Pixie dust in my coolant???

[Cadbury64]

Owing to a rainy, windy day, the first day of 2016 has been a garage day, and I have been replacing some coolant hoses deep in the v. Aside from an interesting discovery of a Japanese coin lodged at the bottom of the V, I did find that the coolant has what appears to be very fine shards of aluminium floating in it. So fine that they generally stay dispersed in the liquid.

Is this a forewarning of something unpleasant like a water pump failure? The bike has 72000km on it. I have opened up the water pump, and the impeller and casing look completely unmarked. Just flush the cooling system,replace the coolant and forget about it?

[tony.mon]

Yes, normal, don't worry for now.
The water pump impeller seal is ceramic running against a hardened aluminium surface, some minor polishing wear is expected.
Change coolant every couple of years and you don't notice it, but if it's still the original coolant, there will be some age-related debris.

Nice find with the coin, though. That tray under the front engine mount bolt is normally where dropped airbox cover screws go for a little lay down.

[Cadbury64]

Thanks for that Tony. As I was working in my not ideally-lit garage and down in the dark recesses of the v, I happened to have my LED head torch on and so when I looked into the coolant I had an unusually good light source; without that I may not have noticed the glitter.

I've flushed the coolant lines and replaced the coolant, so will keep an eye on this over the next few thousand km and see whether the glitter reappears.

And yes, along with the coin I also found a dropped airbox screw, and also one of the metal inserts for the front tank mounts down there in the bowels.

[Cadbury64]

Just for completeness, I drained the coolant from my bike this morning as I decided to delve under the clutch cover for a look/check. The coolant this time was free of any debris. I suspect that the last time I drained coolant may have been the first time the front head drain had been opened, and debris had accumulated there?

I did a great job of refitting hoses and refilling the radiator, until a wet foot advertised that I had forgotten to put the front head drain bolt back. Doh!

[lloydie]

Silly sausage lol good job

[Cadbury64]

Silly sausage lol good job

Yeah, that sounds like me. I do good work (and have some great tools) but make occasional stupid blunders.

I was delving in there for the source of some rattles at idle. I replaced the clutch bearing and it's bushing (they weren't too bad, but I had preemptively purchased replacements), and verified that the clutch plates and basket were in fantastic condition. I was suspicious that the anti-backlash gears might not have been tensioned properly, but they were fine. All I did notice was some rattling from the clutch basket cush damper mechanism, and some loose and sloppy-looking oil and water pump chains (although apparently they're all like that).