Ninja EX500 carbs on an XS650?

Well the ones I scored were $35. I win. Wait, the throttle plates were stuck, the slides were stuck, and they smelled like satan himself. But Pinesol works. Smells but works. And carb cleaner. And elbow grease.

I also want to stress the importance of the bowl vent, mine came broken and in my impatience I just electrical taped it. It does not work. Well, it works in the garage or when it's warm but the colder days just made things weird. I replaced that T fitting with an intact one with new o-rings and it's loads better. The broken one had bad o-rings and a lengthwise crack all the way on one side.

I run mine without any hose. According to the ninja forums that is the way to go, I tried with or without and it didn't make any difference.
 
I have become incredibly intrigued with doing the EX500 Swap. I stand to do some tuning on my cleaned / throttle seal replaced BS38's now that I've got everything together. It's running way too rich at idle, which can be fixed. But I would rather upgrade/replace with newer components.

The engine is 2nd over pistons (75.5mm bore), XS Performance 1 3/4" Stainless Steel Head Pipes with 650 Central EPO/TPO's. PAMCO with the mechanical advance still.

So, let me know if I've missed something. I'll need :

I suspect I'd be best off getting a selection of needles / Jets to get my setup dialed in
 
Cafe-Dave said:
I have become incredibly intrigued with doing the EX500 Swap. I stand to do some tuning on my cleaned / throttle seal replaced BS38's now that I've got everything together. It's running way too rich at idle, which can be fixed. But I would rather upgrade/replace with newer components.

The engine is 2nd over pistons (75.5mm bore), XS Performance 1 3/4" Stainless Steel Head Pipes with 650 Central EPO/TPO's. PAMCO with the mechanical advance still.

So, let me know if I've missed something. I'll need :

I suspect I'd be best off getting a selection of needles / Jets to get my setup dialed in
Click to expand...

I would also get the 40 pilots / 140 mains. It seems that the new go to needles are the jjj's instead of the gjh's. I would also get a couple of the needle shims for fine tuning the needle. The stock ex500 cables are going to be too short for our use. I have a set of stock ex500 cables that I could send you for measurement purposes, if you can cover the shipping and send them on to the next person who needs to measure, once my new ones come in from motion pro. With drag bars and 3" risers the cables were about 3" short on the throttle and 5" short on the enricher. So if you are running anything besides probably clip-ons they are going to be short.
 
Sounds good. If I need to get cables made, I'll just use a SV650 throttle housing/R6 tube! That way it looks "right" mounted next to my SV650 Master cylinder on my SV650 front end!
 
I'm still running the GJH needles but on clip #5 now. All I can say is WOW! Acceleration is strong, transitions are seamless, and the motor sounds fantastic. The bike has a feel to it like it's never had before. I'm not even sure how to explain it. There is just a harmony to it. Riding this bike feels as natural as walking.

The JJJ needles are a good start but I encourage you to try some others. My bike ran well with the JJJ needles but with the GJH I'm getting better mileage, power, sound and feel. Obviously, every bike is different but that's why it pays to play around with it a bit.

An alternative to the GJH needle would be the GFH. It has the same taper and diameter but is 3Â-1/2 steps shorter (richer). The GFH on clip #1 is the same as the GJH on clip #4 with a shim.
 
Double sold.

I have a set of 1999 EX-500 carbs en route. I bought them by posting a Want To Buy at http://www.ex-500.com

A couple of days and $60 later, on the way!

I still have to source the remaining components, but they can all be bought new. Shouldn't be a problem. I'll probably be right at $200 for the entire setup. I will have a really nice set of 1975 BS38's w/ pod filters available soon ;)

I'll measure the cables and have Motion Pro make me some using a SV650 throttle housing which has the Run/Stop switch integrated. Should be pretty bad ass.

Thanks for all the write ups everyone. MrRiggs, I'm plying your information mostly. I'll continue forward with all your needle suggestions. I suspect it'll go perfectly.
 
Every time I get on this thing, I am amazed at how well it runs. The weather sucks but I still have a big stupid smile on my face. It's an absolute joy to ride.

Raising the needle had no effect on the mileage, still 54 mpg, so I am done messing with them. It's got gobs of power, great fuel economy, and there aren't enough oh's in the word smooth to describe how it feels.

Final setup; 38 pilots, 138 mains, GJH needles, clip #5, plastic donut spacers.

I also want to mention that it was 22°F this morning and these carbs didn't miss a beat. When I was running the PWK carbs, the throttle froze in the open position on many occasions. These CVK carbs have a push-pull throttle so that isn't a worry anymore.
 
Thanks a lot for your contribution mrriggs. Next jetsrus order I'll try those needles out. By "plastic donut" I guess you mean that you add a little pre-load to the slide springs? I'll have to try and stretch them see if it changes anything... Really reluctant to go in there and fiddle they run so well right now.

Oh I can confirm that they work fine in the rain also :D Smooth is the word, I no longer worry that it's going to die when idling at 1k rpm, and it makes me feel like a british bikes old-timer when it starts first half-kick on a cold morning after having sat for days.
 
I ordered jets and needles from Allens Performance UK (http://www.allensperformance.co.uk/). They had all the jets and needles and they ship at least in Europe. Service is a bit slow but they seem to have all the Keihin stuff that is impossible to find in Finland.

I actually ordered the HKJ needles as per mrriggs earlier suggestions. I'm hoping they'll work ok.

I should be able to test the carbs in the next two weeks. I'll let you know.

Pekka
 
Tested the carbs today. Stock needles with 40/140 pilot and main. After left side carb bowl stopped overflowing the bike started and idled real nice. Was not able to ride since the roads are covered with ice... Now its time to start the annual teardown/rebuild.

Pekka
 
56nomad: Yes. But only because I knew is would not be able to ride it and I was too lazy to put the new needles in. It idled nice but did not respond to throttle too well ;)

Pekka
 
Hi kbtoy 79 xs just looked over the web site.carb update sounds greats a few questions what is the best year carbs to use do i use a ninja throttle assy.where can i get custom made throttle cables and do i have to do nail head neddle update,or cani just use the jjj neddle with a clip and spacer thanks
 
kbtoy, depending on how creative you are there are alot of throttle assemblies that are available that can be made to work. When I first did the swap I had Kawasaki Z1 controls because I liked the look of them. Recently I switched all of my wiring and the hand control over to EX500 parts. I had to have custom cables (longer than stock length) made by Motion Pro which were kinda spendy but I now have a fully functional push/pull throttle and bar mounted choke lever.
 
By going to the EX500 switches and wiring they were pretty straight forward but there was quite a bit of wiring changes elsewhere on the bike. The EX500 has alot of things that were not needed on my build but it gave me some options. When I had the Z1 switches I did all the wiring from scratch so it was a matter of studying the wiring diagrams and going for it. For some people wiring is a pain in the A$$ but if you can read a wiring diagram it is more than doable.
 
I looked at several options on a throttle and cables. I have an 80 Honda CM400. It has a push/pull throttle. The controls have just a engine stop switch and start button. It looks fairly clean and it should wire into my bike easy enough. I will have to come up with a headlight switch or wire up a relay to turn the headlight on like the later models do.
It has high bars so I know the cables are long enough. I found one on ebay for $40 shipped.
A bit of lube on the cables and they work well. I can attach the 82 XS650 left side controls and have the enrichener lever or get the enrichener cable like the Honda has. Just a pull knob mounted on a bracket off the handle bar riser, it should mount under most any bolt.
Leo
 

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