coolant leak, mild rant
04-02-2011, 04:42 PM
#1
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coolant leak, mild rant
so the bike started off this year with a waterpum pleak, i found the weep hole and while its running i can see it bleeding from there. ive got the parts to fix that, getting done tomorrow. after my burnout another leak started. lucky me. my buddy said it could have been the overflow, so i hoped thats all it was. ran the bike for a bit, didnt see anything, and then the other day i noticed it was there again, the leak. its on the left hand side on topf of the engine cover, right in the center of the motor. so i had dried everying off in there and waited for it to come back. and it did. adn the best i could tell it was leaking form the back of the coolant bottl, right where the line comes out. that was the only wet spot and it had fresh coolant on the bottom of it. so i tried to shove my hand in there to check for breaks or leaks, doesnt fit. and then the surgery began. do you know that youve gotta remove the carbs to get that little bottle out, and that one of the lines coming off the water pump cover get in the way of sticking a socket and extension in there to remove the bolt that holds it in place. well now you do. lol. its a pain in the *** to get out. the line looked fine but who know how it was holding out under pressure. so i cut it back an inch and a bit and put it back over the nipple. ran the bike, looked dry. put it back together. looked dry. im just hoping thats the end of that.
oh and the fairings have to come off too, yeah, its a great little saturday half afternoon project i tell ya, lol. but im hoping its fixed now, tomorrow ive gotta replace the buttons on the rotors, take off the back wheel for the new rear tire, do the clutch and waterpump bearing. and then i can start riding again
oh and the fairings have to come off too, yeah, its a great little saturday half afternoon project i tell ya, lol. but im hoping its fixed now, tomorrow ive gotta replace the buttons on the rotors, take off the back wheel for the new rear tire, do the clutch and waterpump bearing. and then i can start riding again
04-02-2011, 05:14 PM
#2
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Oh well...on a motorcycle it's understandable, since everything has to be packed into such a small area. I hear ya though.
After teaching Vocational Automotives for 34 years, up until 2 years ago, there have been many times that I wished a curse on the engineers who designed s*** like that. May they spend eternity in hell turning wrenches on that which they created.
As an example, on a Chevy Chevette (Shove-it) with A/C, you had to remove the A/C compressor to take off the distributor cap. Thankfully the last of those died long ago.
After teaching Vocational Automotives for 34 years, up until 2 years ago, there have been many times that I wished a curse on the engineers who designed s*** like that. May they spend eternity in hell turning wrenches on that which they created.
As an example, on a Chevy Chevette (Shove-it) with A/C, you had to remove the A/C compressor to take off the distributor cap. Thankfully the last of those died long ago.
04-02-2011, 05:55 PM
#3
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do you know that youve gotta remove the carbs to get that little bottle out, and that one of the lines coming off the water pump cover get in the way of sticking a socket and extension in there to remove the bolt that holds it in place. well now you do. lol. its a pain in the *** to get out.
put everything back together and had coolant leaks at numerous hoses on the sky side of the thermo-housing. both cylinder-head hoses were leaking along with the hose leading to the left radiator. i figured i must have toasted them when i was running the motor at very hot temperature trying to figure the cooling problem. ordered the front and rear cyl hoses. turns out that the rear hose doesn't exist in Honda MC's inventory. guess it'll come in the mail sometime next year after things there clear up and Honda gets enough back-orders to make it worth their while to do a production run. no problem. it turns out the hoses were fine. there was serious oxidation on the aluminum under which the hoses were attached. looked like they'd had a bad run-in with a warty toad. vinegar, lacquer thinner, straight acetone and not a dent on that crap. 220 grit sandpaper to the rescue. got 'em smoother than they ever were. i pushed the hoses back onto the thermo housing with such vigor that i didn't notice that the radiator hose was on too far... not until after i put everything back together and poured in coolant only to watch it gush out of the thermo cap which i'd tightened down onto the edge of the radiator hose. i was not pleased with myself, to put it mildly. why didn't i add coolant to check for obvious leaks Before grunting on the air-box And the fuel tank? no brains.
pulled it all off, backed up the radiator hose where it is supposed to be and added coolant before grunting on the air-box and fuel tank. no leaking. then i managed to knock over a shot of Heradura on my laptop. *poof* .
04-03-2011, 06:11 AM
#4
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sounds like you had a good day, lol. to add to the list of things, i recently found out the bearing in the swingarm of my track bike are shot, and the batery in it is toast. the battery tender was saying it was charged. the volt meter read 8 volts. we boosted it off the honda, it started, it ran for 25 minutes or so, i went outside only to find out it got hot and coolant pissed out of the over flow tube, and that once shut down the bike wouldnt start again. so itll charge the battery and the voilt meter shows it charging, the batter just wont hold a charge. im on the third battery on my honda, ive owned it for 2 years, and now i get to put one into this thing. yup the fun times never end.
atleast my buddy brougtht me some new ebc rotor buttons last night he had kicking around. mine are completely shot and ive got a ton of play in the rotors, had several people who know lots about bikes and who race look at it and everyone said theyre shot. we pulled a few out last night and the buttons were worn pretty bad. put a couple new ones in just to check and they seem to be alot better with just a couple buttons.
yeah im ranting, lol. way too many little things going wrong at the same time. just gonna deal with it one at a time and hope i dont loose my damn mind in the process. lol
atleast my buddy brougtht me some new ebc rotor buttons last night he had kicking around. mine are completely shot and ive got a ton of play in the rotors, had several people who know lots about bikes and who race look at it and everyone said theyre shot. we pulled a few out last night and the buttons were worn pretty bad. put a couple new ones in just to check and they seem to be alot better with just a couple buttons.
yeah im ranting, lol. way too many little things going wrong at the same time. just gonna deal with it one at a time and hope i dont loose my damn mind in the process. lol
04-03-2011, 01:21 PM
#7
Retired- but not tired!
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I think I heard myself saying half that stuff out loud yesterday. It was my first "get acquainted" maintenance work on my newly acquired '02. Just routine stuff I thought. New air filter, spark plugs, ditch the PAIR plumbing. Just monkeying with vacuum line to the gas petcock was a PITA. My hands are too big or the frame is packed with too much stuff.
04-03-2011, 02:41 PM
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ive had the carbs off about 100 times in the last year. im getting quite good at it. doesnt mean i like doing it. lol.
i changed the buttons on my ebc rotors today. i had a ton of slack in them. i took a video ill post up later or tomorrow. they were sloppier than this chick i picked up on vacation a few years ago. lol. huge difference now that they are bouncing around freely anymore
i changed the buttons on my ebc rotors today. i had a ton of slack in them. i took a video ill post up later or tomorrow. they were sloppier than this chick i picked up on vacation a few years ago. lol. huge difference now that they are bouncing around freely anymore
04-03-2011, 08:30 PM
#12
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well we decided to get the clutch, waterpump seal, and timing advace key done tonight. everything came off without much issue. and then the problems started. we put the new clutch plates in place and pulled the old timing key off and it came with some springs and a gear. so we decided to pull the entire clutch basket out and turns out i dont have the proper sized socket for it. lovely. so now we get to wait a couple days while my buddy goes to his shop gets the proper socket and comes back. oh and hes gotta get the rest of the waterpump gasket out. the bearing and impeller came out no problem, the rest stayed inside, so hes gonna get it out at his shop for me. so its been delayed. but being done. after this i get to ride again. cant wait
04-04-2011, 10:29 AM
#13
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well we decided to get the clutch, waterpump seal, and timing advace key done tonight. everything came off without much issue. and then the problems started. we put the new clutch plates in place and pulled the old timing key off and it came with some springs and a gear. so we decided to pull the entire clutch basket out and turns out i dont have the proper sized socket for it.
somebody i know tried to use a clicker torque-wrench on those pressure plate bolts to get them right at 9lb, or was it 12lb. anyway, this guy sheared off the heads of more than one of these bolts. when they seat, they just keep turning like liquorice. snap, snap, etc. he told me that this was quite a bummer because the necessary amount of replacement bolts was back-ordered AND these bolts are 6mm diameter i think. that makes it an adventure to get the broken ones out. left-handed drill-bits are a lot harder to find in the 21st century than they were back in the good-old days. and that's really the only way to back this bolts out without creating a very bad situation for both your level of self-esteem and your pressure plate.
the person who sheared off these bolts found left-handed bits at Grainger. finally, he did manage to clear the pressure plate miraculously without damanging it and torque down the ?6? bolts with his hand on the head of the ratchet.
-f
04-04-2011, 11:36 AM
#14
Out of my mind, back in 5
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i don't know how the serious mechanics torque down the pressure plate bolts. you might wanna ask about the proper procedure.... otherwise, things can go bad.
somebody i know tried to use a clicker torque-wrench on those pressure plate bolts to get them right at 9lb, or was it 12lb. anyway, this guy sheared off the heads of more than one of these bolts. when they seat, they just keep turning like liquorice. snap, snap, etc. he told me that this was quite a bummer because the necessary amount of replacement bolts was back-ordered AND these bolts are 6mm diameter i think. that makes it an adventure to get the broken ones out. left-handed drill-bits are a lot harder to find in the 21st century than they were back in the good-old days. and that's really the only way to back this bolts out without creating a very bad situation for both your level of self-esteem and your pressure plate.
the person who sheared off these bolts found left-handed bits at Grainger. finally, he did manage to clear the pressure plate miraculously without damanging it and torque down the ?6? bolts with his hand on the head of the ratchet.
-f
somebody i know tried to use a clicker torque-wrench on those pressure plate bolts to get them right at 9lb, or was it 12lb. anyway, this guy sheared off the heads of more than one of these bolts. when they seat, they just keep turning like liquorice. snap, snap, etc. he told me that this was quite a bummer because the necessary amount of replacement bolts was back-ordered AND these bolts are 6mm diameter i think. that makes it an adventure to get the broken ones out. left-handed drill-bits are a lot harder to find in the 21st century than they were back in the good-old days. and that's really the only way to back this bolts out without creating a very bad situation for both your level of self-esteem and your pressure plate.
the person who sheared off these bolts found left-handed bits at Grainger. finally, he did manage to clear the pressure plate miraculously without damanging it and torque down the ?6? bolts with his hand on the head of the ratchet.
-f
And it might not be a bad idea to not re-use them...
04-04-2011, 01:13 PM
#15
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replacement pressure plate bolts are not always easy to find. on first hunt, all US distributors were out and there were none in Japan. over a month waiting before a Honda production run made them plentiful again. they are made of an alloy that seems to defeat the clicker-type torque-wrench design.
how do you torque them properly? does a beam-type torque wrench work for these?
--fred
04-04-2011, 05:32 PM
#16
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ha. yeah. i should have stamped "not too tight!" onto the pressure plate.
replacement pressure plate bolts are not always easy to find. on first hunt, all US distributors were out and there were none in Japan. over a month waiting before a Honda production run made them plentiful again. they are made of an alloy that seems to defeat the clicker-type torque-wrench design.
how do you torque them properly? does a beam-type torque wrench work for these?
--fred
replacement pressure plate bolts are not always easy to find. on first hunt, all US distributors were out and there were none in Japan. over a month waiting before a Honda production run made them plentiful again. they are made of an alloy that seems to defeat the clicker-type torque-wrench design.
how do you torque them properly? does a beam-type torque wrench work for these?
--fred
Other then that, drop of med loctite and snug them up with a 1/4 drive ratchet
04-04-2011, 06:48 PM
#17
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hmmm. i ...i mean the guy who was twisting off bolts... was using a Craftsman 3/8" inch/lb tqw that cost a fraction of $250. i can't wait to tell my wife that i need buy a new, very expensive, wrench!
04-07-2011, 04:27 AM
#18
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well shes more or less back together. clutch went in last night, it worked, well we watched it engage and disengage. lol. timing advance went into the bike. but the engine cover on, hit the button she fired right away. been starting really well in the cold weather. wondering if my jetting may be off by a bit for the warm weather. ill wait and see how she reacts when it warms up. didnt run her for more than a few seconds as there isnt any coolant in the system yet, just wanted to make sure the ignition advancer was working. so far so good. maybe sunday ill put the plastics back on burp the cooling system and go for a little ride. maybe ill find some nice clean sweepers and break in the brand new back tire too. cant go around with chicken strips, people might talk about me
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