. problem with 220 Bayou,Please help!!

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25K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  Chris Baker  
#1 ·
This one is driving me crazy!!! My 220 set all winter with fuel in the tank and carb.I know that was stupid but I did it.Now it will start up and idle just fine, purrs like a kitten,but give it some throttle and she bogs down and dies.I know this sounds like a dirty jet problem but I have given the carbs a good professional cleaning and made certain that the jets and all ports and holes were like new again.Put her back together and guess what? no difference at all.Everyone says it has to be dirty carb but I am 100% certain that the carb is clean and should be working good.My question is,what else if anything does anyone know of that may possibly be the cause of this?I have cleaned the tank,new plug and done all of the obvious stuff but nothing has made any difference at all.I am about ready to shoot my old 220.By the way ,it is a 99 model and until now has always ran and performed great and has been well taken care of.Any help is greatly appreciated.:mad:
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your reply and please let me know if that helps or not.I worked at it again last night and found something else that seemed very odd.I can start mine up and shake it side to side pretty hard and it will then take the throttle and go for a minute or two and then start to cut out and bog down, but you can shake it side to side again and it will pick up and go again.I am not a professional mechanic by no means but I have done a bit of repairs before on four wheelers and have never seen anything like this.
 
#4 ·
i just went through this crap with my ZX7. not trying to insult your intelligence here but MAKE SURE that it is getting gas. check the lines from the tank all the way to the carbs and everything in between. it doesn't take much gas to make it idle so it should idle without a problem. when you shake it side to side, it sloshes around what little gas there is in the carb and it sucks it up and wants to run. my problem happened to be that when the tank was put back on it pinched fuel lines underneath of it. after 3 carb cleanings i realized this. DOH!... hope this helps.

here's a link to your carb diagram on kawi's site
http://www.kawasaki.com/html/defaul...entURL=/site/VIVehicleInformation/VIChooseVehicle.asp?intCatalogID=2&intParts=1

hope it works
 
#8 ·
* I've checked the fuel lines -> OK.
* I've adjusted the float levels in carburetors (scuze my english, i am romanian).
* I've replaced the HT coils

NOTHING!! :(


The suspect part is: on neutral (on stand) i can run the engine without problems at any RPM (until the red zone).

If i want to ride ... hmmm, it start's to bog about 5000-6000rpm.

I will change the spark plugs next week.
 
#10 ·
Thanks

Guys first of all let me say thanks for your tips and advice in trying to help me with this sick carb. I have pretty much checked everything mentioned here with no luck at all in finding the problem.I may just have to go ahead and send it to the shop and hope that they can find it without replacing too many things.I am starting to think that maybe I just simply have a bad jet that is not going to clear up and needs to be replaced for it to run rite but if so it would be the first time I have ever had one to just go bad.I dont know what I will do next but when I do figure it out I will be sure to let everyone know what the culprit was.I am new to this site but very glad to have found it.You all seem like a great bunch of folks who are eager to help out another rider and now days its hard to find anyone who is not merely looking for ways to charge you money for something.I will be visiting the site often and will always try to help on anything that I am familiar with or have been thru before.I have a 220 bayou,a 300 bayou, and a 350 honda rancher so I have seen allot of problems over the years to fix and will jump in when I see something I am familiar with.
 
#12 ·
Hate to hear that

I really hate to hear that because I know around here its not very cheap at all to have valve work done.I finally gave up and gave in yesterday and took mine to the local kawasaki shop to let them try to find my problem and I am hoping that mine is not in the valves but for some reason I have suspected it in the back of my mind all along but did'nt really know how to rule it out.Once they let me know what the problem is I will surely post the results and maybe it will help someone else who may be having or going to have the same problem.I can tell you this though, I knew better than to let my machine set for as long as I did without cranking it up some,but you know how it is when you get real busy with work!!!!I cannot stress enough to others how important it is to not let your bike set for long periods without running it,mine was absolutely fine until it set up all winter with fuel in it.If it is the valves then maybe setting had nothing to do with it but I am sure it didnt help any.
 
#13 ·
This thread is kind of confusing but I certainly wouldn't clean a set of carburetors before checking valve clearances. See the article on my web site on VALVE CLEARANCES... http://www.wgcarbs.com/269767.html

Why would I bother to write an article on valve clearances? About 1/2 the carburetor problems my potential customers have seem to be valve clearances were never checked....
 
#14 ·
valves

Thanks for the advice but actually I did check valve clearance before doing anything at all to the carb.The valves were exactly where they are suppost to be(.003 intake-.005 exhaust) this is the only thing I knew to check as far as the condition of the valves,I figured that since they were still set properly that my problem had to be in the carb.So far the repair shop has still not found the problem either so I am still waiting and will post the diagnosis.
 
#15 ·
sounds like your in the same boat as i was with my customers bayou220. checked the valves a 100x,new gas,checked timing a 1000x,went full rich/full lean on the needle in the carb and went thru the carb to check for clogs etc. still had the "idle all day but wont rev syndrome".
and jim dont feel bad about not figureing it out. im a bike tech and i couldnt get this on figured out.
 
#16 ·
hope to know soon

I am almost glad to hear that someone else has at least had the exact same problem with the "Idle all day but not rev" syndrom,I have really started to wonder if something has either possesed my little 220 or aliens have taken it off and experimented on it without my knowing(LOL).Keep a check on this post and as soon as we get it figured out I will let you know what it is.At this point I dont know if it will be something super serious or something very minor that I have overlooked,but I am afraid its serious because I have pretty much tried everything that could be done without really tearing into it.
 
#17 ·
Jimbo what you didn't do was think about the source. if you have varnish and crap in the carb, where did it come from? The tank, take the valve tap assembly or petcock out of the tank and I'll bet you see some problems, rust varnish and dirt. Tank the tank off and clean it extremely well, start with clean fuel there and then go to the carb because you may end up doing the carb again after the tank is clean.
 
#18 ·
Hi Kawi,

Hello there, Actually the pet c valve,tank,vacuum,and such was one of the first things I did when it all started,there was some trash in the tank but not much and I did clean the tank and pet c valve very thouroughly.It was also after this was done that I quit cleaning jets and just rebuilt the carb with a kit.This is why it has got me so bumfuzzled,I have done everything that you can do to clean the entire fueling system and so far nothing I have done has changed the condition at all,its like I havent touched it.The reason I am also not yet convinced that it is valve problems is because when the bike is idleing you can slowly give it a little choke while revving the engine and it will pick up and rev but it spits,coughs,farts,and pops a little bit but will rev up, but if you take off the choke it will go back to idle but die if you try to rev it up without the choke.
 
#21 ·
Found It!!

Well fellas we found the problem,its the carb. body that has gotten bad somewhere pertaining to the pilot circuit.I dont have a clue as to how or why the actual body has gotten messed up but I know for a fact that this is the problem because we took a good carb. off of another 220 and put it on my bike and guess what,it ran just fine.Just to be sure about it we even took all the internal parts out of my carb. and put them in the other one and it still ran fine.As I said,I dont have a clue how the body has gotten bad because nothing has happened to mess it up but it is bad.I am now looking for another good body and then I will be back in business.The tech at the local kawasaki shop here said that it was very rare for the body to be bad but he has saw it happen before and for some reason every now and then it does happen.Thanks for all the help,tips,and advice that has been given and if anyone here wants to know more about this just holler at me.
 
#22 ·
Back in Business

I found a carb of off a 03 model 220 at a salvage yard here in alabama and just got it in yesterday.Cleaned it up,stuck it on there and now the little 220 runs great again.I hated to have to buy another carb but it sure beats the heck out of having to buy some of the other parts that could have been causing the same problems.Apparantley the old carb was never exactly rite even though it always ran good because with this carb the bike seems to be more responsive and have a little more power.I know there are allot of salvage yards for bikes and allot of people know about them but I was very pleased with these guys and you could not beleive at the volume of parts they carry for every kind of bike under the sun.If anyone ever has the old "cant afford a new one,but need it bad" syndrom holler at me for the # to this yard.
 
#23 ·
Bayou Carburetor problem

Hi , i had recently similar problem with my Bayou 185 1985
after clean up / rebuild , carburetion was alway poor, so i have recently buy a new bayou 250 2003 carb and fit in on my 185 , and now it is running great , dont be afraid tu use any bayou 220 185 or 250 carb bacause it almost the same.
 
#25 ·
92 bayou 220 carb

Hey Guys/Gals,

I have a 1992 kawasaki bayou 220 that i have just pulled out of my barn. It has been sitting for around 3 years. I took it to my school auto mechanics shop and got it where it would start. I can ride it and start it but it always gives me problems with trying to shut off or something. I have took the carb out and tweeked and twittled but cant get it right. I do not know how much the gas and air jets should be let out and need help. If you know about this carb please help!!
 
#26 ·
Replace it!

Hey man,just save yourself allot of time and headaches and replace the carb and you will be ready.I almost went crazy taking it on and off cleaning and rebuilding with no luck at all.I finally took the advice of my local dealer and replaced the carb with one out of a salvage yard that was good and just needed a good cleaning and problem was solved.apparantly for some reason those things will go bad with damage to the body of the carb itself and all the cleaning and rebuilding in the world wont help it.I know this is not what you want to hear because those carbs are not cheap but I have been there and done that already.Its well worth the money though because you cannot hardly wear those little 220's out if you keep them up.