Sounds like an innocent question. I have a 1994 Ninja 500. My manual tells me that I need to remove the gas tank and fairings in order to check my antifreeze. I need to make sure that it isn't going to freeze over the winter (I've seen pictures of the damage that this could do and I really don't want to deal with that!) Does anyone know of an easier way to do this? Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks

 

Is you over flow tank better available?? you can go by that too.. but its a little less accurate

 

To be honest, I don't know. But I'll check it out - thanks for the suggestion. Much appreciated.

 

the best thing you can do if you wanna take care of the bike yourself. Is go you your local kawi dealer and invest in a factory service manual. There is a lot of great info in those books !!

 

I've got a Clymer manual, it seems to be pretty good (I'm not 100% sure if it contains the same info as the factory manual - but I would imagine that it is pretty close). For anything that I will be doing myself, it seems to be detailed enough. I've done some work on my car in the past and the manuals that I have for it are pretty close to the one I have for the bike. So I think I'll be okay there. Also, a friend of a friend is a mechanic at one of the local Kawi dealerships, so I have that resource too.

Keep in mind, I just got the bike in December, and it's been pretty cold since then, so I haven't really had a lot of opportunities to get familiar with the bike yet. That will change as soon as some warmer weather hits.

 

Check out the overflow bottle, as long as there is fluid in there then your fine. I believe it's front somewhere but I'm not exactly sure I'll have to go take a look

 

Thanks! I might venture out to the shed this weekend and take a look myself. It is supposed to warm up a bit, finally!

 

do you have a hydrometer to see what the freezing point of the coolant is ??

 

also if you do any work on the cooling system it must be air bled, this is more critical than a car because the cooling system isnt as large and the air pockets create hot spots throught the entire system.

 

Yes I do. I just did it this weekend. Went about it the way the manual said, took gas tank, fairings, etc off. It wasn't that bad, killed some time. Good news though, she'll be fine for the rest of the winter.

c10 - thanks for that, I didn't know. I'll keep that in mind for the spring and make sure that I do that. I'm used to my car, just pop the rad cap off, check it, twist her back on and go.