Hi all,

I've got a problem with my 86 gk71f and I'm hoping some of you with lots of years experience may share your knowledge.

Anyway.

I went to ride my bike tonight ( 1st time legally ) I started it up and with the choke on, then the phone went and I had to take a call so ran inside. When I came back after approx 3 mins the bike was spewing white smoke from underneath. ( I'd say from an overflow pipe from the water bottle ) There was water all over the floor, which had previously been in the bottle.
So I killed the engine and carefully opened the water holder to find it was bone dry.
I added water and filled it to the top of the bottle, then the excess came out of the same tube.

When I started the engine again I could hear a crackling type noise and the water was boiling again.

So these are my questions,
What's wrong with it?
Can I be fixed?
How much to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

Lee.

Could be the head gasket but its hard to say, did you leave the bike on choke and was it reving hard? could have over heated especially if the rad fan does not work.
Is ther any oil in the water system and is there white deposits in the oil?

Hi,

Yes the bike was on choke, yes it was revving hard. I'm sure I'd heard the fan prior to this problem but not yesterday.

I wouldn't say there is oil in the water bottle, ( no water either ha ha ) nor is there any milky oil.

This may help you,

Today I filled the bottle with coolant and set off, after less than 3 miles I chugged to a halt into a petrol station where I had to fill the water up, I then set off back and again chugged to a halt so had to buy a bottle of water from the shop to get the bike back into work, which is where I set off from.

I did notice that whilst at traffic lights I was losing water from the overflow.

Lee.

Hi

I don't know what made me think of this but I'm SOOOO thick.

I added water to the expansion tank causing it to expand and overflow.

The question is, where the hell is the rad filler cap?

Such an idiot !!

I deserve this for being such a dunce ----->>

Its under the tank, im thinking it over heated and stopped due to the motor getting pretty hot.

Just as I thought, after searching the net for umpteen hours last night.

The bike was still running when I got back to it so hopefully I caught it in time.

Anyway, cheers for the replies, I'm off to work now so I can add coolant and finally ride it home. ( it's been in work 4 months whilst I got the money for my direct access course. )

Lee.

Ok, bit of update, and plea for more ideas.

I topped up the coolant, not much. The expansion tank had a good level in, so I took my bike home on Sat, and rode around 30 miles.
On Mon I went to work and noticed a bit of a leak when I pulled up, after 10 miles. The leak is from the overflow where the expansion tank is.
Mon evening I went home ( no leak ) I then went straight back out into town still no leak but hot engine. I was making my way home when I lost all power, I pulled over and got it going again with the help of my choke, I set off, lost power again multiple times stalling each time I also had a few backfires whilst trying to nurse it home.

Here are my thoughts so far,

1- Head gasket pushing air into the expansion tank, causing overflow.
2- Thermostat opening and closing randomly, therefore having an intermittent problem.
3- Carbs need a clean and balance, which is due to be done in the next week or so.

I've got the tank off, cleaned the plugs which were new last week but fouled by leaving the bike running with choke. Original post.

Being new to a motorbike, I need all the help I can get with regards to locating and recognising parts. I do have a PDF printout manual for the gk71b, hopefully that will help.

Sorry for long post but I want to be accurate in my descriptions.


Cheers,
Lee.

Hi Lee,
First thing i'd check is that there is no air lock in the water pump. if you look near the gear lever you will find the pump and its got a 10mm nut at 12 oclock, if you loosen this one turn water will flow out, if air is in there it will hiss first as the air escapes and them flow water. If there is air in the pump you can find problems with over heating.

Hi again,

I've just been out and checked the water pump, here is what I did.

Took off 10mm nut completely a little water ran out so I ran the engine with out nut and water trickled out. Not a great amount at all.

Another thing I tried tonight is,

Lift off petrol tank keeping connected to the line, took radiator cap off and run engine to warm it up.

The water is a sandy colour with sediments, you could see it swirling when I revved the engine.

I'm thinking a blockage somewhere as the fluid in the expansion tank is blue in colour and nice and clear.

I have also put the fan on permanent live and took it out for a ride, after around 20 mins I opened it up on a dual carriage way, then lo and behold loss of power and I few backfires so I nursed it home. 


Any thoughts?

Lee.

If you open the 10mm nut water should run out until the system is empty, you may get a vacuum lock due to the cap being on so try undoing it with the cap off. I sounds like an over heating problem.