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[wwaggett]

2002 1800R 54000 miles

A couple of weeks ago I noticed the red temperature light while riding in stop and go traffic. To make a long story short...

Turns out the fan motor switch was out and was not switching the fan on when needed. Drained fluid and replaced fan motor switch and all is good...

Well, now there is a very small coolant leak coming from the bottom bolt on the water pump housing. My guess is this happened while it was overheating...

Question 1.

How hard is it to replace the gasket for the water pump housing? The service manual is not very clear on the removal of the other parts around the water pump housing. I have the gasket, o-rings and new flange bolts that I ordered from HDL.

Question 2.

Should I replace the water pump while I am in there?

As far as  know, the water pump is the original. I have not had any problems with overheating since I changed the fan motor switch. I just keep a good eye on the reserve coolant tank and make sure it is at the right level.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Warren

[snake]

WWaggett, it depends. If the leak is coming from the pump itself...it will not get better. Mileage is not really a factor, some go out at 8K, some at 50k. Overheating would throw another unknown factor into it. I'd suggest a pressure test to see where the leak is originating.

[RedDragon]

More than likely it is the water pump, it has been a common problem on a lot of the early models. I know Mike (Bluestreak) had to replace his.

[Crewsn]

when you say it's coming from the bottom bolt, do you mean the bolt you remove to drain the fluid? if so then you may need to replace the washer from when you drianed it previously or it may just be a gasket.

typically when the pump goes bad it will begin leaking from the weep hole on the undeside of the pump. it's hard to see, i used a little mirror from the wifes make-up case to look up under the pump. when you get the leak from the weep hole it means there has been an internal failure of the pump.

I would say that if you are going to the trouble to take out the pump to replace a gasket i would replace the whole pump if for nothing more than piece of mind. BTW, I had mine replaced under warranty at 22,000 miles. extended warranty. here is a link from the national board with some good pics of a bad pump, good luck and ride safe.

http://www.vtxoa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=215716&highlight=waterpump