How to tell if your water pump is done.

[admin]

Under the left front of your engine there is a small hole designed to allow coolant and oil to leak out past the bearings in the water pump. If you notice any such weeping through this hole, called a weep hole, you should immediately start making plans to acquire the necessary parts to replace your water pump.

The original water pump has a plastic impeller and from what I understand it is not as efficient as the later metal impeller, so try to get the metal impeller.

For gaskets there are 2 ways to go, one is a complete gasket kit which contains many gaskets that you do not need and costs much more and the other is to order just the gaskets that you do need and I'll list those part numbers here for you. The first number is the pump.
QTY Part number
1: 19200-MG9-680
1: 91303-283-000
1: 91356-706-000
1: 11391-MG9-000
2: 91312-371-003
2: 91333-567-010
1: 91345-580-000
1: 11396-371-000
1: 91305-216-000

While you're waiting for the parts to come in you can start working on your bike. Drain the oil, remove the filter, drain the coolant, shift the transmission to neutral, remove the radiator, water pump cover, then the front transmission cover. The water pump is held in place by 3 bolts located behind the front cover. Carefully remove all of the old gasket material and try not to gouge the aluminum. Clean inside the o-ring grooves and remove any corrosion very carefully. Use an Exacto knife to open the gap in the 2 collars to help them stay in place better. Once all gasket and o-ring surfaces are clean blow or vacuum the inside of the cover and transmission to make free of dirt and debris.

Install the new pump.

Use grease on o-rings and gaskets to help them stay in place during re-assembly. Make certain that the long end of the neutral switch is lined up with tab on switch back and that trans is still in neutral(see manual)
Line up front cover and install screws. Tighten screws in a criss cross pattern. Torque evenly. Install new oil filter, install radiator and coolant, run engine and check for leaks.

Some cautions: rusty dowels can make parts very hard to remove so be patient and pry in many different areas not just one big pry in one spot else you will break something, tapping here and there with a small hammer is better than one big bang with a large hammer. Be patient, take it slow, you're working with soft easily breakable expensive to replace aluminum so try to work smart.

Following are some pics of a truly defective water pump. One of our other fine members "Tricky" had a water that gave the symptoms of a defective water pump but it turned out that it was just a bad o-ring, lucky guy. Mine was definately defective, there was almost an 1/8" play in the bearings and you can see in the pics how it was spitting out oil and coolant out the weep hole.

There was so much wear in the bearings that the plastic impeller wore deep gouges in the water pump cover.

[William_86]

how much $$ u talking about? xP how much you spend on those parts you bought??

[admin]

I think everything came up to about $180. excluding the special NPG coolant, that was another $45.

[SIR tricky]

The impeller in my 85 was metal so they might have changed after 84.

[admin]

I was kind of disappointed when I received the pump with the metal impeller because in my opinion the metal impeller seems to be a cheaper less efficient design but that's progress, make the item cheaper to manufacture so they can make more money. Stamping the impeller out of metal saves one step in the manufacturing process. I saved my old pump and I'll rebuild it as a spare if I ever need one.

[avaautotech]

Took the cover off yesterday to see if i could find the problem with the shifting locking up and seperated the waterpump from the cover. When i spin the pump in my hand it feels growley. Where can you get bearings and seals. I have the cover and seal kit in stock. Tony

[admin]

You should be able to get the main pump seal at a large swimming pool pump supply dealer and the bearings from any bearing supply house. If you can't find the parts let me know and I can get you the kit for the plastic impeller pump only.

[kwatts]

Vic,

Thanks for posting all of the info on this topic. I bought my bike back in May and had been enjoying it for several weeks until I noticed the telltale drip, drip, drip of coolant under the bike while parked in the garage. But armed with your info, and all of the tips from this great site, I was able to get her back on the road in no time. I got all of the gaskets, o-rings and water pump from HDL parts (the water pump was only $109...almost 50 bucks lower than the local Honda dealer). The only bad thing was that I had to wait for the parts a few extra days. While I was at it I replaced the radiator hoses, fuel lines, spark plugs, and the timing belts (Thanks go out to tricky as well for his posts on those topics). Filled her up with new oil and coolant and we have been happily riding around as much as we can. She runs a lot better now, more power and better sounds when shifting, etc. Next up will be a carb sync as soon as I can get myself the tool. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this site helped me to get my wing out of the garage and back on the road.

[admin]

That's a terrific deal on the pump and I'm glad it all worked out well for you and very glad to hear that the site was able to help you.

[Guest]

Vic,

Thanks for the listing of parts needed for a water pump replacement. I found a good price for all of the parts that you listed at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cheapcycleparts.com">http://www.cheapcycleparts.com</a><!-- m -->. A lot of the seals were listed under "Gasket Set B" but can still be ordered separately. Several of the part numbers have been replaced with newer parts. I took a screenshot with all of the parts that I ordered. The first part listed is for my seat and has nothing to do with water pump replacement but the rest are based on the list that you provided.

This picture shows the parts and prices



Again the first part listed has nothing to do with the water pump so if you subtract that part the total for all the parts that you listed including shipping would be $148.10.

[admin]

Thanks for the updated part numbers and the current U.S. prices Randy. That should help our members a lot. Notice that my prices were Canadian which are typically quite higher than U.S. prices.

[Guest]

Just finished doing my w/pump and without the fairing on when I turn on the key I'm not getting a neutral light. I was very careful not to move the switch when I put it togeather. It's at 2 0'clock position when I removed it and am sure it never got moved. Does the pin move easily?? If so maybe it did move on me. Was wondering if the fairing had to be on for the circuit to be complete but from what I see it doesn't look that way. Any suggestions??

[admin]

Doesn't take much to move that pin so you may have nudged it out of position when you installed the cover. Regarding the neutral light, you should check the switch using a volt/ohm meter to be certain that it is in fact out of position before you pull the front cover.

[Guest]

Yep, that's exactly what happened. I already had the rad on (without coolant) so I left it on and only had to deal with a draining the oil again. I didn't have my ohmeter with me so I used my 1/4" tilting ratchet and swivel and extensions and it went pretty well. When I got the cover off I turned on the key and rotated the switch until the light came on. It had gotten moved when I first put it on! I just got the bike a year ago and the PO had the oil filter washer and spring on the wrong end of the filter! It was burning oil and fouling plugs like crazy and I thought I had made a bad buy and was a little mad at myself until I finally changed the oil and checked the manual!!! It looks like the carbs have been off at some point so want to check the jetting and float levels as well at some point in the future. The plugs still get a little darker than I would like and it uses a bit of oil so I'm thinking of some new valve seals soon. I bought a brand new naked 1980 in 1980 and it ran stronger than this one does. I had to sell it a few years later as kids and a mortgage came along so I am just getting back in the saddle. This one only has 35,000 on the odometer but it pretty much looks it's age as far as cosmetics are concerned. The fairing (black) has some issues and needs to be replaced one of these day's so keep me in mind if you hear of one for a good price. Thanks again for your reply.

[luceres]

Let me start off by saying thanks to everyone here there's so much info I'd be nowhere near where I am with my Wing without it.

I pulled my pump and after getting it all apart I was shocked to find that its a replacement with the metal fins and the bearings are as tight as can be, there is absolutely no play, however there was some rust by the weep hole so I'm not sure if maybe the o-rings had failed or if I've got a deceptively dead pump. Unfortunately I couldn't monitor for a leak from the weep hole due to a leak in my radiator from a crash last summer. I pulled the pump because I was leaking coolant from the area and figured while I was in there and had the radiator off I might as well keep going and clean her up a bit more. I have been getting a fair amount of white smoke while riding (not the startup puffs those I'm used to) and I'm kind of connecting the dots that this may be the source of that as well. I'm sorry I don't have a clearer diagnostic track, the killer of bandaiding a problem to finish the season. Thanks for all your help in advance guys.