Water pumps

[Warp11XX]

All the Bird's clothes are off. Radiator dropped down, oil cooler dropped down, valve cover off for inspection. Valve cover off for a few days for paint since it was bubbled and peeling from shitty factory paint on and only half-ass clean surface. I'm poking around and what do I notice on my lift table? Antifreeze....just a couple drips. I start looking for the source and find a wet area at the bottom of the pump housing seeping from what appear to be weep slots. Is this a seal failure? Probable bad bearing? Why would it only leak after the radiator is out of normal position? Clamps appear tight and I can't trace the drip anywhere higher up the housing or block. WTF? Over.

[Zero Knievel]

On my old Kawasaki, weeping coolant was an indicator of bearing failure. This was a normal "warning" built into the pump. Better to leak it by the drop than have it gush or utterly fail on you with no warning.

If the XX and my old Kawi are built similar in this regard (and I think they are), just a few bolts hold the pump in place. Getting it out takes some gentle prying with a screwdriver, but pull it and put a new one on. Reattach hoses.

[brianmacza]

I have had 2 water pumps fail on the bird... the 1st one I noticed that temps were rising and there was no reason for it - the radiator checked out fine, the flow throught it was ok when put on a test jig at the local rad shop. Discovered that almost all the impellor vanes had broken off or disintegrated somehow.

Honda was unable to provide a replacement - no stock in my little backwater paradise - so I visited a breakers and got a used unit. About a year later I pulled off the freeway after a long fast run and stopped at a traffic light. Before I could pull away my left foot got REALLY hot 'cos coolant was pissing out the vent hole on the bottom of the water pump. Advice? Don't get used mission-critical items.

The current pump is now 50k Km old and does just fine.