sideways_into_3rd

I agree the crap doesn't look good .. maybe i'll get some "rad flush" and run it through there to clean that stuff up However, I know the impeller is turning.. I had the brass drain plug out and kicked the bike over and saw it turn with the engine. can the shaft slip inside the impeller ? I only looked at the shaft .. maybe i'll take the brass plug out and fire up the bike (let out all the water) and see if the impeller is actually spinning.

I didnt actually take the water pump apart, just took it off and looked in it to see if the impeller was in good shape .. from what I could see 4 impeller tabs were there and not damaged... As mentioned before, this bike is brand new and just came out of the box. Which means it has been sitting for 12 years. There is some gunk in the radiator but not enough to disrupt the flow. I plugged in a garden hose to the engine coolant intake jacket and it feely flowed out of the rad, I then put the water pump in and water would flow through that as well. So I've determined there is no blockage anywhere I filled it up, ran it for a while and same thing .. bottom 2 hoses were not getting warm at all, even after the fan kicked in and the top hose was hot. Let it cool down, opened the rad cap and fired it up again .. water level was at the top, then I noticed I'm not seeing any flow of water back into the rad .. shot this little video.. was expecting to see water flowing back in anyway . .I guess I need to take my brand new water pump apart .. kind of frustrated at this point but what the heck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTt3LOBDpm8

Well, I took the water pump and bottom hoses off.. The pump looks good, the impellers are fine, it spins on the motor.. the lines are not clogged, the rad is not clogged .. tomorrow I will test running a garden hose in the motor to make sure nothing is clogged in there I was told that it could have been an air bubble causing the pump to cavitate ... i'll refill it and massage the hoses to make sure there's no bubbles etc... other than that I'm at wits end !! hope it works !

Thanks for the replies and the video I figured there must be a circulation issue, wasn't sure if the thermostat is a valve or just to operate the fan.. Going to take the water pump apart later today and have a look inside.. chances are I probably misplaced the copper washer in the pump when I drained it .. I saw the rubber seal thing and thought that was the one I needed to save.. whoops !

Hello ! I just purchased a brand new 2002 280 txt pro .. it had just been sitting in it's box for 12 years believe it or not!! Changed the oil and the coolant as a precaution and took it for a ride.. had the coolant boil over. Steam and liquid coolant shooting out of the vent hose. pulled over and turned off the motor. The fan was definitely running at this point! The upper rad hose was hot, the lower rad hoses were cool. To change the coolant I unscrewed the brass drain plug at the bottom .. not much coolant came out, probably 250-300 ml.. topped it up with 50/50 dexron mix. Put the plug in, hand snugged it, made sure the rubber washer was in place. Didn't really bleed the system in any way, as I don't see any bleed nipples.. don't think you'd need to bleed it as the rad is the highest point in the system so air would naturally escape. So, what did I do wrong ? Thank you ! ps, noticed my oil is a little milky as well.. probably had coolant push through the seal when it overheated, or could this be a sign of a bad water pump ? The bike is brand new, so I would hope not !