New Owner looking for some help

[colorider]

Hey everybody!

My name is Travis and I recently purchased a 85 Kawasaki 454.
I was googling a particular problem that developed a couple weeks after purchase when I came upon this forum. First off I want to say hi, and say thank you for having this website!

The issue I'm having seemingly started out of nowhere. When I purchased the bike, and for the following two weeks, it ran really smooth (a bit of rattling and a tendency to run hot, but fine). Then, out of nowhere, one morning the idle dropped to ~800. This caused i difficulty in starting and required me to warm up the bike for about ten minutes before it could maintain idle without dying.

I looked for an idle speed adjustment screw near the carb, and to my surprise couldn't find one. After finding this website, I downloaded a copy of the maintenance manual. The manual says that I should have this screw, but I don't.

My question for you guys is what should I do? I'm not very mechanically minded (beyond basic things like oil changes and the like), so I'm not sure how to proceed. First off, should this bike definitely have an adjustment screw? Secondly, I'm thinking that in the meanwhile I should replace the spark plugs and run some carb degunker through the gas. Any other suggestions?

Thank you for your time : )

[jp]

Welcome! The idle adjustment screw is in between the carbs and very low. You can reach it with ur bare hands while sitting on the bike. Use your left hand, feel way down between the carbs for a round plastic object on the end of a spring. Once you find it it is easy to get it.
The air fuel screws are on the bottom of carbs and plugged, and probably not your issue. The plugs are easily removed with the carbs off, and adjustable on the bike.
I have to adjust my idle speed every couple weeks, but just little bits, nothing major. Maybe someone has a pic of the idle adjuster screw, but you can find it I'm sure.

[Blaine]

Welcome to the forum.It is possible but not likely that your idle screw vibrated out and is gone.once you start checking you will soon see.You can run some Sea Foam in a tank of fuel to help clean things up.These engines are a little noisy by nature.It is normal for the heat gauge to run about the middle.

[gdeangel]

I'm just going to throw this out there, as I really don't know what the answer to your problem is, but I've been trying to figure out some of the wacky idle behavior I am getting with the bike I just bought also.

When I got the bike, it was idling way fast, so I tweaked the adjustment screw (which takes both hands for me, as my fingers are too fat to fit all the way in to get a grip on it). It was idling beautifully at 1200 when I started to test the petcock. I noticed that the idle changed radically when set to reserve vs. "on". I know it should not happen as both take fuel from the same reservoir BUT then I did a little digging and discovered that as E85 ages, the ethanol ends up taking on ambient moisture, which then can sink down on the bottom of the tank. Thus the "gas" picked up by the reserve line will have lower combustibility and need to run richer I think. Not sure about this though.

Now imagine you run your tank always above the reserve, and so the crappy ethanol is always collecting below the reserve line. Tank after tank, you keep cycling the gas above the main pickup, but below it, you are collecting the more dense stuff that has a tendency to sink down to where it only hits the engine when you switch to the reserve.

A small idle adjustment for changes in the weather, etc. would be nothing to worry about, but a huge drop off in the idle (which I've seen when running on reserve) makes me wonder if the chemistry of the gas is somehow the problem.

[eaglerider]

You mentioned E85.......that fuel is NOT recomended for this engine....too much ethinol content. O, it will work for a while, but that stuff will shorten the life of the engine. Even cars that are not made for E85, are not supposed to use it. Its like running a car engine built in the 40s or 50s on unleaded gas, the valves, etc, are not made for that kind of fuel and the result is burnt valves, and other problems.

[colorider]

Thanks for the replies : )

I spent about five minutes feeling around for the idle screw to no avail. I'm guessing it did fall out?

Would I be able to just buy the screw from a parts bike and screw it back in there? Or will I need to replace the whole carburetor?

[eaglerider]

Just get the screw......it has a black plastic knob on it, and one from a Vulcan or Ninja 500 should also work.