Thermostat Housing Leakage

[86Royale]

Hey Guys,

 

Well, it wasn't 2 days I'd had the new bike home and it started marking its territory with a few drops of green. A little investigation showed the thermostat housing to be the culprit. Now, I'd bought it at a shop where it had been kept nice and warm, whereas I only have cold storage, and of course, it had been around 10 degrees when I noticed this. I was wondering if this is something I might be able to expect as it looks like the housing is plastic, or am I gonna have to go in after it? If I have to go in, the manual that I downloaded seems to be a bit vague, how the heck do I get to it? They made that a little tight.

[Condor]

Hey Guys,

 

Well, it wasn't 2 days I'd had the new bike home and it started marking its territory with a few drops of green. A little investigation showed the thermostat housing to be the culprit. Now, I'd bought it at a shop where it had been kept nice and warm, whereas I only have cold storage, and of course, it had been around 10 degrees when I noticed this. I was wondering if this is something I might be able to expect as it looks like the housing is plastic, or am I gonna have to go in after it? If I have to go in, the manual that I downloaded seems to be a bit vague, how the heck do I get to it? They made that a little tight.

 

The 'O' ring in the housing is the culprit. Fairly easy to replace, and there are write up on the board about it. My 83 only 'dribbles' when it gets down into the 30"s. Otherwise it's fine. I suppose I'll have to R&R mine when if it gets any worse, but for now I'll let it do it's thing since it doesn't get down in the 30 degs area very often....

[loehring]

I had the same issue this year on the fist really cold day. I had to pull the hoses and the right front pipe to get to it. I couldn't find a gasket locally so I used some seal at the time. It has worked fine but I noticed the same issue only less on the ends of the elboe joint that connects to the water pump. I have to rebuild my starter tomorrow and have to remove the therm. housing to get the starter out so I went ahead and ordered the gaskets for the housing and the joint at the same time as the parts for the starter. I wish they made some of these things easier to get to. I feel like I'll be pulling half the front end to get to everything.

 

I will say that this is the first year I've had the problem with the coolant leak though and I have about 90k on the bike. I don't think this is a serious issue, just old gaskets that have finally lost their seal. The cold just loosened them. It's a pain but not expensive. I plan on using the seal along with the new gaskets.

[86Royale]

Thanks guys, that gives me quite a bit more to go on. Think I may have jumped the gun a little, though. I dried it off and went back to check it about 30 minutes later and it was really obvious that it was leaking from the hose into the housing from the radiator. Loosened, repositioned and retightened the clamp and so far it's holding. Fingers crossed.