Alternator / Stator cover grommet replacement

I just replaced this piece recently to kill a drip, and ran into some problems and subsequent solutions I thought I'd throw up here for other people that are lookin for help on it. So, FWIW...

First of all, if you've got that braided cloth insulator then you're just going to want to make a new wiring harness. Oil will just wick through that stuff and you're still leaking.

Take off the shifter, remove your sprocket cover, follow the wire loom from the stator cover back to the blue connector under the left side cover, and unplug it. Cut through the wire loom to expose the wires, clip all the wires up near the blue multiconnector with plenty of room to solder it up later.

Pull the old grommett, clean up the mating surfaces on the case and the engine so you can put in a new gasket. Pull out the stator. There are some "clips" holding the wire leads down. Bend them up so you can get to the wires.. cut through the heat shrink there, and you'll get soldered terminals. Unsolder it, solder in some brand spankin new wire, heat shrink your connections, run the wires through the new grommet.

Be VERY VERY careful when you're futzing around with the thick coil wire coming off of the stator.. you break it down low and you're going to have a bear of a hard time dealing with it.. ask me how I know.

I'd go ahead and run a multimeter to the ends of the leads at this point. Make sure that nothing is shorted or open. Resistance should read something like half an ohm between any two pairs. When you're satisfied that it's in running order, gather up those oil pressure and neutral wires with your three new wires, solder em up to the old blue connector, and wrap em all up with some heat shrink or electrical tape or whatever you want.


Took me about two hours and it's really quite lovely.

i have been thinking about changing where the harness enters/exits,instead of on the bottom im thinkin weld up the original hole and relocate the hole higher up the side, the chance of leaks would be reduced "i think" then i would use a nice small flexible chrome cover/sleeve to go over the harness,im gonna give it a try on a 900 im puttin together.

Sounds like a sweet idea.

Where would you run that chrome conduit, back under the sprocket cover, or somewhere up higher?

Funny out of over 20 KZs I've owned, I've never leaked one drop from that stator cover on any of them.

i was thinkin if done properly i it would not look so bad runnin up high on the outside of the cover.

I've never had my alternator cover off, and fortunately nothing has ever leaked from there. Is it normal for oil to accumulate inside the alternator cover, or is there an oil seal that's suppose to keep it dry in there? The reason I ask is that if it's suppose to be dry, and you plug up the leak or move the wire hole higher there may be a risk that the alternator may end up submerged in oil and fail. If the alternator is suppose to be in oil I guess there's no problem. Ed

Yes, or should it be no? I had the same "scare" originally, last year, when I removed my stator cover. DAMN, this thing's full of oil! It should be. I've also contemplated the gromet move suggestion. Just haven't done it yet.

They have some oil in there. I'm not 100% sure if it's just leakage and no way to escape from the cover or meant for a little cooling of the stator or what. They will never "fill" with oil, just have a few ounces in there when you remove the stator cover. I've never had one leak even after removing the cover.

okay ron we get it you never had one leak.

Sorry, I just meant there is really no reason to worry, like going through relocating the grommet ect. By all odds it should never ever leak and the grommet should never need to be altered. Put a little Yamabond #4 on the grommet is the most serious repair this should ever be.

nothin to be sorry about ron, i have seen dozens of these gromets leaks,i dont think kawasaki thought they should never/ever leak thats why they made extra ones, i know your a real big fan of stock im not, changing the location of the gromet is just a little personal touch i would not mind adding to one of my engines.

I think Ron's running 90 weight.