So, my Hurricane is finally on the road and I had a beautiful ride into work this morning (a sad destination I know, but still a good ride).

However, there were a few times at lights where I saw my thermostat get about 3/4 across the gage. It dropped back down to halfway when I was moving again, but that high temp was worrying. I never heard the fan kick on, and only heard it turn on when I killed the engine at the office. The ingition was still on when I killed the engine and that's when the fan started up, and of course turned off when I turned the ignition key to off.

Please put my mind at ease about the way the fan operates and reasonable temp fluctuations....

At lunch I plan to go out and take a look at the coolant resevoir to see if this system just has water in it or coolant and water. If I'm going to be in a lot of stop and go traffic in the summer, I feel like that kind of temp spike when the outside temp was only 50 degrees F, is quite an extreme spike. A 50/50 coolant mix seems like the right thing to do, but the fact that they radiator fan wasn't running when the temp got above the halfway point was a bit disconcerting.

Anyone have any words of wisdom/knowledge to impart??

Thanks again.
--Drake--

 

My fan doesn’t kick on till just over 2/3 up the temp gage. And I have a fairly new temp switch. I only have a prob when I am stuck in dead stop traffic for more then 15 mins and its 95F or hotter out. Then I just turn the bike off or split lanes

i would recomend you look at your coolant and make sure its full.

 

Mine does about the same, I try to stop behind the cars so my bike is not behind their exhaust

 

Drake, ride to work, remember the long way home !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's all good !!!!!!

CBR's run hot, no doubt... but reasonably. add a bit of water wetter type stuff, burp well, check into a "lower" temp sensor, or a manuel switch, you'll be ok... make sure your regulator, is grounded well, w/ clean connections, speed regularly (for cooling effect only !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) Clean and free, only smoke'n harleys!!!!!!!!!! Ripp'n

 

For your own satisfaction, re-check all of the obvious but it sounds pretty normal to me. As long as the fan kicks on, runs a few minutes to lower the temp and then cycles off without ever hitting the red, consider it good.

 

Mine wont kick out until I start moving or shut the motor down, but the guage never get pasted 3/4 (before the red)

 

Hope everyone had a good Easter. I would have replied sooner, but I was away.

I checked the fluid levels and the radiator resevoir was on the low side (cold), and not looking the best. I'm going to flush it after work this afternoon and replace with a 50/50 mix of distilled and antifreeze. I'll be on the look out for the Water Wetter stuff.

What did you mean Rippn, when you said to burp it. I haven't popped open the Haynes manual yet or even looked for the fill cap on the radiator, but with my car I always just filled up the radiator until I had the liquid bulging upward at the mouth of the cap. Then I'd put the cap on and wipe up the overflow from placing the cap. Is there something more involved for keeping the air out of the cooling system on the Hurricane?

Hopefully it's all nice and simple and doesn't involve removing tons of stuff to get at it. Nothing like trying to do simple maintenance and finding an hours worth of work just to get at it in the first place....

--Drake--

 

Hey Drake, top 'er off cold, start'er up, let er run a couple, till you see water flow abit, light blips, of the throtle. Thus dislodging any "clingy" bubbles in the system, top back off. if you add any "wetter' ( reduces surface tension/clingyness) type product later... a turkey baster, w/ plastic tubing works well to remove some fluid. check the "kool-aid" blog, and others, concerning cooling. This place, these people rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clean and free, only smok'en harleys !!!!!!!! Ripp'n

 

well.. I'll say that my bike doesn't like running right abouve about 1/2 up the temp guage.. and the fan sensor swith is FUBARed.. so I just ran a wire with a spade terminal up to the front of the bike where the sensor is, yanked the wire form the sensor, and grounded it.. it's actually accessible enough that I can plug it in while I'm in stop and go traffic if need be.. usually I unplug it in the morning for the ride to work, and then on the way back, when it's warmer out and traffic is worse, I plug it in.. I'll eventualy get to putting a switch in for it.. it'll eliminate the trouble that seems as pesky as the CCT with that sensor... or.. should I get a new sensor, i'll hook it up to a relay so it doesn't just fry again... while i ride at normal speeds, my temp guage is at about 1/3rd