What is this rubber thingy?

While I was cleaning my engine fins on the right side, I saw this rubber thingy down against the engine:


Better shot of it (once I took it out - it was just rolling around down there!)



The really odd thing is, there was one somewhere on the other side also. That one came bouncing out while I was poking into the fins, cleaning out the oxidation. I really am not sure where it started out from!

What are these things - and more importantly - where do they go & what do they do? Looks like hard rubber dampers of some sort, but they are not notched / grovved, etc. - just cylinders.

TIA!

rubber damper from somewhere between fins;)

I am wondering if they were dampers for the coil mount? I took the coil off, to get it out of the way, and also plan on replacing it before I am done. It would explain how they ended up in the top fins, but I don't see that in the manual or kawasaki.com parts diagrams.

rubber damper from somewhere between fins

Oh yea, to keep them from banging together, right? :whistle:

It's kind of hard to tell how small or large it is from your pic, but it looks to me like one of the rubber dampers that fits onto the frame posts that the fuel tank rests on.

Wireman is correct, the rubber plug is a vibration damper that sits in the bottom of an opening in the lower portion of the jugs. If you ever pull off your jugs, there are eight of these plugs that sit in bottom of open channels and are held in place (slightly) by the base gasket. They are loose but rarely fall out or bounce out. How they worked their way to the top of the motor is a mystery. Absence of them may result in noticeable vibration noises.

It's kind of hard to tell how small or large it is from your pic

8mm in diameter, as well as 8mm thick.

sits in the bottom of an opening in the lower portion of the jugs

WTF? How on earth did they get out, unless the PO did some work and left them laying about?

Thanks for the info....

From what the Kawi website shows (ref #32 in pic below), there's supposed to be 6 of them....3 per side.


No clue as to exactely where they go in between the fins though. :huh:

Thanks retro! I just read cylinder head cover removal thru cylinder block removal in the FSM, and no mention of these little buggers.

We shall see if it shakes apart come spring! :ohmy:

Mcdroid wrote:

Wireman is correct, the rubber plug is a vibration damper that sits in the bottom of an opening in the lower portion of the jugs. If you ever pull off your jugs, there are eight of these plugs that sit in bottom of open channels and are held in place (slightly) by the base gasket. They are loose but rarely fall out or bounce out. How they worked their way to the top of the motor is a mystery. Absence of them may result in noticeable vibration noises.

theres a row of them around bottem set of fins of bigger kz cylinders:whistle:

I've seen plugs between cylinder fins on various bike engines. I always thought that at certain rpm's the fins would vibrate and make noise, and the plugs would kill the noise. More often on two strokes if I remember right.