Leaking Transalp

[Lutin]

Noticed this tell tale little puddle under the Transalp the other day -



Well, nothing for it but to dismantle the bike to find out where it was coming from. My suspicion was that the dent in the radiator that I picked up in France back in 2010 had something to do with it. But no, the leak was coming from the bottom hose connection -



And from underneath -



The hose spiggot looks rather manky -



After removing the radiator the bottom connection does not look good at all -



And there appears to be some corrosion on the inside of the spiggot as well -




Hmm, need to clean up that corrosion to see what can be seen.

Back in a bit.

 

[Lutin]

So, cleaned up the corrosion on the spiggot -



There's a dark mark in the alloy of the spiggot that exactly correspondes with the corrosion inside the spiggot -



Looks like there's a pin-hole in the spiggot.

Any thoughts anyone?

 

[hotbulb]

Doesn't look nice
For what it's worth, I repaired something similar on the rad of my Ford Pop 100E (admittedly some 40 years ago) with Araldite. I remember annoying my Mam by drying the rad out in front of the living-room fire for a couple of days prior to applying the goo. It held OK for a couple of years until the car went to the big carpark in the sky.
The proper answer is a new rad... but it might work as a temp fix ?

 

[Chewbadger]

Its ally,so you could try solder and flux. Failing that, you need someone who can ally weld.

 

[africajim]

I took mine to radiator specialists and when pressure tested there were a few leaks making it not worth fixing. A second hand one is the way forward for piece of mind.

 

[Lowflyer]

I agree with JIm, take it to a rad specialist, they will carry out a pressure test on it. I had the same problem years ago, repaired a bit of the rad, then another bit would "pop"
The option is to carry out a repair on the sector that you have identified it may work, but all you are doing is creating pressure elsewhere in the system on another area that, not leaking now, but might, under higher pressure ( does that make sense ???? ) dunno.

Anyways my advise to you would be to take the rad to a specialist since you have it off, do a test on it, doesn't cost much, then you know the rest of the rad is ok. They will probably fix your present leak on the spot as well

 

[Wigan Chris]

Possible stupid question alert...


The stuff you can put in your household heating system, that circulates round, plugging up pin holes in radiators... would that be compatible with bike radiators?

:i-m-with-stupid-0101:

 

[austin]

Spigot : one of the English language's best words. It Ought to be a rude one really.

 

[Lutin]

Just for Austin - more spiggots.

Found a radiator repairer here in Galway, and the radiator is now all sorted and water tight with a new spiggot welded in place of the dodgy original.



It only cost me €20 which, at the current exchange rate, must be about 3/6 (or more correctly 3s-6d).

So, all I have to do now is to clean up up the bottom tank and repaint it. Typical that the weather is so wintry and cold as I can only paint in the unheated shed. Ho hum.

 

[Philwhiskeydrinker]

Great to see you managed to get sorted Tony

 

[Steve T]

That looks to well & truely sorted

Steve T

 

[outrunner]

I can only paint in the unheated shed. Ho hum.

And what's wrong with a few newspapers on the kitchen table and a tin of hammerite?



Andy.

 

[Lutin]

RIght. Finally got around to rebuilding the Transalp (yeah, yeah - I know it's been weeks and weeks).

Only to find that the bottom hose is leaking. Should have bought one when I stripped the bike down back in late January. That'll teach me...... until the next time.

Coolant draining again as we speak.

 

[Ian Porter]

what's taken ya man,

you know I would have had it sorted in a couple of days