Water temp light consistantly coming on

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Dmm698

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another question yet again. when i first got the sled i rode it for 2 or 3 hours and never saw the temp light. then we got a fair amount of snow and i went on a 100 mile ride and the temp light would ocme on and off, figured it was just becaues myt racks worn and not throwin much snow on the exchangers on the groomed trails. Today i went out and the temp light was costantly on. I pulled the cap off to see if there was any coolant in the hose and it was minimal. My question is should it be filled right to the neck of where the cap is? Also could this be a problem with having air in the system, or does it sound like more of a leak becaues it just started to happen? If you think its a leak can somebody run me in the right directoin of where to start looking for it? Also do i just use automotive coolant and mix it 50/50 with water?
 
I would start by bleeding really really well. Yes it should be to the top of the neck. Yes you can run that coolant. After you ride it for awhile and stop do you see any coolant coming out of the exhaust? How many miles are on your sled? You may need new headgaskets, I had to replace mine last season.
 
the sled odo has 7500 on it, but the speedo is disconnected/not working so im not sure of the exact miles. i've put on another 100 myself on top of that already. I added coolant and ti took quite a bit before it was up to the neck. Whats the bleeding process? is there a bleeder valve somewhere? could you explain to me how to get the air out? im pretty sure theres deffinitly air in there
 
ive tried to search and it says theres a bleeder screw in the rear under the seat. i ahve the seat off and cant seem to find where theres a bleeder valve? also where is there a valve in the front?

EDIT: i think i foudn the screw. looks just like any other bolt. i was looking for somethign like a bleeder valve found on hydrualic breaks. So the correct process is to just lift the back end of the sled up in the air and run the sled untill it starts squirting coolant? and then do the same for the front?
 
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After you pull the seat off its in the very back in a little hole. There are different methods of bleeding the system, some may say different than me. What i did last time was fill it to the top and start it up and open the bleeder in the back until i saw nothing but coolant coming out. There is another one under the hood on top of the head where the coolant hose goes on. Pop that one open with it running as well but make sure you don't drop it, i tried not to pull it out all the way. Make sure every few minutes to keep filling the coolant thru the cap. The bleeder under the hood can also tell you if the impeller is working ok b/c when its running it should spit coolant out pretty good. Start with that and go from there.
 
thanks i apprecaite the help. it would be alot easier if there was a coolant bottle then just the darn cap on the hose. if i have any other questions i'll post it here and shoot you a PM. thanks for the help.
 
ok i'll have to look for that i didnt see one. its a 97 sx 700 triple


just looked at the parts schematic and there is no coolant bottle, and i also checked the sled again and theres no bottle just the oil tank. i filled the thing up to the very neck of the radiator cap and ran it for 20 minutes all exchangers were warm and no temp light. just looked at it again which is 2 hours after i rode it and coolant seems to be down in the tubes again no where near the top. theres also no visible leaks anywhere from what i can tell. I have a feeling its maybe a bad head gasket but the sleds been running just fine and it doesnt smoke anymore then usual
 
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pull the plugs and check the piston wash ...if it is leaking as bad as it sounds ...you will see the piston will be clean or show signs of a leak ....or get a pressure tester and test it to see if the head is leaking ...
 
yamahahead, i pulled the plugs and they looked golden brown. could you explain what you mean by the piston wash? im 17 and have quite a bit of mechanical ability but this is my first sled (owned plenty of motocross bikes). i wantd to pull the head and see if it was leaking but i dont want to ahve to worry about draining all the coolant and possibly making matters worse get coolant in the cylinders. to pull the headi do haev to drain all the coolant correct?
 
check this thread on how to read your piston wash.

http://www.totallyamaha.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53735&highlight=piston+wash



what he was saying, is that if the coolant is leaking inside of your combustion chamber, the coolant will be cleaning off one or more of your pistons. One or more will look much cleaner then the other or others. Kind of a steam clean affect. If you have coolant missing with no visible leaks, I would automatically suspect a bad head gasket or warped head which is leaking into your cylinders.
 
I believe those sleds were prone to leak at the water pump. Check for that too. The water pump is on the front center of the motor towards the bottom.

There should be a tech article somewhere on how to replace the seal that goes bad in these water pumps.
 
should i pull the head to check the piston wash? if so wheres the easiest place to drain the coolant from?
 
there is a drain bolt on the bottom center frot of the motor. i forget what MM size it is. maybe a 12mm

Try to get something under there so it wont make a mess in your belly pan. I would want to first get it to operating temperature to see if in fact it is leaking from the pump before i tear the head off.
 
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I would first find out the story behind why there seems to be no coolant tank. If it is missing then where does the hose from the rad cap go?
If it is just hanging into the belly pan then may be it is over heating.
I have had quite a few red heads and have had a few water pump impellers splines strip. And the problems you are having seem very similar to what I have experienced. It should be pretty noticable on the plugs if it is burning coolant and you should notice a sweet smell out of the exhaust over and above the possible excess smoke. If the line that goes to the expansion tank is just dumping coolant into the belly pan all the you probably won't notice the leak. I would keep things simple before pulling the head.

Find where the hose goes.
 
the coolant hose comes up from the right running board if you are sitting on the seat facing the sled in the belly pan. it comes straight up and then makes a turn towards the front of the sled. between there and the head ti has a radiator cap and it goes straight to the head. on the other side it coems out of the motor and goes straight to the running board. there is no wehre for a coolant bottle. i looked at the parts microfiche and there was also no coolant bottle.
 
The coolant overflow tank in actually part of the oil tank. See the microfiche for your sx and look at the Oil tank. It's that smaller of the 2 caps. There is an overflow line that runs from the side of the rad cap to the overflow.
 
you know what i've seen nex tto my oil cap a little small round filler plug that has like a nozzle on it that looks like it would slide inside the overflow tube. my over flow tube looks to be routed like its going down towards the bottom of the belly pan. i'll have to check that out. maybe thats the problem


edit: http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche.com/phibbs/Yamaha_OEM/YamahaSnow.asp?Type=13&A=183&B=26 heres the link to the oil tank microfiche. can somebody confirm that my over flow to the coolant system should plug into the #5 on that diagram? Also, should i fill that bottle up with coolant?
 
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Yes that is your coolant overflow tank. When the engine warms up it pushes the excess coolant into the bottlle and when it cools off the coolant is drawn back into the cooling system. If this is not hooked up then u keep loosing the coolant and the system cannot stay full. Look inside the bottle u may see some residual coolant.
 
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