My starter has been making some bad sounds lately. Today after a lot of use at our yearly DS rally, I think it quit, there are grindy sounds when I hit the starter and a few times it would just lock up or not turn the engine over.

I am thinking I need to pull the alternator rotor and do some investigating, I can't always stop on the top of a hill!

The manual says I need a special flywheel holder & rotor puller. Anyone been in there & used typical pullers from the autoshop?
Have any tips?
Or should I just ride it over to the Kawasaki dealer and let them deal with it?

Second Carb issue: Bike ran fine yesterday, today it started idling real fast, if you turn the idle down, it dies. At the end of the ride it was idling at about 3500. Sometimes you could get it to idle down with out dying (with a lot of luck), but it would start to slowly creep up again. I checked the choke, throttle cable, external moving parts and everything seemed A OK.
It is a Mikuni TM33-34. I thought it was an air leak on the intake, but it was sucking gas unbelievable, thank goodness I took extra & borrowed some, or I would still probably be out there.
Otherwise it ran fine, although it would never idle down below about 3500, I just let it rev & used the brake to slow down. By the time I realized I had a serious issue I was 30miles into the woods
I am planning on taking it out and cleaning it, any other suggestions or comments?

 

On the starter, it's usually the brushes that go. The grinding could just be from poor or lack of proper engagement due to a lack of current...or something else.

I'm with you on suspecting the air leak first, but if you've eliminated that possibility, then on to something else. I'm also thinking of something mechanical here...binding in a cable or the linkage...or a problem with the return spring mechanism. I'd guess your 34 is like my 36 in the 3-post spring design on the return spring. Is this functioning as intended?

Our Mikuni pumpers are pretty simple on guaranteeing a good throttle closure. You didn't mention whether you're using the push/close cable on your carb...I'm only using a pull cable.

 

On the trail I observed all the linkages external to the carb, everything was releasing down to the idle screw adj at the carb, the throttle cable had slack in it at idle.... so I am thinking internal. I am running a single cable setup now.
Last night I thought of seeing if the kouba screw fell out, but I am having breakfast. I guess that would be an easy fix.

OK, I checked the kouba screw, it was OK. I found out the problem with the carb, too! I got loose rocks in the head, the choke was pulled! Duh!

 

LOL!...well, that was simple. Did you not shut the choke **** after warmup or did something pull it out while riding?

 

Well, I don't rightly remember, I must have used the choke that morning, as I had no putdowns on sunday. I usually don't even mess with the choke on starting here in AZ, it was about 60, so I guess I am not used to checking that since I don't use it much. Also we had a bunch of sitting around before the start, & I must have forgot.
I'll check those brushes, that could be it as the starter has slowly been loosing umph since the big bore.

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about cleaning up my starter and installing a brush kit just for grins at this stage of its life. If I recall, the kit it less than $10.

 

OK, I tore into the starter, everything looked fine, gears, armature, brushes still had about 1/8" of use left. So I buttoned it back together & started her up. It started, but made the typical clank clank noise of the kawa's, except much much louder.
I went out to record the sound to post, this time it would not turn over, just made a sound similar to holding a shovel into a grinding wheel. I'm thinking it is the starter clutch or something behind the alternator rotor.

So, anyone on the puller question?

 

I use a M20 wheel stud with a 19mm nut welded to the flat top. I use a four way metric wheel wrench on the 19mm nut to pop the flywheel off. Wheel studs are rated to take about 480 ft pounds of torque without stripping out.

Specs: 20mm x 1.5R [right] thread pitch. Need about an inch and a half long. You can get by with a shorter length by putting a stack of washers in the hole before the flywheel puller. Fastenal, Ag supply, tractor dealer, tire shop, truck shop......I've gotten by using a M20 oil drain plug. Have lots of washers on hand cuz you'll need to back the plug out and add washers as the rotor comes off.....

 

I think I understand....
How did you hold the flywheel from turning when you loosened & tightend the rotor?

I'm think this would not be too difficult. I've split cases before, but that thing sounds like it is really solid on the tapered shaft.
rotor bolt is spec'd with 88 ft-lbs torque & a tapered fitting. Sounds pretty solid, might need a cheater bar to get it off.

 

I could have sworn that I saw a post here that mentioned that the axle shaft is the right thread size and pitch to use as a puller.