Bust my radiator

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I was fitting a set of blue Samco hoses to my DRZ400 today and did a coolant change at the same time. As I let the bike run for a minute to check everything, I stood back to admire my handywork only to see a trickle of coolant coming from the right hand radiator.

On closer inspection, one of the hose clips was sitting against the radiator and with the vibration of the big single, it has worked its way into the soft metal channels between the radiator fins and made a wee hole, probably about the size of the tip of a biro.

Is it new radiator time or is there a cheaper permanent fix available?


If I can't get this right, I dread to think what's going to happen when I attempt to fit my new braided brake line to the front later in the week! I treat the bike to a full service, new hoses, new front brake pad, new braided brake line, new chain and sprockets and this is how it thanks me :o
 
Liquid metal, I forgot about that stuff! I suppose it's worth a try. Failing that, are there still places that do small welding jobs like this? I really don't want to have to fork out for a new radiator if I can get away with it.


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It's getting a new Renthal chain and sprockets and a steel braided front brake line this week if they arrive hopefully. I'll be trying to clean and tidy it up a bit too.
 
acemastr said:
Glad you're getting a new chain, that one is horrific!
Click to expand...

It's the stock X ring chain which after 6000ish miles and 18 months of proper lubing, is full of sticky links. I'm getting rid of it for a standard chain. Hopefully the new Renthal one will look better with the blue rear sprocket :D
 
Nice looking bike especially with ladies on it :)

I've used a small welding firm that tigged new nuts on my exhaust end pipe, only charged me a fiver, found them in the yellow pages under fabrications.

Only a small workshop full of old boys, hardly any room and lots of welding kit :)

If you try the liquid metal it may make the welding moe difficult because of the contamination, I'd try to get it properly done first as singles run really hot and need the correct cooling.

What tyres have you got and how do you find them?
 
You can't really weld the fins in a radiator core very easily, the alloy is very thin. You may be able to solder it using special aluminium solder though, I've done this successfully before but you have to get the area to be soldered immaculately clean for this to work.

Epoxy resin might work, again it needs to be very clean and it's far from a guaranteed fix.
 
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_199433_langId_-1_categoryId_165691

I've just bought some of that - fingers crossed!

Maccapacca, the tyres are Pirelli Diablos. The stock tyres were Dunlop D208 which were terrible compared to the Pirellis. I'm very impressed with them so far. The rear tyre only lasts about 2 - 2.5k but it has a profile which allows a lot more lean than some other tyres.

I might try some of those Goldspeed road legal cut slicks next time :D
 
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