A Carburetor Primer

Part I - How It Works

THE BASICS - Mixing and

Delivering
While most of the following information applies to
all CV carbs, and to some extent all carb types,
this article is specific to the Keihin CVK40 found
on the KLR650. Variants are on the KLX650,
KLR600 and some Harleys.

The CVK40 is technically a bleed type carb, with a variable venturi that's
controlled by constant velocity (CV). It's also known as Constant Depression or
Constant Vacuum. The 40 in the name represents a 40 mm venturi exit diameter.
Wonder why 'K'awasaki added the K...?

BLEED TYPE CARBS - Let it Bleed

Most carbs have a one piece needle

jet. On the CVK40 it consists of a
collar and what Kawasaki calls a
holder. Most 4-strokes have pin
holes along the length of this brass
jet. These pin holes allow air from
the air jet to premix with fuel from
the fuel jet to start the mixture emulsification process before it enters the venturi.
Primary type carbs use a solid jet, (no pin holes).
 VARIABLE VENTURI - Getting Sucked In

A venturi is a tube with a convex taper,

(one end wider than the other). As air
enters the wider end it's squeezed into the
narrower section of the tube, lowering the
air's pressure. The area of lowest pressure
is just past the narrowest point and is
called the depression. This has always
seemed counterintuitive to me, but
Bernoulli's Principle outlines the fluid
dynamics involved in this effect. This
lowered pressure, or comparative vacuum is separate from the engine vacuum. A
variable venturi varies the venturi diameter at the depression
by raising or lowering an obstruction. This obstruction is called a slide. On a CV
the slide
is called a piston or diaphragm valve.

CV or SLIDE CARB - The Great Compromise

Both the CV and conventional slide carbs are classified as variable venturi carbs.
The slide on a conventional carb is directly connected to the throttle cable. Twist
the throttle grip and the slide is raised in the venturi. On a CV carb the throttle
cable is connected to a butterfly valve that varies the volume through the venturi.
It's not the throttle, it's the pressure difference from the venturi to the outside
atmosphere that moves the slide.

So which type is better? That depends on what you want to do. The manufacturers
will tell you the CV is the next best thing to electronic fuel injection. It does feed a
precise amount of mixture to smooth out throttle response, reduce pollution, and
stretch your fuel budget and gas tank range.

This is great for tarmac cruising and feeling warm and fuzzy about doing your part
to reduce global warming while pocketing some spare change. It sure makes it
easier for the manufacturers to get the EPA approval stamp on the bike.
But what if you feel that no matter how much you hop up your little beast, you're
never going to match the belching of that cager in the gas guzzling V-12 ? What if
you don't mind spending more for gas, and when you go off-road you want a burst
of power to blip over obstacles or steer through a wash without fanning your clutch
while waiting for the vacuum to build in the venturi? If you can discipline yourself
to control the throttle so that you don't bog your engine, then you want a
conventional slide carb.

40 MM -Size Matters

With the same engine and carb design,

a 38mm diameter venturi will more
accurately meter the mixture on the low
end, while a 41mm diameter will do a
better job of supplying mixture at higher
engine speeds. It's another factor to
consider if you replace your carb.

MIXING AIR AND FUEL - All In the Pressure

It all starts in your engine. Think of your thumper as a big pump,
happily sucking and blowing down the road. During the intake stroke
the engine's piston descends in the cylinder. This creates a void that
sucks in whatever is on the other side of the open engine intake valves.
Unless the engine intake valves are open, the carb is not being sucked
on by the engine. This vacuum action powers the carb.
Look at the 4-cycles of our 4-stroke thumperpumper.

1) Intake - piston pulls down sucking mixture in.

Intake valves open, exhaust closed.
2) Compression - piston goes up.
Intake and exhaust valves closed.
3) Ignition/Power - piston forced down.
Intake and exhaust valves closed.
4) Exhaust - piston goes up blowing out burned gas.
Exhaust valves open, intake closed.

Each time the piston goes up and down, (two of the

four strokes), one revolution has occurred. It takes
two revolutions to complete the four strokes, or one-
half of a revolution to complete one of the four
strokes. At redline, your engine is sucking on the carb at a rate of over 60 times per
second. At idle it's around 11 times a second. The math below shows that with a
651cc displacement, a theoretical maximum of between 7 and 40 liters of mixture
are sucked in each second.

7500 .......(engine RPM)

/ 2 ...........(2 revs per intake stroke)
= 3750 .....(intake strokes per minute)
/ 60 .........(seconds per minute)
= 62 ........(intake strokes per second)
x .651 ......(engine displacement in liters)
= 40.69 ....(liters per second)

These numbers assume 100% efficiency. Mister_T calculates about

38% efficiency at idle. So these numbers are only to illustrate
the relative difference in volume from idle to redline.

Remember Bernoulli's effect in the venturi? Sitting below the venturi is

the fuel float chamber which is vented to the outside of the carb to match
atmospheric air pressure. The fuel in the float bowl is also 'vented' to the
low pressure of the venturi through the starter, pilot and main fuel jets.

So you can think of the float chamber as being pressurized in comparison

to the partial vacuum of the venturi. The fuel naturally tries to fill in the
low pressure of the venturi's depression by injecting itself through one,
or a combination of the three fuel jets.
 THE ODDS - Skinny or Fat

Any carb problem boils down to either it's too

rich, (too much fuel or too little air), or it's too
lean, (too much air or too little fuel). The
'mixture', (a mixture of fuel and air, your
engine's 'food'), is theoretically ideal at around
15 parts of air to one part of gasoline
by weight, (not volume). The outer limits are
12:1
and 18:1 .

Too rich and you're wasting fuel, spewing more

pollutants, diluting your oil, fouling engine
parts, and performance suffers. Too lean and
you run the risk of detonation, engine operating at higher temperatures, and
performance suffers.

An air-cooled engine needs to run richer (more fuel)

to aid in engine cooling. This is another plus of our water-cooled system to balance
out it's disadvantages.

PARTS - Is Parts
Supplementing the
factory manuals, the
following text and
photos should make it
easier to understand how
the carb works. The parts
are broken into the following groups:
 FLOAT SYSTEM - You're Floating In It
The float system acts as a fuel reservoir to meet
engine
demand. The float is hinged on a pin in the float boss.
It
rises and falls with the fuel level in the float bowl. The
small
metal tang integrated in the plastic float supports the
float
valve, aka float needle. As the fuel in the float bowl rises,
the float valve is pushed into the valve seat, until it's high
enough to shut off the fuel flow to the bowl. The level in
the bowl drops lowering the float which pulls the float
valve from it's seat, and fills again.

STARTER ENRICHER - KLR Morning

Coffee

This system is referred to as the

choke. But that's a misnomer. When

you apply the choke lever, what

you're doing is retracting a plunger
that opens a tube connected to the
starter jet, allowing additional fuel
to enter the venturi just below the
vacuum hose nipple. It supplements
the pilot system at start up.
 PILOT SYSTEM - Steering You to Better Lows

The primary purpose of the pilot system is to supply

the mixture at idle. It continues to supply fuel
throughout the entire throttle range, but after about 1/8
throttle is reached the MAIN SYSTEM starts to put
out an increasing percentage of the total mixture up to
full throttle.

When you set the idle with that big screw on the right
side of the carb, what you're doing is covering or
uncovering one or more of the four small holes that
are drilled into the venturi, (leading to the pilot jet)
just under the butterfly valve, and letting more or less air pass the butterfly. When
you adjust the pilot screw that's under the carb, you are varying the amount of air
premixing with the gas before it enters the venturi.

MAIN SYSTEM - The Meat

As you advance the

throttle cable that's
connected to the
butterfly valve, the
butterfly opens to allow
more air through the
venturi. This increases
the vacuum effect that
is transferred up
through the vacuum
drilling (the hole you
bored out for the
Dynojet kit), on the diaphragm valve (slide), that leads
to the TOP diaphragm chamber.

The top chamber is separated from the BOTTOM chamber

by the rubber diaphragm. The bottom chamber is open to
atmospheric pressure from the airbox by the crescent shaped
casting on the top of the venturi. When the vacuum in the top

chamber rises sufficiently, the constant ambient pressure

of the lower chamber, helps the diaphragm valve overcome
the downward force of the diaphragm spring, and it rises
from the venturi.

As the diaphragm valve is raised from the venturi

depression (lowest pressure area), the needle is pulled
further out of the needle jet, exposing a thinner portion
of the needle taper which allows even more fuel to rise
into the venturi to meet the increased engine demand.

COASTING ENRICHER - Feeding a Closed Mouth

You're blasting down the trail and you see a
hairpin coming up, so you close the
throttle.
This closes the butterfly valve. You and
your
400lb baby (the bike, not the other love of
your life), are still rolling with inertia, keeping
the engine revs high. Now it can't get the
mixture it's trying to suck in because the
butterfly valve is closed, blocking the air flow.

To compensate for this there's an air jet in the lower

diaphragm chamber that transfers ambient pressure to
one side of the coasting enricher's spring loaded cut off
valve. The excess vacuum in front of the butterfly valve
is transferred to a drilling that leads to the other side of
the cut off valve. This sucks it open, allowing the pilot
jet to feed more fuel to the engine preventing an overly
lean condition. (Pop. Pop. Pop.)

Enough theory. Time to get your hands dirty.

Part II - Tuning and Options

WARNING!
DO NOT tamper with
your carb. Unless it's
time to clean or
overhaul
it, you've changed the
exhaust or airfilter,
you need to
troubleshoot
it,or the Kid in you just has to know, "how does it go?"

When troubleshooting the carb, remember it's job is to mix fuel

and air to a specific ratio for the engines consumption.There
are many things that can cause an imbalance in your mixture
besides the carb itself. Things like a leaking or pinched hose,
valve clearance, a dirty air cleaner, removing the airbox lid,
even running out of fuel. Anything that affects your big pump
as it sucks and blows, affects your mixture. Before blaming
the carb, eliminate as many other variables as you can.

ON or OFF - Do I Have To?

Jake Jakeman wrote an excellent article in the 5/98 DSN detailing
the factory method for removing the carb from the bike for cleaning
and installing the jet kit. If your carb doesn't need to be cleaned, you
can install the kit without removing the carb. Click here for more carb photos.

Open the drain bolt to empty the float bowl. Remove the throttle cables,
loosen the boot clamps and rotate the bottom of the carb towards the left
side of the bike. Be careful that you don't smash the plastic starter cap nut,
it's 12 bucks for a new one. Remove the top, knowing that the cap will
fly off from spring pressure when you remove the last screw. Pull the
diaphragm valve out, drill it, then put in the new needle. Don't force
the diaphragm valve and needle down into the carb body when
reinstalling it. The needle should easily drop into the needle jet.
If it doesn't, pull it out and try again. Button it up and move on
to the bottom of the carb.

Drill out the cap on the pilot screw.

Remove the 4 screws on the float bowl
and remove it. Unscrew the main jet
only, leaving the needle jet holder in
place. Screw in the new main jet and
replace the float bowl. Rotate the carb,
tighten the boot clamps, and drain
screw. You're done.

The factory method of removing the

carb
from the bike isn't very convenient for
trailside repair, and I'm lazy anyway, so I
don't like to swing the subframe unless I
have to. If it's something that requires the
carb to come off, loosen the boot clamps,
disconnect the throttle cables, remove
starter (choke) plunger from the
handlebar then the carb, fuel hose, and
vacuum hose. Then muscle it out from the
right side of the bike starting with the click here for enlarged view
end nearest the airbox.

If you don't know your own strength, be aware that your carb
is cast aluminum and can crack or gall if mishandled. Jake warned
of little parts that can easily be lost. I've noticed two parts that are
just waiting to laugh at you. The needle jet collar and the pilot screw
'o'ring both tend to stick in place. It may be that as the thin film of
fuel surrounding them dries, the surface tension is finally reduced
to a point where they can fall out on their own, even when you're
not around to see it. You wouldn't be the first or last person to be
missing these critical parts. Click here for to see more assembly detail.
FLOAT HEIGHT
Drain the float bowl to check for water or other impurities. The float level is the
first thing that needs to be checked when tuning your carb. If the level is too high, it
can cause a rich condition, too low and it can cause a lean condition. If it's not set
correctly, any other adjustments you make may have to be redone.

Kawasaki would love to sell you their gauge to check the height. But get a clear
hose and attach it to the carb drain valve at the bottom and tape it up to the side of
your carb. Put the bike on the center stand or otherwise make it level. Use an
auxiliary gas can above the carb so it will continue to dump fuel. Or use the
vacuum line and suck on it to open the petcock valve. Open the carb drain valve.
Get a gauge or ruler and measure right where the carb body meets the float bowl to
the level in the hose. Don't move the hose after you open the drain, or it could cause
the reading to be high.

Hopefully you'll see 0.5mm above the base of the carb body, +/-1mm, (only
about .08" variance).If it needs to be adjusted, and the carb is already off the bike,
the method in the factory manual is the easiest way to set the float height. It can
also be done without removing it from the bike.

After disconnecting the gas and draining the fuel out, you'll need to rotate the carb
and take the four screws off the bottom of the float bowl and remove it. Then push
the pin out of the float boss and gently remove the float and float valve. The float
valve will be hanging loosely on the float by a very thin wire that slips over a metal
tang on the float. Bending this tang on the float (not the wire on the float valve),
will raise or lower your float level. Just a small bend makes a big difference in the
level, so it's best to make minute movements here.

Before bending anything, visually inspect the rubber tip on the float valve and
spray some carb cleaner and compressed air in the valve seat, to make sure nothing
is blocking it open. Also see that the plastic float isn't leaking and filling with gas.
Then check the level again and rebend if needed.

PILOT SYSTEM TUNING

The ideal way to tune it would be to use the K&N air/fuel monitor,
(available from Fred Hink), a Colortune spark plug, or something
similar. But you can get close to this by using the following method.
Gently turn the pilot mixture clockwise until it's seated. Back it out two
full turns. Now thoroughly warm the engine and set the idle to 1300
RPM with the large throttle stop screw on the right side of the carb.

Get Jake's carb tool and slowly back the pilot screw out until the idle
starts to slow and note the total number of turns out from it's seat.
Now slowly screw the pilot screw back in until the idle again starts to
slow. Do the math and set your pilot screw between the two points
where the idle slowed. If you experience popping or it hesitates to
return to idle, experiment by turning the pilot screw out more.
 MAIN SYSTEM TUNING

Opening the butterfly valve with the throttle

grip brings the main system into play. More air
through the depression increases the vacuum
to both the top diaphragm chamber and needle
jet. As the vacuum in the top chamber causes
the diaphragm valve to raise in the depression,
the needle which is attached to the valve, is
pulled further out of the needle jet. The higher
the needle goes, the progressively thinner
cross section of the needle allows more fuel to
pass through the needle jet.

The Dynojet needle has 5 grooves, #1 at the

top, to
#5 closest to the needle tip. Putting the E clip
towards the top leans the mixture because a thicker
portion of
the needle
is blocking
fuel flow
through
the needle
jet. Placing the E clip closer to the tip
enrichens the mixture by pulling the needle further
from the needle jet, exposing a thinner portion to
allow more fuel flow.

The manual shows the KLR600 needle has these grooves, but the KLR650 comes
stock with no grooves for adjustments. The needle jet size also affects flow.

The last factor in the main system is the Main Jet. When the diaphragm
valve is fully raised and the needle is at it's farthest point out of the
needle jet, the Main Jet size has the most influence on quantity of fuel
delivered. Below 3/4 throttle there's little difference between a 136 and
a 150 main jet. At full throttle there is a huge difference. (Higher
numbered jets have a bigger hole.) Some of the Listers on the klr650 news
group have taken to Shimming the stock needle and precisely drilling the
stock main jet with some success. One fixed a torn diaphragm valve with a
tire tube patch! If you need their help, or can help others, click here for
information on joining.

OPTIONS

It's hard to tune the pilot screw with the carb in

place and the engine running. Jake created a tool
just for this. You can call him at (435) 387-5575.
I'm testing a new screw that was developed for
the Harley but seems to be working so far on the
KLR. I'll post the results in a future update.

Besides the Dynojet kit, you can also use the Dial-A-
Jet
to boost the top end. Gino reported mixed results
with
it. As you build up the engine you may need to order a
larger pilot jet. At a certain point in beefing up the
engine, our humble CVK40 will have no more to give,
and you'll have to look at replacing it with a larger carb.