Kawasaki zephyr 550

[Tonymontana]

Hi this is my first attempt at a post. Here goes, I have a 91 zephyr which I have tried to turn into a cafe racer. All is great apart from the performance of the bike. I have removed the stock air box and filter and fitted the cone type filters. The bike starts and runs but sometimes runs like it's getting too much air or fuel. I have tried the basics like taping the cones to stop to much air. I am a bit stuck to be honest. Do I have to change the jets in the carbs? If so, what size jets? Has anyone tried and succeeded.
Thx in advance
Tony

[piazza]

How 'bout leave it as is, and enjoy the experience of a bike that runs normally. If it did indeed run to start with

[Nobby the Bastard]

Put it back to how it was supposed to be.
See if it works.
When it runs properly because Kawasaki spent millions developing that engine/intake combination, leave it be unless you want to pay to put it on a dyno
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Grubscrew]

Yep, definitely put it back as to how it was.
I have spent many a week or month trying to get a modified bike to run right.
It hardly ever works.
You’ll probably only get another second off your acceleration, and less mpg.......not worth massive of time wasted getting there.
Those bikes ran well as they were, get a bigger bike if it is better speed/ acceleration you are after.
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FJR1300/CBR1000F

[redeem ouzzer]

After market pod kits usually come with needles and springs, the specification of which has been arrived at after hundreds of dyno runs. You are not going to be able to set it up fannying around in your shed unless you have the patience of job and a full set of all available springs, tubes, needles and jets for that range of carbs, even then sometimes the required needles and springs are custom made. Either source a suitable jet kit (if it exists) or bang the air box back on.
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Be a REAL MAN!

[stinkwheel]

Kawasaki, famous for being well ahead of the game in the late 80's early 90's by producing accoustically tuned airboxes which could flow 110% or more of the engine capacity in air on each revolution.

Normally with retro-fitting pod filters, you'd fit a stage 3 dynojet kit and it would run. But not as well as it would with the stock airbox.

However, they don't make stage 3 kits for 550 zephyrs. So you'd be looking at lots of dyno time and lots of filddling to find a needle, jet, emulsion tube and spring combination that works.

So put the damned airbox back on.

And don't you dare angle-grind anything off the frame. If you're not a frame builder and you're not working to a design, it's not customising, it's vandalising.

And you need a front mudguard.

And a back one, this is the UK, not California ffs! It rains.

This short informative post was brought to you by a grumpy old git who is heartily fed up of seeing people ruin perfectly good motorcycles by grinding off the subframe, ditching the airbox and ripping the mudguards off. In a whole world of possabilities for customising a motorcycle, why are they ALL done the same.

I don't know... If you want to do a tasty custom zephyr, why not get a monoshock conversion done and an Eddie Lawson paint job or something?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Bhud]

This video may help to explain why it won't run right without the airbox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfzuob_mBNs

[ART-ADS]

so you increased the amount of air, and didn't adjust the fuel, and now it doesn't run right.

was this a serious question?
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98' RZ50, 92' H100S2, 03' VT125, 59' Jubilee 250, 05' varadero chop,

[Nobby the Bastard]

[temeluchus]

[Ste]

OP has gone one niner on us.