Why is oil leaking from here??

I just put together an entirely rebuilt machine and took it for a ride. Oil was leaking badly enough out of this hole (please see picture below) that it was dripping on the ground. This is the identical hole to where the ground wire connects to the engine but on the opposite side. I've never seen anything come out of here. Any ideas??

Is it possible that the breather filter is dumping it into the motor mount (shown below)? Is that area even connected to that hole? I'm perplexed...:huh:

Is that a casting defect opening up or did it leak before the rebuild? I'm guessing this is inside the clutch cover mechanism on the left side of the bike.

Looks like you have a hole in the case thats not supposed to be there...was there a bolt there that broke off during the rebuild,taking the cases apart,or??

Looks to me like it broke a chain at one time and it busted the case. Pretty common on early Honda 750 4's before good chains. Never seen it on a Kawasaki before, even on my early 73 Z1 I beat the crap out of. JB Weld to the rescue !!!

The hole is perfectly machined, not broken or anything like that. I actually didn't split the cases this time (had just done the bottom end recently). It never leaked from there before so I'm stumped now. I'm thinking that all KZ's have that hole but I need to do some more checking...

In the picture it looked to me like a busted hole, thus my reasoning. Oh well, wrong again !:dry:

mtkawboy wrote:

In the picture it looked to me like a busted hole, thus my reasoning. Oh well, wrong again !:dry:

Yea, it's a real bad picture and the shadow makes it look oddly shaped. I just went out to get a picture with some light and had a thought (yea I know, that's amazing). I took a nylon cable tie and put it into the hole and out it popped right up by the motor mount on the top rear of the engine. I think that pretty much confirms my suspicion that my breather filter was pouring oil into there. Very weird!! Never had anything like that happen before.

Now I need to figure out why the crankcase is spewing so much oil...

At least the mystery is solved - I was worried!

OK, I'm going to hi-jack my own thread here -
Why is it that some bikes need a catch can for the crankcase breather?

Is it necessary to use a catch can with a low profile breather cover like the APE one I have on mine?

Can I just route a longer, more vertical hose with a filter on the end or will that cause junk to run back into the engine? I'm confused...:S :S

My first inkling is too much oil in the crankcase, other than that who knows.

Is the low-profile cover new to the bike?
Just wondering if it was leaking with the old one(original one):huh:

You should try putting a hose on it and then put the filter on the end of the hose.