The easy way to flush your cooling system - Brad "BlownDodge"

[trip]

Getting ready for the West Coast Rally the last thing on my list was the cooling system.

We all know that Kawasaki didn't make flushing the cooling system and refilling very simple. One needs to take off the seats, take off the fuel tank which is a major pain in the butt. This is probably why the cooling system is the most neglected part of the Nomad.

This is unfortunate because the Nomad's cooling system barely keeps up with the excessive heat we all seem to complain about.

Well today I decided to flush the cooling system and refill. Last time I did this was for the 2009 Nat'l rally or 3 years ago. I'm guilty of "Tim's maintenance schedule!"

I did it the old way with taking everything off (not fun) and added cooling system cleaner and ran it through. Removing the bottom radiator plug and removing the fill cap under the tank and flushed it. Then I got to thinking! There has to be an easier way? I think I came up with one.

To get at the overflow tank you have to remove the right side cover. One philips screw and off it comes. On the side of the overflow tank is the fuse box that is only held on by an easily removed rubber grommet on the top and bottom, maybe 10 seconds. Two 8mm bolts hold the overflow tank on. There is a hose going to the top (overflow) and one to the bottom (this is where the expansion of fluid is allow to "overflow" into the tank until the motor cools off and gets sucked back into the motor). that is the function of that tank.

I figured out that without removing the seats or tank one can remove the radiator drain plug and crack the top bolt on the water pump cover and drain the cooling system. So far so good but now how do you refill the system with the seats on and not removing the tank, speedo, unplug everything... hmmmm.

Once I turned the overflow tank over and rinsed the tank out I removed the bottom hose. This hose threads through a wire "loop" against the frame and the other end attaches to the top of the radiator fill neck. I removed the bottom hose from the overflow tank and pulled the rubber hose out of this loop and reattached it to the bottom of the overflow tank. One could take some wire cutters and just "notch" this loop as it would be easy to close again instead of unhooking the hose from the overflow tank.

Now with the overflow tank removed from the bike and the top rubber fill cap removed and the bottom hose reattached, hold the over flow tank higher than the fuel tank an start adding your favorite coolant to the over flow tank and it will drain through the bottom hose into the part that hooks up under the radiator cap and fill the system. You quit adding radiator fluid when the over flow tank stops draining through the bottom hose into the system as the fluid has reached to top of the fill neck.

Start the bike and watch the fluid in the over flow tank to see if drops as any air is purged from the system with the motor running. reattach the over flow tank and top off. Put the side cover back on and your done. I actually overfilled the tank a quarter inch above the top line and cracked the top water pump cover bolt to make sure I'd purged all the air out and let it drip while the motor was running until the over flow tank dropped to the top mark.

Tighten up the top water pump bleed bolt and put your side cover back on and your done!

I could have drained the entire system and keep filling with Prestone radiator flush through the over flow tank and ran it through with the motor running and flushed it that way too! I could have also ran clean water afterwords through the over flow tank with the engine running to flush the system using this same method.

This is so much easier to do it this way that there is no reason not to flush your system every year to keep it clean.

Blowndodge