F650GS Dakar water pump the cheap(er) way

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Andre01

Pack Dog
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
Messages
223
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45
Location
Malmesbury
Bike
Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
Friday the heat warning light came on. Coolant dripping from the weep hole. This is ±42 000km after previous (preventative) water pump replacement.

I stripped the bike down to water pump. The water pump gears (x2) are 100%, now I have four perfectly fine gears, previous time the gears was also good, could not see any difference between new and old gears.

The wear is on the impeller shaft. The seals is also very stiff and hard.

I went Kaap Agri, got 10mm stainless steel rod, the exact same length of the (old, 42k km replacement) shaft. Total cost R3.14. Took the shaft to local engineering shop, to drill the holes and machine the shaft to look exactly as the BMW one, cost R70.00 for 15min work.

Dubble lip seels from bearing shop (x2) cost R10.00. I am going to re-use the impeller, that is still 100% I managed to take off the clutch cover gasket without too much damage and is going to re-use it. BMW cost for new one is R395 :eek: The water pump gasket I got from BMW for R88.

So total cost (excl oil and oil filter) R171.14. If you have to get the gears from BMW that will be R602 for both, luckily mine is still 100%. The big cost saving is on the impeller with shaft and seals. The "kit" from BMW is R827.64. If the actual plastic impeller is damaged you will have no choice but to get from BMW, and they only come in a kit with shaft and seals. I can not see how the actual impeller will get damaged, but there is probably  some rare cases...

I will report back on the performance (reliability) of the DIY shaft and seels.
 
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