Well I ended up plugging the green hose and putting a breather type filter on the blue hose. The bike seems to
run just as before with these changes and without the canister.
I thought I’d share my Rostra install notes, and 2010 updates.
This is not a complete install, it is just changes in wiring that I chose to do, or ones
that Kawasaki changed for me in the 2010 model. I also included my mechanical
changes as well. Please see Brian’s (BDF)
instructions for a complete install.
Electrical
Brake circuit: Since the circuits are available at the front of the bike I decided not
to run wires back to the taillight. Two of the wires needed are in the front right bundle
under the top right fairing cover. The red Rostra wire with the 4 amp fuse attaches to
the bundle red wire w/blue stripe. Terminals 86 and 87 of the relay are connected to the bundle blue wire w/red stripe.
The other relay connections remain the same.
edit: My notes on the photo could be misleading, so to be clear, you want to simply
attach Rostra wires to existing C14 wires ("tap into them"), not cut nor redirect any existing C14 wires.
Clutch switch: The clutch switch (aka: starter lockout switch) wire color
has changed* on my 2010 model. It is the left front bundle red wire w/green stripe that should be connected to the Rostra light green “NSS” wire.
(*edit: It turns out that the wire color didn't change, I just tapped in on the other side of the connector where the wire color is different. The other side of the connector still has the wire color as described in Brian's instructions. It seemed easier to get to that side of the connector for me.)
Speed sensor: The VSS or speed sensor connection is unchanged; it’s still the Rostra
gray wire to the VSS pink wire located at the lower left of the bike. Like Brian said, it is easier to make the connection if you remove the one bolt and pull the sensor out. However, Kawasaki puts that bolt in with a red thread locker and the little pieces of dried
locker need to be blown away before the sensor is pulled out so that they don’t fall down in the gearing. Best to put a rag over the hole to protect it while you are working in the area.
The other connections were the same as noted in Brian's instructions.
Mechanical
Some had noted that the cruise would have trouble or engage a little jerky if there was
too much slack in the connection to the throttle arm. I decided to try a throttle arm extension to help bring the range of motion of the Rostra unit and the throttle arm a little more in line with each other. I was going to use two 4-40 bolts and nuts but there was not enough clearance for the forward most nut. I drilled the hole in the throttle arm larger and tapped it with a 6-32 tap and didn’t use a nut behind the throttle arm.
I was trying to attach the cable bracket inside of the large wire bundle yet outside of the frame brace. During the fitting process I managed to tear up an offshoot 16 wire bundle
that was headed off into the center of the bike. I checked the one wire that was damaged and could find no breaks in it so I taped it up and with a big sigh of relief decided to mount the cable bracket
outside of the large grey wire bundle.
A lot of drilling, cutting, and filing later and I had a fairly ugly piece of metal that looked like it was going to work.
The top part fits over the frame brace and is secured by a small screw that goes into a hole that I drilled and tapped in the brace. I ran a flat piece of aluminum over from the lower bolt of the coolant tank to attach at the bottom. The bracket is just clear of the fairing pieces.
I placed the cruise module on the right side and secured it with a zip tie.
Owing to the wonderful weather conditions, this install took several days because I just
didn’t want to work that hard.
However it all seems to have paid off as I’ve never had an automobile factory cruise control work any better than this one does. I am very pleased with how this Rostra is working for me.
Thanks to BDF, Fred H., and Rhino for your postings and help. I could not have done it without you, though I might have tried.
