1. Does anyone out there know the extent of the lubrication
system on the KLR (I've got a 93)??
That is...Kawasaki designed the KLR engine with what's called a
common sump, or primary drive oil bath lubrication system.
The reason I ask is because when removing the generator engine
cover, I found grey-ish grease on the stator trigger coil (that fat
cube thing that tells plug when to fire) and the permanent magnets
inside the generator flywheel (magneto-tomatoe). When I asked Fred
what type of grease to use when reassembling the bike, he told me
there shouldn't be any grease there. There shouldn't be any
significant amount of grease or oil in the stator area he said.
So I found this grease as well as oil on the casing behind the
stator, and lastly,
Fred said (sorry for so many "Fred saids", Fred, but you're the
deal) that if this was the situation, then I had a bad/ leaking
crankshaft seal. That's the last I heard on this topic but I still
ask.....what crankshaft seal? I've not pulled the flywheel off, but I
don't see any seal pictured or written about in the manuals. It
appears neither the crankshaft, idler shaft, nor two balancer shafts
have seals between them and the inside casings. The only shaft that
visually, as well as in the manual clearly utilizes a seal is the
drive or "front sprocket" shaft.
2. That given, I don't see how oil could NOT get in to this area.
The starter clutch, cam and balancer chains are within the range of
the lube systems' oil bath aren't they??? Or aren't they??
The flywheel-stator assembly isn't nearly as isolated casing wise,
as I've seen on other bikes, where behind the flywheel, it's all
engine casing. On the KLR, behind the flywheel it's not very closed
off, you still see all the guts hanging out.
So that's what I mean by asking "what's the extent of the oil
bath".
I hope this all makes sense and someone out there can tell me if
they
found grease and oil on theirs.
By the way, I have the engine out of the frame, and on an engine
stand (I proudly built myself). The stand allows me to turn the
engine
360* laterally, which I had done before removing the cover, which I
wonder???? might explain the oil there (though not the grease).
Last two things: Is it possible oil came in through the balancer
tensioner screw? I can see that my o -ring there is bad on two sides.
or, could it be that oil got in through poorly sealed
case bolt holes. I found hardened liquid sealant (like hard silicone)
inside some of the generator cover bolt holes, but not in others.
Like
it had hardened and maybe fallen in or out.
Well I feel like some listers are gonna read all this and may
think I'm a pain in the ass, but what can I say....I love mechanical
work so talking, writing about this stuff is a fascination for me.
Hell, I wish I had the $$ to build a machine shop in my garage!
Thanks for any help,
Jaime.