Cooling System

Removal of Radiator for Replacement

My ’04 F650CS radiator developed a leak, which seemed to originate from the top right corner of the core. I decided to remove the radiator and take it to a local radiator repair shop. I followed the steps in the repair manual to remove the radiator. I learned that the manual doesn’t always tell you everything you need to do. Tools I used – gloves, paper towel, funnel, drip tray, small plastic sandwich bags, container for coolant, family pet, torx set, metric sockets and a variety of screwdriver bits.

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I found it easier to remove the seat, grab rails, left and right fairings when I stood my bike up on it’s center stand. Instructions to remove panels can be found at Tupperware Removal.

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I moved my bike off of the center stand to it’s side stand. At the bottom of the picture is the drainage bolt that is on the left side of the engine.

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I removed the drainage bolt and under the head is the copper washer (P/N 11 14 2 343 240).

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I set up my funnel and container to capture the coolant. Once I opened the radiator cap, the coolant quickly streamed out and into the funnel. Once the flow of coolant stopped, I reinstalled the drainage bolt to keep dirt from entering the drain hole.

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My next step would be to remove the hose from the centre column to drain some more coolant. I cleaned off some dirt around the hose and I used a socket to undo the hose clamp.

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I use small plastic sandwich bags to prevent dirt from entering the cooling system. I used the hose clamp to keep the plastic bag from falling off.

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I removed the bolt that secures the reservoir tank. The manual says that once you removed the bolt, all you have to do is slide the tank straight out of the bike.

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Before you slide the reservoir tank out, a line sits in a recessed part of the tank. You can lift it up before you slide the tank out.

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Once the line is out of the way, you can pull out the reservoir tank. A tube sticks out at the end of the tank and there are two brown marks on the tube. That’s because the tube is secured in place by a rubber grommet.

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I used a socket to remove the hose clamp that connects the reservoir tank to the radiator. I emptied the coolant out of the reservoir tank.

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I moved the bike from the side stand back on to the center stand. The next component removed will be the cooling fan that sits behind the radiator.

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On top of the cooling fan shroud are the Diagnosis and Fan plugs.

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The Diagnosis plug sits in cradle. Push the tabs of the cradle away from Diagnosis plug and it easily pulls out of its cradle. Disconnect the Fan plug by squeezing the tabs on the sides to pull the connector apart.

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In the photograph, on right side of the cradle is a smaller clip that holds the wire bundle for the Diagnosis plug.

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To the rear of the fan shroud is a small wire bundle (the blurry wires), pull the bundle away from the clip on the back of the fan shroud. The cooling fan shroud is ready to be removed from the radiator.

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There are two tabs, one on top and one on the bottom. I gently pried the tabs up with a flat tip screwdriver one at a time. I thought I was going to break the tabs because it seemed that I had to lift them higher than I expected.

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Once the tabs have been disengaged from the radiator, all you have to do is gently slide the fan shroud along the radiator. The tube at the end of the reservoir tank sits in the rubber grommet - good thing to remember when re-installing the reservoir tank.

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View looking down as I slid the fan shroud from out behind the radiator.

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A view of the rear of the radiator with the fan shroud removed. If you look at the center of the radiator, you can see a vertical mark that turns out to be damage from the shroud.

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I’ll be trimming the edge of the shroud between the tabs to keep it from contacting the radiator.

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Back to the left side of the radiator and the next component to be removed is the thermostat assembly.

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Looking at the radiator from the front, you can see two little rectangular slots on either side of the housing. You can see the end of the retaining clip in the right hand rectangular slot. I used a flat tip screwdriver to poke the ends of the retaining clip.

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Poking the ends of the retaining clip helps to push the clip partially out of the housing. I was able to slide the screwdriver tip up between the clip and the housing. I wiggled the screwdriver a bit back and forth and the clip released it’s grip around the thermostat assembly.

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Once the retaining clip was removed, the thermostat assembly could be removed from the radiator. There is a slot large enough to slide a flat tipped screwdriver bit into so you can pry the thermostat assembly down from the radiator.

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While I pried it with the screwdriver, I had to give the thermostat a bit of a tug because of the o-ring around the thermostat.

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After I was able to remove the thermostat, company arrived to make sure everything was ok.

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My thumb is pointing to the o-ring, which is in fine condition. I also discovered white deposits in the thermostat assembly (looks like white spots of paint) which I easily scrapped away with my gloved fingernail.

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I detached the last hose from the radiator and covered the end with a plastic bag.

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Only two bolts remained to hold the radiator in place.

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I had a look under the radiator and discovered that the radiator is resting on a rubber grommet. Once I removed the bolts, the radiator slid out of the left side of the bike with ease.

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There was some coolant left in the radiator.

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Radiator removed.

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View into the thermostat housing portion of the radiator.

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I found that coolant would drip out every time I removed a hose or moved the bike from the side to the center stand.

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