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I've done the S/B swaps, and outlined how to modify the original end caps to tighten up the "crush" on the O rings at both the old place, and here. It's simple, the O ring crushes flat, and loses its sealing tension/crush. Machining the end cap to give more crush tension on the O ring stops the leaks, both ways.
Most people don't realize that they see a service bulletin, written out of tech services, and they assume only tech services people had anything to do with it. What happened more than not, is, we all had opportunities to look at issues, and worked together to get mods and fixes done. We spoke with tech services, service department, six days trials and motocross, all mechanical and electrical departments to help each other get fixes for problems and issues on all bikes. Racing, ALL raving helped make the entire breed better, no matter what it was. We all worked together, because we all loved the entire Kawasaki lines back then.
In 1973, there were issues with a couple of the smaller single cylinder bikes. Dealers were telling of failures in certain areas. We had all the racing and tech sectors in one building, different places, but, mostly, all together. We used to go in in Saturdays, and run the bikes, but mostly, couldn't repeat the failures. One day, one of the tech services guys brought his two kids to the shop, wife told him she'd murder 'em if they stayed at home that day. After abut a half hour, the kids were just out of hand all the way. So, we got the bright idea to put 'em on bikes, let 'em go ride in the open field next door, on the improvised tack we all used. First bike pushed back in less than 5 minutes, with "It's broke". Other bike back two minutes later, "It's broke". We put 'em on two more bikes, and that lasted all of 20 minutes, BUT, those kids ended up with a job for the rest of the year, unofficial motorcycle test rider killers. We weren't riding the bikes as hard as we should have, and cared about them way past what a new rider did. Those kids helped us a lot to find and fix a lot of problems before they got to dealers, and when dealers had issues in the field.
The best tester/killer was Windy Briggs's son, Dennis. He became a test rider later on, and racer, dirt bikes, flat trackers, and was the only person that could wheelie an MT1 farther than me around Laguna Seca. I could go about 3-1/2 laps on the rear wheel only, Dennis routinely did it for 5 plus laps. He only stopped because he got hungry and/or thirsty.
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