Well, I had a little open road today and decided to go...fast. I missed a shift while at pretty high rpm's (nowhere near red-line though), and all of a sudden my right leg is soaked with water. Was moving along pretty quickly so I couldn't really study this in detail. I slowed down, and saw water all over the right side of the bike. Oddly enough, it was cool, not hot. I thought perhaps I hit a puddle of water? That didn't seem likely as the road was very dry. I watched the temp gage until I could pull over at a safe spot. It stayed under the halfway mark. But when I got off the bike, I could smell and feel the coolant everywhere. It really dumped a lot. I took off the seat, the side panel, and the air intake. It was quite wet everywhere. I looked at the thermostat housing, and it seemed OK. The overflow reservoir was empty, but I couldn't see if the hoses to and from the tank where attached. I suspect something blew out there. I nursed it to work, had to pull over and shut it off to prevent overheating, but it got me to work. Now I'm stranded. Crap. I'll pull off the panels after work and see what I can see.

Has anyone experienced this before?

 

Found the problem. The 3 way hose connector near top right of engine cracked on all three ports.

 

glad you were able to keep it upright and you found the fix

 

PN 19501-MS2-000. No one around here has it. Had to order online for next day shipping.

 

I believe this happens quite a bit, so much so someone on the forum had some stainless steel ones made up and were selling the extra ones, can`t remember who though sorry, maybe someone with a better memory can help.

 

I ordered one from that guy years ago and promptly put it away and forgot all about it . I fitted it a few months ago at the side of the road after the original blew apart .

 

Sorry, I can't find who I bought it from . But did find a post suggesting that the MK1 had a steel one as original, not sure if thats true . One thing I might add , when I replaced mine , I was checking the rad cap to see if the pressure relief was working when I noticed that the over flow hole in the radiator cap neck was blocked solid not allowing the pressure to be released . Just my 2 cents .

 

Thanks for looking into this guys. My overflow and other bits are clean and free-flowing. It just looks like time and use degraded the fitting. New one should be here today...fingers crossed.

 

Yep, this is common. Mine failed at 19 years and 70K miles. This should be one of those things mentioned when ever someone is looking to buy or just got their 1KF bike. I always worried about the old hoses but this is the Achilles Heal in the cooling system.

 

Replacement part showed up at work a little while ago. Lunch time spent putting it all back together. 40 minutes later, done, ready to ride.

Now I gotta wash my jacket and pants and get all that coolant out of them...hopefully the wife won't notice what I'm doing in her washing machine...