Attempted to install the parts received the day before, with the following results:
- Temperature Sensor / Gauge sending unit. The sensor was a different size, and had a different type of connector on it. The new one had a male spade connection, and the old had a push-on, barrel connection. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to chop off the old connector without splicing in the new female spade connector, or else I’d be screwed if the new sensor didn’t work right. While I was contemplating this, I decided to take a resistance measurement on the new and old sensors. When tested, the new sensor showed no impedance whatsoever. So I ran it under 110 degree tap water to heat it up, and tested again. Nothing. It was a complete “open” circuit. Once again, I decided to go against instinct, and to follow what they told me to do. I spliced in the female spade connector, installed the sensor, and moved on to the thermostat.
- The thermostat was identical to the original one, or the one the dealer put in, whichever it was. I decided to put the new one in.
- The radiator was, indeed, bigger than my original radiator. This is the only reason I bothered to go through with these repairs, hoping that this would somehow mysteriously fix the problem. However, this radiator had a few problems. The first was that the overflow pipe connection was 180 degrees from where the 2006 one was. This meant that hard right angle fittings would have to be used to ensure the hose didn’t kink. I was worried what might happen when I turned the handlebars, and didn’t want the hose to kink or interfere in some way with the wires for the front light, or the fork head. The second problem was that there was no temperature circuit to return to the fuel enricher sensor on the right hand side of the head. The only alternative I had during installation was to plug the original rubber hose, and plug the outlet pipe on the radiator, so I could start the thing up and see if anything changed. When I did this, I instantly got a substantial leak from some hose connection beneath the floorboards. It wasn’t so bad that I was in danger of losing much coolant, but I could see that the exercise would only be short-lived without modifying the aluminum radiator. I would only be able to see if the thing overheated; I couldn’t ride it that way.
Sure enough, the bike did the same thing. The temperature sender didn’t work at all- the gauge needle rested continuously on the bottom pin, showing no reading at all. Using a darkroom thermometer, I kept an eye on the coolant temp right at the radiator. It exceeded 160 degrees F when the bike was adequately warmed up.
The result was that I had to take the replacement radiator and air dam out, and replace it with the old again. I had to remove the faulty temp sensor/sender, and replace that with the old as well. I spent the weekend troubleshooting, and removing the stuff that wouldn’t work.
Detail as it was recorded:I replaced the 2006 radiator (and rear sensor) with the 2007 radiator (with the new rear radiator sensor installed.) This was done on Thursday night. When I ran the bike, I couldn't keep it running because coolant was pouring out of the bottom shroud (or front of the engine- I don't know because I didn't have body panels off.) I figured I'd call Friday and find out what to do about the secondary hose since I figured this was the reason for the leak. I had it plugged with a rod just to try it out.
When I talked to the service manager on Friday, he told me that the dealer had another one that was fixed by doing all these changes except for the radiator repair. He wanted me to revert the radiator, change BOTH sensors to the new ones, change the thermostat, and try it out.
I did this last night, and the results pretty much speak for themselves. By the end of the night, I changed the temp sender back to the original one, and the gauge began working again.
I rode- for some crazy reason- in the 46 degree weather about ten miles. At first it didn't look like the gauge worked, because it was almost pegged at the low end. But after the first hill I found- coolant started blowing out again- and, of course, the temp went right up to about half of the white. I was taking it REAL easy, and it was cold as hell, but coolant still leaked out. I have no doubt that under normal riding conditions today, it'll blow all but 1/3 the radiator capacity out, it'll run at the lower end of the red zone, and would probably run this way for a few hundred kilometers until a warm day or a lot of hard riding was done. Then I'd worry, add more coolant, and this whole thing would start again.
Anyhow- here are the pics:
2006 (Original) Radiator removed from bike:
The 2007 Radiator was installed:
Detail of how secondary return hose was dealt with during trial run at idle:
Detail of the radiator cap and air dam interference with overflow tube. The clamps and elbows were required because the stock hose was not long enough, and the larger and better hose would kink without these "hard" turns:
I noticed a complete difference in both senders. The Originally installed version is on the left, and uses a push-on barrel connector. The replacement sender I received is on the right, and uses a spade connector.
Because of this difference, I took a resistance reading (at the same scale,) for BOTH senders. The original sender was tested...
The replacement sender was tested, and at NO setting was a reading able to be seen. The pic below shows the sensor at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, following a tap-water bath to see if any change in reading was noticeable. Still, the sensor read as an "open" circuit telling me that it was defective:
Regardless of my test, I trusted what the dealer said, and planned on installing the sensor anyway. Since the sender lead had to be modified to accept the new sensor, I planned it so that I could re-connect the old one if I had to. This way, if the dealer sends a second sensor, I can put it in place with very little trouble. I'm a fan of soldering connections, and where feasible, adding a crimp connector on top for strength. The following pic represents the "soldered" state of the leads:
This is the modification complete, with shrink tubing and a splice cover.
I took this pic to show I received the new thermostat, and that the old one is out:
I took this one to show that I replaced the thermostat since most of the labor is already done- there'd be no reason to not go through with the change!
Here is a shot of a darkroom thermometer, which unfortunately does not go up too high, but you can see that it's reading better than 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
This was a tricky shot to take by myself, but I managed to get the gauge in the picture at the same time while holding the thermometer. Bike was at idle during this shot.
Here is the differences between the 2006 and 2007 radiators.
A detail of why the 2007 won't work without a professional modification:
Here is a shot with the 2006 radiator RE-installed:
