O-rings, hoses, and coolant. OH MY!

[AHOY]

I currently have the cooling system all torn apart to hopefully patch up the many leaks. It is 30 year old rubber, after all. It's good to know all the orings and hoses are available for these old bikes, but the Kawasaki oring is $6.83/piece. Ha! Hoses, even more ridiculous!

I'm going to try to match up as many hoses with automotive ones.

Has anyone tried buying one of those oring kits with a bunch of different sizes in there and you match them up the best you can?

What kind of coolant do these bikes like?

Any tips for cleaning the radiator, manifold, and stuff out while it's off the bike? Bunch of crud in there. I'm wondering if PO owner dumped some leak-stop in at some point.

I haven't opened the tstat yet. On the parts diagrams it looks like it's two different parts, the tstat, and a spring? Is this right?

Anything else I should be doing while this is all torn apart? I was going to do spark plugs.

Thanks all! Bike is new to me, and got it for a price I couldn't pass up. It's in great shape, everything considering. Runs great. I'm just trying to make everything right for peace of mind on long trips and keep my garage floor clean!

[cushman eagle]

I have used the o-ring assortments in our repair shop,but most of the o-rings are not of the size I need,so we have 4 kits in our shop,having only used a couple sizes out of each kit.
My suggestion is to do the best job you can measuring each o-ring multiple directions, then going to a good hardware,such as E&H ,and checking out their assortments.
I use coolant from NAPA that is rated for aluminum component engines.

[AHOY]

Thanks for the response. Just got the water pump off. Seems like there was some oil in there. I was planning on replacing the oring on the pump, and the housing gasket. Should I also replace the shaft seal? If so, how?

Man that was a pain in the butt. I think I'm going to drop the pipes to get everything back on.

[Nails]

You really should take a look at the service manual. It describes steps to get stuff off better than just going for it.

[AHOY]

You really should take a look at the service manual. It describes steps to get stuff off better than just going for it.

Yep. Service manual says drop the pipes. Oof!

[AHOY]

Ok. The tstat is out. The tstat spring seen in parts diagrams is more of a housing spring. I was thinking it was the spring that's typically in a tstat.

Ok anyways. Lots of gunk/oil/leak stop in cooling system. Any tips on cleaning the inside of radiator? What about something like this for the manifold, nipples that go into the block, tstat housing, water pump, etc?

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/1 ... asket.html

How do I get the oil seal out of the water pump?

[cushman eagle]

In our farm equipment repair shop,we often drill a small hole between the shaft and housing,thread a small self tapping screw into it ,and pry the seal out,I know that seal does not give much room to do that,but it might work.

[AHOY]

In our farm equipment repair shop,we often drill a small hole between the shaft and housing,thread a small self tapping screw into it ,and pry the seal out,I know that seal does not give much room to do that,but it might work.

I like that idea.

Got all the hoses from the chain auto stores thanks to $4$. The only two I couldn't find are the one that go from the tstat to each side of the block. Dropped those off, and the orings, at a great old indy parts store in town. He wanted to take some time and try. If not, I'll bite the bullet and buy from Kaw.

Tstat and one of the orings on backorder!

Got Blue Devil Radiator Flush & Degreaser. I'll try to clean everything the best I can off the bike, then a flush or two with that stuff after I button it all up.