I need to get this taken care of on the soonish side. I would prefer doing it myself if it is easiest enough to do. I am fairly mechanically inclined, although I haven't had to do much on the bike. I have the shop manual, but real world experience is appreciated.

I don't have a sync tool or vac guage. The tool is something I can pick up at Sears or some other tool shop from what I understand (no need to get the Kawi brand) for ~$20 or so. What am I looking at for a vac guage and where would I go.

I guess the question is, is it worth trying to do myself, or should I just make an appt at the shop?

Thanks for the opinions.
-Eric

I want to do this, too. (I just hit 20k miles; I need to check my valves and synch the bodies.) My uncle has a vac gauge, I think. I'll ask him about it. Hopefully somebody else has some experience and will post in the meantime...

Bz,
i need to do this too. If your uncle has a vac gage i have a case of beer....

You need to be able to monitor all four TB's simultaneously. Mercury "carb sticks" are cheaper but are getting hard to find. If you have the proper length screw driver you can do it by just raising the gas tank and supporting it with a piece of 2X4. Kawasaki makes a fuel line extension to allow moving the gas tank off of the bike and on to a support. Its a little hard to connect an old inductive tach because of the COP ignition. I made up a short spark plug wire and plugged it into the COP to have a wire to clip the inductive pickup on to. The actual balancing process is not that difficult

Originally Posted by Wildcat

I guess the question is, is it worth trying to do myself, or should I just make an appt at the shop?

Thanks for the opinions.
-Eric

my shop charged me $93 for the sync

i let the shop do mine while they were checking the valves (got a discount), but in the future i plan on buying the tool. the hardest part is getting the tank off.

Originally Posted by lmj301

Bz,
i need to do this too. If your uncle has a vac gage i have a case of beer....

I think he likes Sam Adams...

After I've talked with him I'll post again.

motion pro make a mecury balancer that is good value for money. also you can do it with the tank on if you get a right angle gear drive screwdriver. i have both these tools. i will take/ post some pix tomorrow for you.

and if you get good/confident at it you can charge your mates to do theirs and make back the cost of the tool.

Originally Posted by kawaden

motion pro make a mecury balancer that is good value for money. also you can do it with the tank on if you get a right angle gear drive screwdriver. i have both these tools. i will take/ post some pix tomorrow for you.

and if you get good/confident at it you can charge your mates to do theirs and make back the cost of the tool.

With the price of a shop visit, I would probably be close to making it up on the first shot.

Originally Posted by Wildcat

With the price of a shop visit, I would probably be close to making it up on the first shot.

thats what i figured. why pay some monkey a motza to do it when for the price of 2 or 3 shop jobs i could buy the tools and do it my self and know its done right. i then also have the tools so i can help out my mates.

This is what I have

http://www.carbtune.com/

Originally Posted by mechanic77

This is what I have

http://www.carbtune.com/

Thanks for the link. Not a bad price for something that can be used over and over.

anything that includes mercury is now unavailable in the Peoples Republic of California. Shops can even be fined fo having them. I am going to Utah in Sept. though.

That's what I use. They are made just down the road from me. You have to block off various vacuum tubes ( there is a diagram in the manual ). I used small bolts on the smaller tubes and a cut down plastic 'cork' out of a wine bottle for the big one to the airbox.

I bought a length of fuel hose and 2 jubilee clips from a car accesory shop to allow me to set the tank on a bench. The manual says to connect a separate rev counter in order to get the correct revs to give you an accurate pressure reading but for balancing purposes you don't really need this. Set the idle to about 1500rpm and turn the relevant screws - they are very sensitive.

I've done mine twice now and they were never very far out either time.

Make sure everything else is right -plugs, air filter etc before you do any balancing.

Hope this helps.

I talked with my uncle. He has a 4-tube vac gauge. I guess they make 2-tube ones, with which you'd have to move the tubes to the different bodies to complete the synch. My uncle's is 4, but it's a mercury one with glass tubes, I guess it's sort of finicky or fragile.
I called Cycle Gear, they can order one for $230 that has four tubes and comes with different lengths of hoses and stuff. The guy read the description out of the catalog, there was a bunch of stuff I wasn't too sure about. $230 is quite a bit, not sure where else to get a vac gauge... anybody else know other places? I'll check that link...

the only thing that you will be able to get in cali is digital or non mercury. i think the mercury ones are like $50.

where does your uncle live?