Valkyrie fan switch leaking

Val developed a leak which left a few spots of new shiny green coolant on the intake runner and the crash bar. It turned out that it was coming from the terminal in the fan switch.
New fan switch
Only a little bit of green blood was spilt during this operation.
New switch installed and ready to go.

Oops. Might be able to take it apart and replace a seal in there.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=178191#p178191:3bxh1yj3 said:

slabghost » Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:01 pm[/url]":3bxh1yj3]
Oops. Might be able to take it apart and replace a seal in there.

Click to expand...

Sorry Joel I was adding pictures...

Where's the pic of now it's all shiny again

oil pressure switch on the vw used to do that every few years, looks like a winner.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=178201#p178201:18wl5lr1 said:

julimike54 » Wed Aug 03, 2016 10:36 pm[/url]":18wl5lr1]
Where's the pic of now it's all shiny again

Click to expand...

Only a little bit of green blood was spilt during this operation.

Click to expand...

Is that a Valk or a Vulkan?? :smilie_happy:

:clapping: :smilie_happy:

Well it turns out it was not the fan switch but my radiator. :head bang:
I removed the reflectors ( mine are plain black for AU) from the chrome covers and undid the bolts that hold them to the radiator tanks. Here is what I found.

You can see the corrosion around the top plate of the radiator core. With the pretty covers on this was forcing the lost coolant to appear around the fan switch and wiring.
Luckily I still have my 22 year old radiator pressure tester to be able to fault find easily.
I will be trying some magic sand style stop leak first as a new radiator is $600 USD without shipping.

No radiator repair shops there?

Can't weld aluminium cores successfully in my opinion and also my gun radiator shop repairers. Also this is corrosion from the alloy which to me is a sign of things to come in the future. In most of my vehicles with aluminium core radiators ( usually plastic tanks not alloy like the Valkyrie) 10 years is about all I expect before replacing them. Next year Val will be 20 years old from her build date. Maybe the Chinese will start making replacement full alloy radiators for the Valkyries like they do for the GL1100, I just won't be expecting them to last 20 years....

Dang. You've got me wanting to take the "pretty covers" off my Valk to see what might be lurking under there.

And I wonder if, given the $600USD replacement cost, it might be time to start scouring the cycle salvage yards for a possible replacement. That wide four-core might be a tough one to find a suitable replacement for, but for 600 clams, a guy can sometimes get pretty creative...

Alternatively, I don't know what shipping to Oz would be, but looky here for used options:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/97-Honda-V...ash=item1a170aacc1:g:sO0AAOSwMNxXXkUg&vxp=mtr

And another:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-VALK...ash=item2a6b5f4e09:g:WokAAOSwzJ5XdS5e&vxp=mtr

For that much money I think a all copper radiator could be built though might be hard to find a good shop to do it these days.

This could be a possible source.
https://www.pwr.com.au/
But I would expect similar cost. I have a mate that imports stuff from Japan so he will try his contacts for a possible replacement. I am not expecting much as these are a made in USA Honda.

Here is the magic stop leak which I put into a warm radiator and rode Val around for a bit to cook it in.
I got a quote from my local Honda motorcycle dealer for a new radiator of $1168 aud ex Japan. I will clean up Val in the morning and hopefully post a picture of a non leaking radiator for the time being. :beg:

https://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... ID=EBAY-AU
Now if I could just figure out how to join these two together and make a radiator to fit Val.. :builder:

Maybe one is enough mounted up front where the Valk radiator is? A lot more airflow there.

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=179068#p179068:1pqqe5d0 said:

slabghost » Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:39 am[/url]":1pqqe5d0]
Maybe one is enough mounted up front where the Valk radiator is? A lot more airflow there.

Click to expand...

Hopefully with the stop leak I will have awhile before I need to make a decision. :whistling:

I washed Val and Red today as I wanted to pressure clean the radiator where it was corroded and give it a touch up with some black zinc spray paint.
I polished the mounting bolts for the chrome radiator covers as I will be leaving my black reflectors off until I have come up with a solution for my tired radiator.

Just a fleeting thought, check into some custom radiator manufacturers like Howe or suppliers of racing radiators or hot rod suppliers, they seem to have all sorts or different sizes available for different custom applications. Might check Summit racing and such. I had a custom four tube aluminum for my late model dirt car and it wasn't but around three hundred dollars.