82 KZ750 ltd Oil in Starter coil housing.

At 11 ft-lb, you should get fine metal-to-metal contact. You can add the sealant halfway up so that it works on the outside lip of the opening. I'd avoid teflon tape, but a 'liquid' sealant should work fine.

thank you all.

it looks like i have some work to do over the weekend!

i have a clymer manual on the way and a friend who is bringing me an origonal for the bike tomorrow.

I will let you know how the repairs go!!

Patton wrote:

baldy110 wrote: Can someone explain how the above sending unit actually works. I know on most KZ engines the sending unit is made of metal and is grounded when it is screwed into the engine. The one wire on the sending unit is the ground for the oil light which is always hot. When the oil pressure builds the circuit is broken, this breaks the ground which turns out the light.
Now on the KZ1000J models the sending unit is plastic and there is only one wire coming from the sending unit. Since the housing is plastic it cannot ground to the engine, how is this circuit different from the others?

There is always connectivity between the plunger and the tip where the blue wire attaches, regardless of the plunger position (extended or compressed).

My best guess is that the extended plunger grounds against the engine case to provide a ground for the indicator bulb, being when the engine isn't running, or there's insufficient oil pressure.

And that oil pressure pushing the plunger upward interrupts the plunger's ground against the engine case, whereby the indicator bulb loses its ground.

Good Fortune!