honda shadow with coolant leak
 

ok i noticed when i was riding my bike home from work yesterday morning that i had a coolant leak so i got to looking and best i can tell its coming from bout half up the radiator. so my question is how finiky is the cooling system on a bike?? is it safe to use a bottle of bars leaks in a bike or will it gum things up? other than replacing the radiator what other options do i have???

Depending on what type radiator. Copper/Alum/plastic.

Pull the radiator off and take to a radiator shop. They can probably repair it and you will be good for alot less than a new one. I don't mind bar's leak if it is going into a beater car or something.

Allen

Maybe a radiator shop could do a repair on it. I bet a new one is a bunch of bucks.

I am thinking a new radiator is probably $300+ from honda. I would go to a shop or try ebay for a used one first. The repair will be about $50-$75.

Allen

its an aluminum radiator and the leak isnt that big. i have no front fender on my bike so im assuming i slung a pebble into it. havent found an exact match on ebay and i dont have a repair shop around here that isnt proud of their work. so i was thinking a bottle of aluminum powder might get me through the riding season them pull off and replace with new one when i order my fender and chrome grill cover...

You may only need about a 1/3-1/2 the bottle since the system is much smaller than a car.

Allen

its worse than i feared..... im going to have to pull it and get it fixed or replaced... the leak laughed at the aluminum powder and said "your trying to stop me hahahaha try to stop this" and now my leak that was just a dribble has now turned into a light trickle...

I don't know if would use any kind of stop leak...Could clog in the motor.

Sealant will clog the very small cores in small radiators. Works for a while but soon the rad will be scrap.

When radiators were made of brass, the top and bottom tanks could be de-soldered, the cores rodded out and the whole thing soldered up again. Modern radiators are bonded together with adhesives and cannot be taken apart.

just a real shot in the dark here but does anyone here have a parts radiator for an 03 honda shadow 750