Re: Bike losing coolant and oil on roadtrip - please help me :(
Verfasst: Do Apr 07, 2022 5:18 am
Hey guys, just an update on this...
After leaving the bike sitting for some time we decided to revisit the matter.
The first suspect was a stuck thermostat, but before that...
I did not mentioned this, but I had a hole in my original exhaust and ask a friend welder to cover it up ( that's the exhaust I took on that trip, not to upset anyone ).
I also had another exhaust with the internal muffler removed.
So, first we put the the de-restricted exhaust back. Started the bike ( took it a while to start ). No more strange noises. Then we spent the whole afternoon driving in the woods revving it hard. Nothing. No overheating, no strange noises.
Shit. Now I understand why welders don't want to work on old rusty bike exhausts ( can't blame the guy, he is not a mechanic and was doing me a favor with the best intention ). It seems that the old-original-rusted-welded exhaust got clogged.
Well, anyway, I after that I went to my trusted mechanic and explained what happened, and just asked him to evaluate if there could have been any potential damage done, and if not, to check the hard cold start issue.
He looked at the t-stat housing and said it was worth to have a look at that too ( there were signs of a small leak there, but nothing compromising ).
So, he checked the valve clearance, changed the thermostat, some o-rings and did some carb work ( see the old parts condition in the attached pic ).
Now it cold starts a lot better, no more strange noises, no overheating.
( That engine had been opened before by someone unknown under the previous owner, which could explain the rusty thermostat, everything else, time takes its toll! )
After leaving the bike sitting for some time we decided to revisit the matter.
The first suspect was a stuck thermostat, but before that...
I did not mentioned this, but I had a hole in my original exhaust and ask a friend welder to cover it up ( that's the exhaust I took on that trip, not to upset anyone ).
I also had another exhaust with the internal muffler removed.
So, first we put the the de-restricted exhaust back. Started the bike ( took it a while to start ). No more strange noises. Then we spent the whole afternoon driving in the woods revving it hard. Nothing. No overheating, no strange noises.
Shit. Now I understand why welders don't want to work on old rusty bike exhausts ( can't blame the guy, he is not a mechanic and was doing me a favor with the best intention ). It seems that the old-original-rusted-welded exhaust got clogged.
Well, anyway, I after that I went to my trusted mechanic and explained what happened, and just asked him to evaluate if there could have been any potential damage done, and if not, to check the hard cold start issue.
He looked at the t-stat housing and said it was worth to have a look at that too ( there were signs of a small leak there, but nothing compromising ).
So, he checked the valve clearance, changed the thermostat, some o-rings and did some carb work ( see the old parts condition in the attached pic ).
Now it cold starts a lot better, no more strange noises, no overheating.
( That engine had been opened before by someone unknown under the previous owner, which could explain the rusty thermostat, everything else, time takes its toll! )
