Re: 96 kawasaki sts wont rev over 5000
it's been a long time since i had a ski, but my first was a '95 sts.
seems like i had a similar problem at one time.
have a look at the rubber snorkels (for lack of a better word) that insert into the flame arrestor (2 of them if i remember right, fore and aft). they are oval in shape. as time went by, these oval shaped rubber snorkels were cut the the fa it self allowing the rubber snorkels to spin in the oval shaped hole. when they'd spin 90* it effectively made the intake holes smaller. two ovals placed 90* makes a smaller round hole. this air restriction was my cause of loss of rpm. new rubber snorkels was all that was needed. not saying that's the problem, but pretty easy to check out..