KX Riders
Maintenance & Technical => KX500 Original => Topic started by: Motoroost1 on May 14, 2012, 02:45:30 PM
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Just thought I'd throw this out there for opinions . When I bought my 2003 K5 a few months ago , I noticed right away that the previous owner had not been the best for proper upkeep . When I drained the transmission fluid on day 1 , it was thick and looked like a vanilla milkshake . I thought oh oh , water pump seal is toast . I changed the fluid and put in type F ATF . As soon as the bike would lean on the side stand , ATF would leak out around the counter shaft .
Now that Spring is here and I have started riding the bike , I decided to change the ATF after every ride to monitor how bad the water pump is leaking . At the start , a 5 mile ride would turn the red fluid milky . Every change has been getting better and better . Now after 5 fluid changes , a 40 mile ride will not change the color of the fluid at all and it no longer leaks aroung the counter shaft . I mean zero . What the heck ???? I've heard that ATF helps condition the seals but is that what is going on here ? I'm not complaining mind you , just trying to make sense of it .
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Sounds like the other guy got some water in it and did not change the oil and you just did the flush and cleaned out the gearbox. ATF is also a great cleaning agent!
Alex
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Why did the leak at the counter shaft stop though ? I just figured that when a seal goes , it goes .
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Just thought I'd throw this out there for opinions . When I bought my 2003 K5 a few months ago , I noticed right away that the previous owner had not been the best for proper upkeep . When I drained the transmission fluid on day 1 , it was thick and looked like a vanilla milkshake . I thought oh oh , water pump seal is toast . I changed the fluid and put in type F ATF . As soon as the bike would lean on the side stand , ATF would leak out around the counter shaft .
Now that Spring is here and I have started riding the bike , I decided to change the ATF after every ride to monitor how bad the water pump is leaking . At the start , a 5 mile ride would turn the red fluid milky . Every change has been getting better and better . Now after 5 fluid changes , a 40 mile ride will not change the color of the fluid at all and it no longer leaks aroung the counter shaft . I mean zero . What the heck ???? I've heard that ATF helps condition the seals but is that what is going on here ? I'm not complaining mind you , just trying to make sense of it .
Soooooo have you changed the w/p seal ? I'm confused whay are you wasting time with fresh trans oil changes when you have a bad w/p seal ?
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I have not changed the WP seal yet as initially , I was not completely sure that it was in fact gone . The oil in the transmission did look really bad when I got the bike and it was a logical assumption that it did need to be replaced . However , the seal was not readily available ( backorder ) so I figured for the time being , it was easy to just change the fluid and see what happened . As I've said , it has gotten steadily better with every fluid change . So , when the WP seal comes in I will change it for sure just out of principle . What's strange is why the leak on the counter shaft has now stopped . It's a good thing , but , just trying to better understand possible reasons why .