Abrupt halt to engine cranking (impact)

[Jozed03]

I've recently purchased a 1987 Ninja 250 with 26,000km on the odometer and everything besides the fairings (which are nearly all cracked but salvageable) in moderate shape with the engine cranking freely. The carburetors were out of place and in general the bike was not in running condition.

So far I've rebuilt the carbs, straightened various chassis tabs and the front fairing sub-frame (had been in a moving fall from either side at least once from the scrapes and cracked fairings by inspection) but was looking not to invest any more time in the bike until I knew the engine was operable. I did these smaller repairs because I would have a few free hours in between academic exams.

I installed a K&N R-0990 pod air filter due to a missing grommet on the OEM airbox (a direct drop-in and less clutter for $37CAD, why not!), and today I swapped the oil filter and oil for a KN401 filter and Rotella T 15W40 following a general consensus from different forums.

With that background info, my first major problem comes in;

This evening I get ahead of myself and decide to find out if the bike will run or not. Hook it up to a deep cycle marine battery I had, but it was low voltage. I shunted my MotoMaster digital battery charger to it and set it to engine start (IMO this charger is finicky and I would not buy it again) and tried to crank. This is important because the bike seemed to be overpowered with bright lights, cranked over a few times and then stopped cranking with dash lights all out, no more power. Looked at the digital charger and saw some wacky values reading out in the hundreds, disconnected it right away. Found a charged deep cycle battery in the shed and connected that alone as I thought the charger may have caused some issues to the system, being designed for automobiles.

With this proper 12V battery charged and connected to the bike, the side-stand up and the transmission in neutral (these things had already been verified in the previous run), the dash lit up normally and everything seemed good. Hit the start, ENGINE CRANKED OVER ONCE AND THEN HALTED IMMEDIATELY, as if the crank had IMPACTED something internally, vibrating the entire motorcycle and having a low metal clang noise. The starter would not even budge the crank after this, although it was drawing current. I disconnected everything and proceeded to remove the small crank case cover (to manually rotate the crank) confirming the crank would not rotate anti-clockwise at all. I started to go clockwise, and in doing so too quickly (I believe) a ton of fuel overflowed back out through the carbs and onto the new air filter. I assumed this was my fault and that i caused a reverse vacuum sucking out the float bowls through the intake side of the carbs.

Regardless, when the crank was rotated anti-clockwise again (having done <180deg clockwise) it would impact the same spot as before. I rotated it clockwise now 360 and then 720 degrees with no issues, feeling the compression and no rough motion or scraping or anything. I spun it a few more times beyond 720 clockwise and then spun it many more times anti-clockwise again, beyond where it had impacted. The crank seemingly had no issues after that.

While thinking about it, I thought about this perhaps having something to do with the start motor's engagement mechanism to the crank (how it starts the crank one way and then disengages) since this would follow with the crank dissengaging when rotated one way and then being free again. I tried to think of how this could tie in the the overpowering of the system with the battery charger in "engine start" mode.

My friend afterwards told me that the issue could be a valve impact, since these are interference engines. He mentioned the timing chain could have slack (which has apparently been the case for a few people in the past). Without attempting to start the engine any more, I've removed the valve cover to inspect the timing chain and top end.

1. If anyone knows the probable cause or solution for this, it would be greatly appreciated knowledge
2. The K&N air filter's cotton turned from red to a light grey color, is it damaged permanently?
3. The air filter is running under water right now, does it have to be re-oiled?
4. Although most people seemed to go with the Rotella T6 extreme temp 5W40 synthetic, are there any experiences with this Rotella T 15W40?

First post up on this forum, community looks great!

More updates and pics of this classic 1st generation ninja are to follow. I have access and experience with CAD tools, CNC milling, industrial grade 3D printing and high powered laser cutting (perks of studying aerospace engineering) so you can expect there to be custom composite fairings and other goodies developed over the lifetime of this motorcycle in my possession, that is if the engine decides to cooperate.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers

[Ghostt]

Did you remove the spark plugs? Since the cylinder or both had fuel in it, sounds like it hydrolocked.

Remove plugs, crank engine over, and see what comes out of the open plug holes.

This is only caused by two things, first your peacock isn't working properly, it's a vacuum peacock, meaning no, no fuel should flow, buy a new one.

Second is the carburetor float valve is stuck open, either it's worn, and in need of replacement, or small debris, or not set to the correct height, or a combination of these.

If the float is stuck open, then the vacuum petcock if working properly wouldn't allow any fuel if the engine is off., and if the petcock is defective, the the float valve should stop the flow of fuel, is that's working properly.

PETCOCK TEST
install a fuel hose from the petcock fuel outlet into a catch can. Pull the vacuum hose from the engine side. Leave it connected to the petcock.*

Now...petcock set to on.... fuel should NOT be flowing. Apply suction to the vacuum hose (which is connected to the petcock ONLY) ...fuel should now flow.*

Make sure the vacuum line doesn't have any pinholes or cracks!

When you say you cleaned the carburetors, tell me exactly what was done.

Are there any other issues or modifications done?
Also pod filters are a no no, here's why

I would highly recommend that you DO NOT REMOVE THE AIR BOX, the carburetors on the bike are CV type and need to box to function properly, buy a K&N that fits the OEM airbox(K&N KA-2508 Kawasaki High Performance Replacement Air Filter by K&N* *Amazon.com: K&N KA-2508 Kawasaki High Performance Replacement Air Filter: Automotive* ) that's the short version.

Long boring but important answer, CV carbs stands for "constant velocity". The function of the carbs is dependent on having a calm reservoir (airbox) from which to intake air at said constant velocity. Pods draw from the turbulent, unpredictable air swirling past them as you ride, which is anything but constant. Other carbs work fine with pods. CV's = no bueno, save yourself the headaches.

Now onto jetting, first you need to tune the idle mixture screws first, I recommend 3 full turns out from bottom as a good starting point, then fine tune them afterwards. As far as buying a jet kit, I personally don't have one on either my 250, or 500 ninjas. I did got up one size on my main jets, due to they are lean from the factory, and shimmed the main needles with a small washer.

Also check the oil, open up the fill plug, and smell, does it smell like gas? Also has the oil level changed? More then what it was after the oil change? If so I'm sorry to tell you but you need to do a complete oil and filter change, it's contaminated with gas, which of course is very bad.

Hope this helps, any questions feel free to ask.

[alex.s]

did you check the fuses

[Jozed03]

Originally Posted by Ghostt

Did you remove the spark plugs? Since the cylinder or both had fuel in it, sounds like it hydrolocked.

Remove plugs, crank engine over, and see what comes out of the open plug holes.

This is only caused by two things, first your peacock isn't working properly, it's a vacuum peacock, meaning no, no fuel should flow, buy a new one.

Second is the carburetor float valve is stuck open, either it's worn, and in need of replacement, or small debris, or not set to the correct height, or a combination of these.

If the float is stuck open, then the vacuum petcock if working properly wouldn't allow any fuel if the engine is off., and if the petcock is defective, the the float valve should stop the flow of fuel, is that's working properly.



When you say you cleaned the carburetors, tell me exactly what was done.

Are there any other issues or modifications done?
Also pod filters are a no no, here's why



Also check the oil, open up the fill plug, and smell, does it smell like gas? Also has the oil level changed? More then what it was after the oil change? If so I'm sorry to tell you but you need to do a complete oil and filter change, it's contaminated with gas, which of course is very bad.

Hope this helps, any questions feel free to ask.

Thank you very much for all the help, the first thing I did after reading all this was put the valve cover back on, everything was fine there the timing chain has no slack whatsoever, whether good or bad it's probably better than excess slack. I've never heard of this hydrolocking phenomenon but it makes sense and the symptoms line up perfectly and as expected, the fuel had sunk through the piston rings and into the block and the oil inlet did reek of gasoline. That's all drained now however the filter looks fine and after passing it through some oil I'm going to keep it in place. Thanks additionally for the info on the CV type Keihins, to stay within budget I will keep them in place as I can always fabricate a reservoir if I find the performance is detrimental. I had opened the carburators, cleaned out the float bowls, all the vacuum veins, inspected the needles and taken note of the idler positions (both 5 turns out, which I found odd since it was on the OEM setup but such is buying a used vehicle). All the gaskets seated fine and the float valves seemed to be working fine, dropling to the same level and having all the small wire components in place. I assume I can test the petcock also by draining out the float bowls (the tank is off the bike, carb fuel inlet open) and when I reattach the tank if I set the petcock to ON and open the float drain there should be no fuel? I've not looked into how the whole vacuum petcock system works, for example I have no idea why the second line from the petcock goes only directly to the left carb and why the distrivution unit connects the way it does.

I had decided to leave the default carb settings under the impression that without being way off of ideal, the engine would run albeit roughly. I think my next steps will be to check the sparkplugs for cold fouling and crank the engine over now without fuel or spark to clear out the carbs and cylinders. Moving ahead, I'll be sure to dissassemble, rebuild and verify the petcock for proper function, following the guide.

Thanks for the advice, - J
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[Jozed03]

An update,

after passing both spark plus through a bristle wheel and air compressor, both spark fine. Cranking the engine over with sparkplugs out, gasoline is ejected through the hole when the piston compresses. Note the right cylinder was the one that hydrolocked and also the one that backfired fuel out through the carb earlier. It is also the one that was blowing out fuel during the above. After a good drying off of the cylinders, carb and plugs, i reassembled everything.

Having the tank off the bike, i checked the petcock. Sucking on the vaccuum line brought fuel out into the main line in the on position. I reinstalled the tank.

The engine finally started and ran for the first time!! With carbs open (no air filter, verifying that nothing was pumping fuel into the port or anything) and apparently way out of sync, idle rpms would climb and settle anywhere from 1000 to 6000. After a few mins of starting, having its own mind, and stalling i put in more oil to get the level back up, with bike levelled.

So the engine runs, which is a great success. I am now thinking that i will have to tighten the idler jets (5 turns out each right now , no wonder my smoke alarms went off) and perhaps shim the main needles once idle is set up but as far as i know that's for fine tuning the top end, which is not my goal at the moment.
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[Ghostt]

Okay now we're getting somewhere, at least is running now.

After reading how you cleaned the carburetors, if I understand you correctly, you didn't remove the jets, holders, idle mixture screws, or verify the fuel circuits were clear?, if this is the case I'm sorry to inform you you didn't clean them properly. This might explain the way the bike is acting now.

What is your experience with carburetors? without a thought, meticulous, and verify all settings cleaning you'll never get it running properly. Also due to its age your gonna need to replace the consumables parts, float needles, O-rings.

If you need parts, and/or services I would strongly recommend sending @ducatiman a PM, his prices are extremely affordable, and his quality is the best. He offers ultrasonic cleaning, soda blasting, etc.... The carburetors are be better than new, when he's done.

Now if I'm totally wrong, and you did service the carburetors properly, then you need to set and dial in the idle mixture screws, here's a how-to

Your initial setting should be 3 full turns out from the bottom, remember just slightly tighten them, don't go all Conan on them.



Then warm it up, slowly turn 1 side pilot screw in until the rpms drop, then back out till RPM's peak (and no further)* Twist throttle...see how it reacts...tweak to taste.
Repeat on other side... test ride. You're looking for best throttle response and transition from just cracked to 1/4 throttle opening or so.*

Thats a quickie, 10 cent tutorial on setting pilot screws.**

Also you mentioned doing a synchronization, here's another how-to on that subject

You can sync with the carbs in hand. Back the idle adjustment off to close that carb then match the second carb to it with the sync screw. You can then turn the idle adjustment up while using a thin feeler gauge (maybe .002") between the throttle plate and the throttle bore, adjust to just fit, and then check the second one and adjust to match. If you have good feel for this it will run fine once installed.*

It would do folks well to take a minute to review and understand what a sync tool does, how it works. And take another minute to look at the carb linkage and sync adjustments available to fix irregularities that might occur. It can help take some of the mystery out of this as well as stop unnecessary carb sync screwups.*

Meaning, that the carbs were right once, the butterflies were matched and it performed well, but then changed. Undecided And the problem somehow occurred in the butterfly direct shafts, or the sync screw turned or wore that pad that it rests on, or the carburetor pairing/ bridging brackets twisted in relation to each other, and enough so that the butterflies no longer operated in sync, such that performance noticeably suffered. And a fix will be accomplished by changing the butterfly position, the only thing the sync adjustment does. Hmmm. Really? Undecided*

Meanwhile, the tool measures vacuum at each individual runner. That's all it does, how it works. And vacuum is effected by a huge list of things, butterfly position being only one of them, and the only one addressed with that tool while turning those sync screws. The rest of that list includes, valve adjustment, jetting, float level, compression differences between cylinders caused by wear as well as factory CC differences in the head, intake runner, as well as flow by port variations, etc. Variations in cams, wear or factory tolerance. Then there's the potential big one, pilot jets and pilot screw mixture settings. All of those effect the vacuum and will be read by the sync tool, accurately identifyng the difference that exists, and with the only adjustment being used to "correct" the problem, move the butterfly relationship, one to the next.*

It's that clear understanding that has me of the opinion and long time practice to not touch the sync screws on a set of carbs that were right once and were never dismantled from the rack. And jet cleaning as well as float needle changing doesn't require that they be dismantled. And further, if I DID dismantle a set of carbs, I just matched the butterflies on the bench at assembly, using a feeler gauge, and then never touched them again, never gave them another thought.*

That method, properly executed, will have THAT portion of the complete equation, balanced flow to each cylinder in a multi-cylinder/ carb application due to butterfly position, satisfied entirely adequately. And in fact, it has worked for me every time I've done it on every bike (as well as individual runner/ butterfly V-8 intakes, all eight) that I've ever owned or any that I've fixed for others. And the times I fixed for others was usually after an attempt by others to sync the carbs, chasing a problem, or sometimes not even chasing a problem, but one they created wth a sync tool, chasing a problem from that list, that was never a butterfly position change problem. Those linkages are so direct and simple that they don't know how to screw themselves up. Not enough to care about.*

I'm sure this will start a lot of controversy so I won't argue it, just offering it for those who understand the whole picture that I outlined and might make good use of it. It is what I've done, on every engine I ever worked on, including blue printed racing engines as well as regular old, high mileage street stuff. I've had at least four, four cylinder bikes with over 100,000 miles that ran quite well, the whole time, and never had a carb sync performed. When they did finally get a total disassembly, this is how I set them up, on the bench. Over the years I've straightened out at least a half dozen messed up ones, probably more, and on the bench, after fixing the original problem which was fouled pilot jets.*

I only posted this because it seems like its coming up fairly often, especially with problems from a sync gone bad. One I would suggest was never a sync problem to begin with. A big or sudden change in performance is NEVER a sync problem. NEVER. Remember that. Cool If there is a problem, and you connect the gauges? YES, there will definitely be an imbalance indicated. But because that hole has a problem that is from the rest of the list. A bad plug, a plugged pilot jet, a screwed up float, a bad valve or setting, etc. Every one of them effecting the vacuum in the intake but NOT from a sudden move of a butterfly position, a sync adjustment.

As far as adding washers, or any modifications, I would not recommend it, until you have it running smoothly without all that.

Then if you feel, or want to, remember to do only one change at a time, just in case it doesn't work you know for sure what to undo. Too many changes at once, you can't tell what did want.

Carburetor tuning is a slow process, If done correctly, but it's worth it in the long run.

Just remember til you get the carburetors working properly, all other tuning is a waste of your time.

Hope this helps, any other questions, please feel free to ask.

[Jozed03]

Originally Posted by Ghostt

Okay now we're getting somewhere, at least is running now.

After reading how you cleaned the carburetors, if I understand you correctly, you didn't remove the jets, holders, idle mixture screws, or verify the fuel circuits were clear?, if this is the case I'm sorry to inform you you didn't clean them properly. This might explain the way the bike is acting now.

What is your experience with carburetors? without a thought, meticulous, and verify all settings cleaning you'll never get it running properly. Also due to its age your gonna need to replace the consumables parts, float needles, O-rings.

If you need parts, and/or services I would strongly recommend sending @ducatiman a PM, his prices are extremely affordable, and his quality is the best. He offers ultrasonic cleaning, soda blasting, etc.... The carburetors are be better than new, when he's done.

Now if I'm totally wrong, and you did service the carburetors properly, then you need to set and dial in the idle mixture screws, here's a how-to





Also you mentioned doing a synchronization, here's another how-to on that subject




As far as adding washers, or any modifications, I would not recommend it, until you have it running smoothly without all that.

Then if you feel, or want to, remember to do only one change at a time, just in case it doesn't work you know for sure what to undo. Too many changes at once, you can't tell what did want.

Carburetor tuning is a slow process, If done correctly, but it's worth it in the long run.

Just remember til you get the carburetors working properly, all other tuning is a waste of your time.

Hope this helps, any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for the additional info, I only have experience on a Mikuni slide type carburetor off of a 1985 Yamaha Moto4, which is similar in design to this one but at the same time completely different in function. On this one i removed idle mixture screws, cleaned them. Removed main jet, cleaned. Removed diaghram and needle, cleaned. Blew through fuel passageways, verified flow. Did not remove pilot jet, didn't have a good tool for it.

At this point I believe I will tear them apart again anyways, and redo it using carb / brake cleaner degreaser and compressed air. I now know that the idle mixture screws are way out, the main needle and jet are OEM set up, and the pilots + some of the passageways may be blocked which does follow with the performance witnessed. When that time comes I'll update. Are the main and pilot jet internal to the float bowl supposed to be adjusted by turns or simply replaced with different ones? Because they are bottomed out as far as I can tell. I'm also wondering how the float needle can be damaged? And based on the bikes little usage for the 29 years it's been around, and how tight the timing chain is, and all the stock gaskets, I can see the internals do not have much wear at all which is good. I'll make sure the engine lasts another 29 years.

Thanks - J
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[Ghostt]

Yes the jets just get tightened, no adjustments, only way is to replace with different one's.

The idle jets have incredibly small orifices, so it's a must to remove those and clean them, and verify all fuel circuits are clear with a air compressor, when doing that make sure the idle mixture screws are removed as well. In some cases is just easier to replace the idle jet, they are cheap enough, and save time and aggravation.

When removing the idle mixture screws part# 16014, be sure all parts are there, and installed in proper order.

Did you remove the main jet holders part# 13091 as well? They too have orifices, also make sure that part# 16017 is installed correctly, if installed backwards, it will cause problems.

Make sure you use the proper size screwdriver to remove the pilot jet, they are made of brass.
I have a screwdriver I modified to fit inside the carburetor idle jet passage, as it was a little too wide, but the blade tip itself fits the jet perfectly.

The float valves have a small viton tip, which after time they deform, and dry out, below is a picture of mine, old Vs new, keep in mind they came for a 1998.

Mine got stuck, and caused this this thread

How to clean the crankcase, and airbox without disassembling

I would strongly recommend contacting @ducatiman for you parts needs, he's a lot cheaper than any others on the net, plus he can include all new stainless steel fasteners.

This is a hell of a deal. https://www.ninjette.org/forums/show...7&postcount=16


Also install a fuel filter, it will save you much aggravation later on, the pictures below are of my carburetors after 5,000 miles with a fuel filter installed, note lack of dirt and sediment in the bowls.

Hope this helps clear a few things up, if not let me know, unfortunately your too far away for me to make a house call.

[Jozed03]

Originally Posted by Ghostt

Yes the jets just get tightened, no adjustments, only way is to replace with different one's.

The idle jets have incredibly small orifices, so it's a must to remove those and clean them, and verify all fuel circuits are clear with a air compressor, when doing that make sure the idle mixture screws are removed as well. In some cases is just easier to replace the idle jet, they are cheap enough, and save time and aggravation.

When removing the idle mixture screws part# 16014, be sure all parts are there, and installed in proper order.

Did you remove the main jet holders part# 13091 as well? They too have orifices, also make sure that part# 16017 is installed correctly, if installed backwards, it will cause problems.

Make sure you use the proper size screwdriver to remove the pilot jet, they are made of brass.
I have a screwdriver I modified to fit inside the carburetor idle jet passage, as it was a little too wide, but the blade tip itself fits the jet perfectly.

The float valves have a small viton tip, which after time they deform, and dry out, below is a picture of mine, old Vs new, keep in mind they came for a 1998.

Mine got stuck, and caused this this thread

How to clean the crankcase, and airbox without disassembling

I would strongly recommend contacting @ducatiman for you parts needs, he's a lot cheaper than any others on the net, plus he can include all new stainless steel fasteners.

This is a hell of a deal. https://www.ninjette.org/forums/show...7&postcount=16


Also install a fuel filter, it will save you much aggravation later on, the pictures below are of my carburetors after 5,000 miles with a fuel filter installed, note lack of dirt and sediment in the bowls.

Hope this helps clear a few things up, if not let me know, unfortunately your too far away for me to make a house call.

The fuel filter I had ordered a while back thinking it would be a good idea, and I'll be installing it when it arrives. So today the carbs are still very humid and the crank case again smells of gasoline. The fuel level in the tank has dropped. I also inspected the petcock again and found that the vaccuum petcock does in fact leak from the main line even without vaccuum. I'm assuming this in combination with any float valve issues will be causing all this fuel leaking into the carbs from the different jets due to pressure head, and that over the night the fuel has again leaked down the ports and around the piston rings into the block.

I will only have time to resume this project by mid week, so I've ordered a new KN401 oil filter and will be picking up another gallon of 15W40, both of which will only go in after I completely clean out and rebuilt the carbs and verify all the functions and get that peer reviewed. I'll be contacting the person you mentioned about the rebuild kit, seems like a great idea.

Additionally; on this 1987 Ninja 250 is the choke supposed to be manually engaged and held in place? The choke on this bike springs back by itself and does not hold. I'm not used to this on other machines but I can't find any flaws with the system to say that it shouldn't work that way.

Regards

[Ghostt]

Okay now your on the right path, just remember to be patient, and take your time, to verify everything.

You need to either order a rebuilding kit for the petcock, or buy a new one, without that working properly your just inviting troubles.

K&L Supply Model # 18-2723 link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KO2JRW/...Gub05DT5NT572#

If the float valves were working properly, this wouldn't happen, so those need to replaced as well, otherwise too much fuel to engine etc.....

Head pressure doesn't factor into because it's not as much as you think.

Yes something is up with your choke, it should stay in position, inside the left-hand controls there should be a small plastic block, also verify that the cable itself isn't broken.

Invest in some cable lube, and lube all the cables. Below is the one I use, and swear by.

[Jozed03]

Originally Posted by Ghostt

Okay now your on the right path, just remember to be patient, and take your time, to verify everything.

You need to either order a rebuilding kit for the petcock, or buy a new one, without that working properly your just inviting troubles.

K&L Supply Model # 18-2723 link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KO2JRW/...Gub05DT5NT572#

If the float valves were working properly, this wouldn't happen, so those need to replaced as well, otherwise too much fuel to engine etc.....

Head pressure doesn't factor into because it's not as much as you think.

Yes something is up with your choke, it should stay in position, inside the left-hand controls there should be a small plastic block, also verify that the cable itself isn't broken.

Invest in some cable lube, and lube all the cables. Below is the one I use, and swear by.

The root cause for all these problems was indeed the petcock. Specifically that the petcock was leaking fuel down the vacuum line in any position. I didn't think of this earlier because I wasn't familiar with the vacuum petcock but upon opening it I noticed the diaphragms were rather old looking and seemed to have shrunk in their place, creating small pinholes where fuel could get through and into the vacuum line. In hindsight, that steady drip from the vacuum line leads right into the intake ports through the petcock vacuum venturi channel, which is ahead of the butterfly valve. I sealed the diaphragm lightly with a non-hardening silicone gasket maker, Permatex Gasket Maker 2 (says it is oil tolerant but from my research I am hoping that means fuel tolerant as well). I'll test the tank later to see whether everything works properly.

When fully rebuilding the carburetors with proper cleaning I noted that the viton tips on the float valves were brand new, the seller had told me he had had the carbs rebuilt, so I won't be needing to purchase the rebuild kit at the moment. One of the idle mixture screw assemblies (screw, spring, washer and O-ring) had a fairly rusted washer, which I cleaned up on the bench grinder with the bristle wheel. It simply seats the spring on the O-ring so it is not of huge concern at the moment.

Everything else inside the carbs was perfect except for that I noticed one of the slide diaphragms was chemically burned and brittle along a small portion of the diaphragm lip and slightly onto the flexible area. It was not punctured thankfully and still allowed the proper flexibility so I used the non-hardening silicone sealer to seal the edges of the diaphragm to ensure no vacuum leaks where the cover clamps down onto the main housing.

Once the carbs were reassembled I verified that the float valves would stop flow when raised, they seal perfectly. Additionally I got two sections of clear tubing and connected them to the float drains and turned them into U-tubes, filled the carbs through the fuel line with water until they were full (float valves sealed) and the fuel levels were at the same height, about 3mm below the float housing gasket (shop manual calls for something like -0.5mmm which I believe is within a good range.) Before draining out the floats, I used compressed air to mimic flow through the carbs. Droplets of atomized water on the throat surface tell me they are working properly, or as properly as I can tell for the moment. Carbs drained and dried with compressed air, re-installed. Air filter re-installed. Once I verify for sure that the petcock works fine, the tank will be re-installed and the crankcase drained of the fuel contaminated oil and replaced with new oil and filter. Additionally I repaired the issue with the choke not holding, made a small thread for others who might have the same problem. >>> http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showt...57#post1009157

I also lubed the choke, throttle, throttle return and clutch cables with some spray chain lube I had. The stuff works absolutely great if you don't make a mess of it when inserting it down the lines. Thanks for the input.

Figuring out wiring now as there is no rear fender / licence plate holder, no signals or license light currently on the bike (will be designing a neat licence plate & light holder in CAD to be laser cut of stainless steel sheet and formed on the sheet metal brake), then will be engine tuning, brakes overhaul, suspension rebuild, fairing repair, re-upholstery, painting and various fit and finish jobs. One step at a time.