Kreebog
Junior Member
2006 FZ6 w/~18k miles
Background: I have very little experience working with motorcycles, but have been a backyard auto-mechanic most of my life and am comfortable working on engines.
This bike sat for almost a year and even though I'd drained and replaced the fuel she still wasn't running well so I decided to replace the plugs and clean the air filter too. The plugs were a hassle... ended up having to partially disconnect the radiator to get to #1 and #2. There are three smallish hoses on the right-hand (if sitting on the bike), top side of the radiator, under the fill cap. According to the diagram I'm looking at on page 6-1 of the Yamaha Service Manual, these are the "Coolant Reservoir," "Throttle Body," and "Water Pump Breather" hoses. The coolant reservoir hose is smaller and on the top, but the other two are side-by-side and identical in size and appearance. This brings me to my first question:
Q1: What is that thin, oily brown crap? When I disconnected the right-most of the identical hoses (water pump breather hose if I'm reading this diagram right), a LOT of slippery, brownish, thin fluid spilled out. It seemed more like very thin oil than any kind of coolant I've ever worked with before... is this what happens to 11 year old coolant? I'm not sure if/when the previous owner changed it last - it could be the stuff that came in the bike from the factory for all I know. The same stuff came out of the other side of the radiator when I disconnected the large hose on the top-left size (Radiator Inlet Hose, per the manual). I can flush the system and change the coolant, but I'm worried that something weird is going on...
Moving on, I managed to get the new plugs in and everything reconnected, bolted back in place, and cleaned up. Job done, time for a test-ride. The bike started instantly and purred like a kitten, but was idling at about 1700 (idled around 1480 with the old plugs) so I tuned that back down a bit, hopped on, and cruised around the neighborhood - about half a mile or so - until the temperature gauge suddenly spiked to max. The bike was still running perfectly and didn't feel or smell hot, but that wasn't normal so I headed right home and started looking for problems.
Turns out that when I reconnected the two identical hoses, I reversed them! The Throttle Body hose and the Water Pump Breather Hose were swapped... easy enough to fix, but I'm not completely sure what either hose actually does and I'm worried that I may have damaged the engine or made a big mess for myself, which is the next question:
Q2: How big of a mistake is this? I've corrected the hoses, but I'm afraid to test the bike because I'm not sure what the impact of those hoses being swapped might be. Do I need to do anything special? Drain something...? Prime something? Both?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Background: I have very little experience working with motorcycles, but have been a backyard auto-mechanic most of my life and am comfortable working on engines.
This bike sat for almost a year and even though I'd drained and replaced the fuel she still wasn't running well so I decided to replace the plugs and clean the air filter too. The plugs were a hassle... ended up having to partially disconnect the radiator to get to #1 and #2. There are three smallish hoses on the right-hand (if sitting on the bike), top side of the radiator, under the fill cap. According to the diagram I'm looking at on page 6-1 of the Yamaha Service Manual, these are the "Coolant Reservoir," "Throttle Body," and "Water Pump Breather" hoses. The coolant reservoir hose is smaller and on the top, but the other two are side-by-side and identical in size and appearance. This brings me to my first question:
Q1: What is that thin, oily brown crap? When I disconnected the right-most of the identical hoses (water pump breather hose if I'm reading this diagram right), a LOT of slippery, brownish, thin fluid spilled out. It seemed more like very thin oil than any kind of coolant I've ever worked with before... is this what happens to 11 year old coolant? I'm not sure if/when the previous owner changed it last - it could be the stuff that came in the bike from the factory for all I know. The same stuff came out of the other side of the radiator when I disconnected the large hose on the top-left size (Radiator Inlet Hose, per the manual). I can flush the system and change the coolant, but I'm worried that something weird is going on...
Moving on, I managed to get the new plugs in and everything reconnected, bolted back in place, and cleaned up. Job done, time for a test-ride. The bike started instantly and purred like a kitten, but was idling at about 1700 (idled around 1480 with the old plugs) so I tuned that back down a bit, hopped on, and cruised around the neighborhood - about half a mile or so - until the temperature gauge suddenly spiked to max. The bike was still running perfectly and didn't feel or smell hot, but that wasn't normal so I headed right home and started looking for problems.
Turns out that when I reconnected the two identical hoses, I reversed them! The Throttle Body hose and the Water Pump Breather Hose were swapped... easy enough to fix, but I'm not completely sure what either hose actually does and I'm worried that I may have damaged the engine or made a big mess for myself, which is the next question:
Q2: How big of a mistake is this? I've corrected the hoses, but I'm afraid to test the bike because I'm not sure what the impact of those hoses being swapped might be. Do I need to do anything special? Drain something...? Prime something? Both?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
