Soooo...you guys are saying I should discard the old o-ring every time I do an oil change and use the new one??

 

As mentioned the cap will only bolt on in the correct orientation, the bolt holes will not line up otherwise.
The Fram filter, sold at Advance auto and wallmart, comes with an O ring that seems to fit better than the wix o ring. I had the same trouble trying to get a Wix O ring to work. I ended up using the old one, and as others have said , have not changed the O-ring each time i changed the filter since.
I mentioned the fram o-ring because it would be easier to get than ordering a new OEM o ring.
good luck
Dan

 

Theres supposed to be an O-ring ????


No wonder i'm leaking oil all over the place. I just thought that Kawasaki was trying to be more like Harley Davidson .....

 

If you have problems getting that cover on I would be real worried about how the spring is situated and also whether you have the filter in backwards.

You were stranded because you ran OUT of oil? Whoa, that's not cool.

 

Ok, I just pulled mine off to check. You're right! Learned something new today AND I didn't mess up my o-ring putting it back on. Thanks for eliminating one thing from my OCD list.

 

Kawasaki is thinking for you, on that one.

 

I had difficulty the first time I changed the filter and (yes) the O ring! The mechanic at my local Kawi dealer said put some "grease" on it! Not oil like you would do on an auto filter, but grease! I did that and, WTF it went on/in pretty easy. I have done this a couple of times since with no problems with new O rings and filters. Obviously from those who claim not to change out the O ring they are having success also. Personally, I would rather change it out but maybe I need to re-think that it may not be necessary?

 

The OEM Kawi filter and the Tusk brand from RMATV don't include the o-ring otherwise I would have changed mine. Is it just the WIX version that includes it?

 

I always looked at it like if it aint broke dont fix it... I would only replace the o ring if it was leaking oil.

 

Nah, I definitely have the spring in correctly and the filter is not backwards. I also made sure I have the cap going in the correct way. The only problem is the o-ring is too big. After looking at it closely last night I could see it wasn't even sitting in the groove correctly, it's just a little too big and the excess rubber makes it impossible to get the cap on. So, as someone else suggested I will go get a Fram filter, and if the o-ring fits better I will probably leave alone forever.

Also, I didn't run out of oil completely. I pulled up to a stop light right before I got on the interstate and when I put my foot down it was kind of slippery. So I looked down to see if I just stopped on top of an oil spill and saw that it was dripping out of the filter pretty quickly. So I immediately shut it off and pushed it into a parking lot nearby. Then had it towed back to my house. So there wasn't any damage done to the engine because thank god I saw it leaking before I got on the interstate.