1981 340 Drifter

[old cow]

Hi all, new to this site and Kawasakis.

I have been working on an old sled for my brother. He told me it was a 1979 and has a 79 owners manual, but the sled is dark blue, has cdi, oil injection, and was  built in fall of 1980.

I removed the carb and cleaned it as per manual,,the problem is it starts hard when cool,,not when cold or warm, but when it sits for 20-30 minutes. It idles and works great when running, lots of power and speed.

I notice that when I adjust the air mixture screw, the engine is slow to respond, ex.  if I turn the screw out 1 turn,,it may be 10 seconds before the engine changes note. When I cleaned the carbs I noticed that the air mix screw was not pointed on the end, is this normal?

I am thinking vacuum leak, probably crank seals but want to know if the mix screw is proper first.

TIA,
 Allan

[Interceptor398]

Welcome to the site!  Crank seals are the best place to start with these old sleds.  I have the same sled and it starts hard cold.  It is on the list to get new seals.

[rminier]

 Yep, the air screw is different than many carb screws that taper to a point, like what might be on a typical garden tractor carb.
  These air screws taper down at the end, but they have a blunt, squared-off tip.

[old cow]

Thanks guys, I thought the tip looked undamaged, but wanted to be sure. Used to old Honda carbs, sometimes the tips are found broken off in them.

I was running the air screw out 1.5 turns, since I posted I turned it in 1 turn( .5 turns from seated), it starts better now, it may have lost a bit of snap on the bottom end, still not bad though. I will probably do the seals before next season rolls around.

Thanks again,
 Allan