Anti freeze leak

Speedracer, thanks for you information. It's extremely helpful.

Yamajake, when I pulled that final seal (which in itself is also difficult to pull - used a pick on the inside near the shaft/stuck it through the seal and pryed), a small bit of oil did come out. In my sevice manual for the Vmax, it says to add oil to the gear room during assembly of the engine which is located on just the other side of the visible bearing, but I was told this was for new/rebuilt engine start up as the journals and oil lines are all empty. So, what I may do is elevate the front of the sled a tad, put around .77 (a bit under an ounce) of oil in the housing and shove the new seal in. It's definitely not 7 ounces since the manual only calls for .77 of an ounce. I believe that gear room has a constant supply of oil from the pump once the engine is running and the reason for filling it on initial build is for the above reason. I will also pull on the cable as you suggested as that is a good idea. Hopefully I won't have to bleed the oil system as that entails taking off the engine mount on the carb side.

I did not pull my engine to do this "operation", but it's not the easiest thing in the world either. If I have to do this on my SRX, I'd do it again without pulling the engine, however it would suck knowing what I have to go through. The worst part is getting the final bolt holding the pump cover which is located on the bottom side of the face. I take that back, the worst part was pulling that mechanical seal cap out. Speedracer is correct in saying take your time and don't rush. It will eventually come out, but you have to get creative. I ended up collapsing about half of one side of the circumference of that sucker to get it to finally come out.

It's easiest if you pull your hood off, pipe, exhaust manifold, engine mount (actually, all these are necessary for unobstructed access. Be prepared for coolant all over unless your smart and use an scrap piece of hose or a wet/dry vac hooked up to the drain port. One last thing, don't wait until 2 weeks before your first ride when you've had all summer to notice this $#&*%@ leaking!

Jon
 
after you have installed the mechanical seal , you have to put the impeller back on the impeller shaft,then the rubberized washer and then the nut.if you don't use some sort of sealer when you reinstall all this the anti freeze will piss out thru the impeller shaft and you're right back where you started from.ihad this job done at the dealer twice last year, the first time he reinstalled it dry and i lost most all of my antifreeze within 50 miles. the second time he followed instuctions and used some type of sealer(if its yamaha,i don't know) and i haven't had a problem since. sealer had to cure for 24 hrs.
 
Yamie 1-

Did it cost you an arm and a leg to have it done at the dealer? I really don't want to fix mine myself, but I don't want to pay the dealer a huge amount to have it done when the parts are so cheap. I know that someone else said that they would be charged $315 and didn't know if that was ballpark to what you were charged.
 
I just finished this job this morning. Other than the difficulty on getting the mechanical seal off, it really wasn't too bad. I personally wouldn't do this job without a service manual. There's too many small things to keep track of; not to mention all the torque specs. for most the nuts and bolts. After getting the Vmax all together, I wouldn't hesitate to tackle the SRX now. It just sucks having all that coolant on everything.

By the way, I bought a small three inch piece of PVC pipe at Lowes for .94 cents. It fit the diameter of the mechanical seal perfect when needing to tap that sucker back into the lower case. Do not, I repeat do not push or pound on anything other than the outer edge of the mechanical seal or you'll be gnashing your teeth and saying things that will embarras the kids........(not that I know personally). Let's just say it's good thing I ordered two of them.

Jon
 
I just got mine back together last Saturday. Ran the sled a little to get the air out of the line and low and behold... coolant still leaking out of sled. I didn't have any problems replacing any of the seals and made sure the mechanical seal was seated properly. I'm thinking to send it to the dealer now. I'm still not quite certain that it's the mechanical seal after all. The dealer who tested it says it was but maybe they just wanted to pull the motor and find the leak in the front radiator hose or radiator itself.
 
yamajake,

How long did you run your sled to see if it was still leaking? Are you sure it's not any residual coolant from either bleeding the system or spilled coolant while adding? I ran into that and wondered the same thing, but I spilled some and it ended up dripping in the exact spot where the leak was prior to the fix. I did a thorough wipe up and ran it about 10 minutes and all was dry.

I feel for ya man!

Jon
 
By the way, I did not put any sealer on the washer, although I did replace the impeller washer with a new one. As indicated in my service manual, I did put lithium grease (small amount) on each of the rubber seals that make up the entire water pump unit; mechanical seal (rubber part around the spring), new seal in the impeller, new washer and water pump housing o-ring. I put a dab of blue loctite on the impeller bolt as 9.4 footpounds wasn't a lot, too me.

yj - did you replace the oil seal by the bearing?

Jon
 
I think I may have jumped the gun. It may be just the spilled antifreeze I see. I ran the sled for around 15 minutes last night. The heat exchangers were all warm and I could feel pressure in the coolant lines if I held it firmly. I only had a small spot on the floor most likely from the spilled antifreeze as you suggested.

(I did replace all the seals, one before the bearing, mechanical seal and water pump seal insert, new seal washer and placed a small dab of locktite on the bolt.)
 
Just for you guy's info, I have no dought I could of replaced the seal, especially from the info on the site but I chose to go to work, and let my dealer repair for me. As it turned out it was a good choice I got a good days work in and the seal was replaced for $ 125.00 and now he can warranty his repair.
 
For $125 I would have had the dealer done it too. I actually dropped it off at the dealer originally and they quoted me $315. They said they needed to pull the motor to replace all the water pump seal, impeller and shaft.

Thanks all for the help and info!
 
Removing the mechanical seal

OK guys, I have been monitoring this thread for a while. I found that I was using fluid somewhere and found out it was under the pump cover. When I first tore it apart and looked at it, I saw that you guys were right, this was not going to be easy. My buddy and I looked at it for awhile, drank a couple beers, Then we came up with a plan That worked perfect. After removing the cowling, pulling the pipes, motor mount, and pump cover etc.. Take a flat screwdriver bend it just above the flat spot to a 90 deg. angle, maybe a little more . This works perfect for the bottom slot and use a straight one for the top. It popped right out. piece of cake. Found a piece of pipe the same size as the seal and tapped the new one in. Done. I hope this helps! My question is, I went through the steps that I read on here for bleeding the system, I ran it around for awhile, the heat exchangers are warm and my level is staying at full, It has successfully been bled??? Soc
 
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when installing the impeller you have to put some 680 locktite on the impeller shaft or you will get a leak through the middle of the seal and you will think you seal is gone an it is not.The impeller is white metal and the splined hole wears very fast.Do the following test and install the impeller without the bolt and see if you can rock it back and fourth.
 
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