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Old 02-09-2013, 11:44 AM   #8
bandito2   bandito2 is offline
 
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Southeast Mchigan
Posts: 169
One more thing; the radiator does not need electrical power to work. It is passive. It works simply by having coolant pass through it so it can transfer the heat away. It does that by air passing by the tubing with cooling vanes on it in the radiator. The engine provides the power to the water/coolant pump that pushes the coolant around the engine to pick up the heat and then through the radiator to cool it and then back through the engine again. It's a continuous cycle.

If your water pump stops working, or the thermostat stays stuck closed then the coolant mostly just sits there and gathers more heat until it is too much. (then bad things can start to happen to the engine ) Actually a thermostat will stay closed and keep the coolant from flowing around until coolant heats up to operating temperature, then the thermostat opens and lets the coolant flow normally around the whole cooling system.

I hope you guys don't mind me going on and on like this but it seems some are just learning about how their machines work. Understanding how they work makes things less of a mystery and empowers them to fix things themselves. (or at least helps with knowing just what the hell is going on with their bike.)
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