temp gauge started climbing ?

any ideas anyone ? fan kicks on and off like its supposed , coolant level is full , its not leaking  ....

stuck thermostat ? bad water pump ? stopped up radiator ? bad temp sensor ?

what else do i need to add to the list ?

blown head gasket ?

What does it act like? Gets hot quickly after starting? Climbs up and drops when the fan comes on or just stays too high. How high is the gauge? What are the conditions when it happens? Stop and go riding, idling, continuous riding at speed? How hot is the weather when it occurs. Kinda hard to diagnose a problem with a keyboard so a bit more info would help generate an educated guess.

Could be a head gasket leak. Usually pretty easy to check for that. See if there are any bubbles coming up in the radiator with the engine running and look at your oil. Sometime a head gasket leak will cause coolant to show up in the oil. If it does the oil will look kinda chocolaty and a bit like fudge on the dip stick. How about the radiator? If it's coated with dirt and bugs it's efficiency will drop.

exavid wrote:

What does it act like? Gets hot quickly after starting? Climbs up and drops when the fan comes on or just stays too high. How high is the gauge? What are the conditions when it happens? Stop and go riding, idling, continuous riding at speed? How hot is the weather when it occurs. Kinda hard to diagnose a problem with a keyboard so a bit more info would help generate an educated guess.

Could be a head gasket leak. Usually pretty easy to check for that. See if there are any bubbles coming up in the radiator with the engine running and look at your oil. Sometime a head gasket leak will cause coolant to show up in the oil. If it does the oil will look kinda chocolaty and a bit like fudge on the dip stick. How about the radiator? If it's coated with dirt and bugs it's efficiency will drop.

it has only did it once , the day before yesterday ,it was in the 90's outside it went to the upper mark before hot, it was

sitting and idling after a ride when it happened and it didn't seem to drop even though the fan was running , i might add

that i have rode in 100 + temps and sat in traffic and never had the temp gauge to climb ,

the temp gauge has always run dead center and has seemed to take a few miles "3 or 4 " to come up to temp,

i checked the oil it looks fine , i changed the oil and the filter according to my schedule in May , the outside of the

radiator dose not appear stopped up with debris , i fired it up today and it seems normal , i rode it came back sit and

idled it for a bit, the fan kicked on and off and the temp gauge never went past halfway ,

so i don't know what its deal is , but i tend to look for a problem if i see a change in its behavior .

Maybe?? a sticking thermostat?

oldwingguy wrote:

Maybe?? a sticking thermostat?

i guess a better question i should of asked was how much plastic has to come off to get at the waterpump / thermostat ?

all of it ?

IIRC the water pump can be accessed by removing the left skirt, but for full access to everything else; remove the seat, loosen or remove the L & R side skirts, remove the two lower screws at the gas cap, the two big screws under the seat and the 10mm bolts under the floor mats, then remove tunnel cover. As with most things on the S'Wing it's more annoying than difficult. 

While you have that area exposed it's a good opportunity to locate & familiarize yourself with the idle adjustment screw (cross head) vs the air adjustment screws (straight blade). They are easy to mix up with the tunnel cove back in place if you're unfamiliar.

You do have a Factory Service Manual (FSM) don't you?

Tim

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

IIRC the water pump can be accessed by removing the left skirt, but for full access to everything else; remove the seat, loosen or remove the L & R side skirts, remove the two lower screws at the gas cap, the two big screws under the seat and the 10mm bolts under the floor mats, then remove tunnel cover. As with most things on the S'Wing it's more annoying than difficult. 

While you have that area exposed it's a good opportunity to locate & familiarize yourself with the idle adjustment screw (cross head) vs the air adjustment screws (straight blade). They are easy to mix up with the tunnel cove back in place if you're unfamiliar.

You do have a Factory Service Manual (FSM) don't you?

Tim

thanks Tim

no i don't have a factory service manual , but it looks like i need to find one among other things .

it looks like the coolant that's in it is the green conventional type " no i didn't put that in there " so that may be the root of my problem , that the water pump impeller is eat up ?

it looks like the coolant that's in it is the green conventional type " no i didn't put that in there " so that may be the root of my problem , that the water pump impeller is eat up ?

IMHO no as modern antifreeze has no to low silicates that caused water pump problems. Because the problem is intermittent I go with sticking stat, shot pump would be a constant. Maybe swap the stat out from your donor bike?

I was just curious what you have found on your overheating problem. I agree that it does not sound like a water pump problem. I would think that it would more of a constant problem if it were.
If you have removed the radiator cap (which can be a chore) and not when under pressure you should circulation of fluid in the radiator.
You may have to blip the throttle slightly but not to much sometimes the coolant will lower and then raise rapidly when you back off on the throttle (a good sign of circulation) and you can get
wet. Let us know.   Howard

My recommendation would be to ride the bike. Could have been a fluke, might have been a temporarily stuck thermostat. Who knows? Maybe it won't come back. Avoid prolonged idling with the bike. It causes heating and also pulls the battery down because idling is too slow for the battery to charge. There's a pretty good draw on the battery due to the head and tail lights and the ECU and EFI.