weeping coolant on 85 k100 rs - ???

[brian thompson]

what causes coolant to weep out of the little weep hole on the pump?

background:

I just recently changed the oil and I ran a sludge remover (automotive snake oil???) thru the crank case.

I also recently had the tank off to replace the clutch cable and while it was off - I did top off the coolant a bit (bad idea???)

I was reading the manual which states that the oil pump and the coolant pump are in fact the same pump - Now I am having visions of a crank case full of antifreeze (is the possible)

The stuff looks to be only coolant - but I hadn't really thought to look for oil being in there until I read the part about the oil/water pump

Anyone with any advice/past experience?
I am going back to the garage for further research

thanks in advance for the help

[DarkCloud]

The seal on the waterpump is going bad. JON

[gsmetal]

I had some drips on my garage floor of coolant.

Then I torqued the bolts back to spec and it stopped.

[HANKB]

What the other guys said is true and I'd like to add the following:

The water pump and oil pump share the same shaft. Between the two pumps, each has its own seal and there is a small space between them that drains at the front of the oil pan. As long as any coolant/oil that leaks in this space can get out, they will not mix there.

I doubt that anything you did caused this. My bike started doing this shortly after I got it ('95 K75RT with 37K on it at the time.) I replaced the seals and have had no leaks since. On an older bike, it might be better to replace the water/oil pump.

If it gets no worse, you could just live with it. I fixed it because I did not know how fast it would get worse and didn;t want to find out a long way from home. :eek You'll find information on water/oil pump rebuild at the IBMWR site tech pages.

[deilenberger]

Originally posted by HankB
What the other guys said is true and I'd like to add the following:

The water pump and oil pump share the same shaft. Between the two pumps, each has its own seal and there is a small space between them that drains at the front of the oil pan. As long as any coolant/oil that leaks in this space can get out, they will not mix there.

I doubt that anything you did caused this. My bike started doing this shortly after I got it ('95 K75RT with 37K on it at the time.) I replaced the seals and have had no leaks since. On an older bike, it might be better to replace the water/oil pump.

If it gets no worse, you could just live with it. I fixed it because I did not know how fast it would get worse and didn;t want to find out a long way from home. :eek You'll find information on water/oil pump rebuild at the IBMWR site tech pages.

If you noticed the design of the water pump seal - it isn't one that is likely to fail catastropically.. it just slowly drips and may start dripping a bit faster.

It's not a rubber lip seal - it's a rather odd ceramic/metal seal where the two sealing surfaces rub one another.

It is something to do when you have a chance, but if one started dripping slightly when on a trip - I wouldn't panic over it.