Had a go with JB Weld today: Cleaned up with fine sand paper - still did not see a hole/crack And here it is with JB Weld on top XD Shall I hope for the best or order a chinky ?
With the amount that you have slapped on there, I would order another bucket of JB weld if I were you!
You can see I've only used 20% of that tube... It was my first time using this stuff and was quite surprised how far such little amount goes :relaxed: It was hard to mix, used a stick to apply and mix but then ended up using a rubber glove to smear it around better . I really hope it holds as I cannot be bothered to take it all apart again. Judging by the coolant fluid and drain valve it was never changed before.
Put the Chinky rad on and filled with coolant this evening. No leaks, but I'll leave for 24 hours before running up as I don't have time tonight. Pros - Fits fine and went in OK. Easier to fill with coolant, like it flows through the rad more quickly. I use goopy waterless coolant and it took about a 1/3 of the time to fill the system. Cons - The LHS fan wouldn't turn when I bolted everything up, I found it catching the throttle cables. Comparing it to the original rad, the bottom bracket was further forward, pushing the radiator backwards. Loosened it off and bent the bracket into the correct position and the fan span fine. Probably as a result of the Yodel clown. It also didn't have a captive nut on the bottom of the rad as per the original (pictured). My original was stripped anyway and I had a nut in there. I just reused that nut.
Not a bad list of cons at all, especially considering the price you paid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
put mine all back together and no leak! I had to flush the system about 10 times to get all the brown gunk out. Then put new antifreeze in, and fired her up . Fans came on at 100C and all is ok
Decided to find the point of my leak tonight. It's on the top row of the rad core, just under the LH fixing bracket (exactly as expected). I blocked off the upper and lower hose points, put an air line in the rad cap hole and used some washing up detergent / water brushed on to find the exact point of the leak. I'll repair with metal epoxy and keep as a spare as the rad is basically good apart from this.
Ran the bike today with the pattern rad. No leaks and all looks good. Fans cut in at 103° and the temperature dropped rapidly. I cut the fins out of the original rad around the leak and fixed with liquid metal for the full depth of the rad. Once dry I'll test and keep as a spare.
So what seems to be the cause of the failure? pin holes/cracking? are the failures always in the same section of the rad?
Not sure but I am guessing that the main radiator mounting is just above and slightly inboard of the standard fault place, the two water pipes are outboard of it. It could be that vibration and stress is concentrated on this area. There are two different part numbers for the radiator and as far as I now the later one has more metal bracing along the top.
Great stuff thanks. Mine went today. Inspected and got a face full of coolant in fine spray from under left bracket. I note the knock off part has risen in price significantly!
Weld or cheap part..... who do I trust more. hmmmm. Close one. Given that I have to take it apart I'm going to follow the robarano route and fit the import and repair the other as a spare. Question. How on earth are you refilling with coolant? They dont seem to have left any room to remove the cap??????
If you are lazy like me then it can be done by just wedging the cap off and prying a funnel in there. Or you could always take the nose fairing and ram air intakes off and then have easy access
getting some deja vu on this thread as I believe I already commented somewhere but thanks to Robarano acting as guinea pig, I got a rad for £58 posted just for a spare and very happy with it on inspection. Off-topic but full silicon hose set is still available also from China/1098 etc for £25 posted!!! mine arrived around 3 weeks ago and quality is fine, I think only available in red at that price.
lazy, yup that'd be me. I hoped there'd be a gap. I was going to slip some thin tubing from a funnel in but couldn't imagine if there was room or not. Cheers, Ed.
It is possible to remove the RH air tube with the nose cone in place. There are 3 screws holding the air tube to the airbox A bolt (10mm iirc) at the front of the air tube going into the headlight. It's easy to slip a ratchet spanner up there to undo it A rubber boot that forms the joint between the air intake on the headlight and the air tube. Once they are undone, just pull the side of the nosecone out slightly and pull the air tube out. It's certainly quicker than removing the mirrors and full nose cone etc. I've done this a few times now with no problems. I think you'll be on hours filling the system with a small funnel and a piece of hose, and I do mean hours.
