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Puddle in the Garage - Coolant



The other day I came into the garage to find a puddle under the bike.
"Oh, No! Not the dreaded fuel leak daemon! But I don't smell anything?"

Insert Cheech and Chong here, Smell, touch, taste ... not gas. Turns out
the ST's coolant is blue green in color. I give the bike the quick once
over and it appears to have run down the inside of the shifter side of
the faring and exited at the joint between it and the lower. It was
nothing more than a table spoon or so.

I had rode home in second gear the night before just to keep the revs up
(4.8 miles posted 40 MPH) as my mechanic had suggested. So, when I
parked it, it was a bit hot. I figured that it was just some blow off
and I would check later. Ride to work and nothing.
That night ride home, not revving, and no sooner do I get a flatted
cardboard box under it, it starts dripping fluid. Visions of the cracked
radiator problem suffered by some jumps to mind.

Well to make a long story long, I pull the faring and give it a look
over. The filler is actually a separate part connected to radiator. and
sits above it. The lowest mounting was wet and it didn't look like
splatter. Hmmm..... Clean every thing off with a towel. Start up the
bike and run it for a bit revving up and down simulating the trip home.

We got fluid NASA!

The filler piece is actually a two piece unit that I suspect houses the
thermostat. Give the bolts on the unit a quick tightening and dry
everything again, run it through the cycle once more. Dry as a bone!

So, moral of the story if you are finding fluid on your floor and on the
radiator, don't jump to the conclusion it's the radiator. Mine was a
simple shade tree fix with no need to visit the dealer.

I also found most all the cap nuts on the hard bags had worked loose
also.

I recently replaced the shifter with the one piece unit, the shifter rod
had broken at the threads. In the process I found that the lever
attached to the splined shifter shaft on the engine was very loose. No
telling how long this had been like that. This can greatly effect shift
performance and false neutrals.

This just reinforces the need to periodically go through the bike and
check that all those nuts and  bolts haven't become loose as they so
often do.

Neil
99 ST (Shadow)


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