How hard is it to change the Thermostat?

Hey Guys
The last trip to NYC had me overheat and die in Chinatown. And it was only 20 degrees. But 60 blocks of stop and go traffic made the max run too hot.
I now plan to ride to Daytona from PA at the end of the month. And I am sure the bike will do fine on the trip. But running around in traffic at bikeweek will be as bad as NYC. And it will be much warmer then 20 degrees. So I am sure I will have an issue.
SO far I flushed the system and installed a manual switch for the fan. I will run it while riding in town. I am thinking about taking out or changing the thermostat. If its sticking. blowing air thru the rad will not help. So how involved is it? Do I need to remove the header and radiator? Or is there a simple trick to getting it out?
Call me lazy, but with Daytona so close I don't want to get invoved in a huge project. Thanks

DenniSM said:

Hey Guys
The last trip to NYC had me overheat and die in Chinatown. And it was only 20 degrees. But 60 blocks of stop and go traffic made the max run too hot.
I now plan to ride to Daytona from PA at the end of the month. And I am sure the bike will do fine on the trip. But running around in traffic at bikeweek will be as bad as NYC. And it will be much warmer then 20 degrees. So I am sure I will have an issue.
SO far I flushed the system and installed a manual switch for the fan. I will run it while riding in town. I am thinking about taking out or changing the thermostat. If its sticking. blowing air thru the rad will not help. So how involved is it? Do I need to remove the header and radiator? Or is there a simple trick to getting it out?
Call me lazy, but with Daytona so close I don't want to get invoved in a huge project. Thanks

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It's easy to get at. Just remove the right scoop (sitting on bike right side) and you will see where the thermostat goes where it meets up with the rad hose.

Well you can do several things for over heating... Change your fan blade to a muzzys brand , change out the thermal switch to a lower temp so the fan kicks on sooner, Install an fan over ride switch. Change your thermostat if it is faulty. Also check your radiator your fins might be plugged up from bugs and road grime.

Changing the thermostat , thermal switch , or installing an fan over ride switch is pretty easy. Most of your work will be done under the right side scoop.

Installing a new fan blade and checking your radiator for bugs is another thing. I would first of all check for bugs in the radiator. You can clean it yourself but it is a touchy subject. I removed mine from the bike .It becomes a messy project from the antifreeze that you will have to drain out. I layed it flat on the ground and used a high pressure washer. The problem with this is if you don't spray directly down into the radiator fins you will bend them over then you have a huge issue. This might need to be done because of the mileage on the bike or if you have a ton of bugs. Also someone might have already tried to clean the radiator and bent some of the fins over. This also could be part of your cooling issue. If this is the case you can fun down to your local parts house and get a radiator fin comb or straightener. They are not too costly.
The problem with the Vmax is its cooling issues and there are many things that could contribute to them. Always check these first: coolant level , clean radiator , water pump , thermo stat. Then you can do other mods

Others on here know more than I but I would first start there unless another member has other ideas

The T-stat isn't all that hard but not just a 15 minute job. It's located down near the front lower right header right behind the waterpump elbow. You either need to take the pump off or remove the hoses and work the housing out from behind the header. It's not the problem usually anyway. As noted, a good flushing and checking of the radiator for cleanliness. You can change the sending unit easily and it is under the right scoop as was noted. But, that only lets the fan turn on sooner. If you are having problems with it overheating that bad you may have other issues.

The muzzy fan seems to work worse from our experience.

Sean don't tell me the Muzzy fan works worse.... Yikes

Scooter

Yup, I changed my thermostat as well...it took about a half an hour. Real easy to do. And, fan comes on earlier.

Elimax

When I changed my thermostat , one of the bolts broke off & I ended up pulling the header off to drill & tap - easy jobs can turn to ***** sometimes. I'm still glad I did it - bike runs right at half-way on the gauge even in mid-summer. Don't just pull the thermostst out, be sure to put a new one in.

Ok
I will inspect the radiator. I have put around 5000 miles on the bike this winter. And the bike has never even come close to the middle of the gage. But I have been riding it in the cold and country roads. On the way home from NYC, the bike ran fine again. Just that late night ride from 48th street to chinatown in dead stop traffic made it run so hot it staled and would not start until it cooled down.
We flushed the system the other day and let it idle and and over time it went almost into the red in about 20 minutes. Almost the red. What temp should the fan kick in? It did not hit the red, but the fan did not kick in. We turned it off and flushed the sytem again. Today we will test with my override switch and see if it will keep it cool. And inspect the radiator.

I live in Hell-like Phoenix, AZ. I used to live in Manhattan with my previous VMax (a 20001).

When I ride here in 108 degree heat, you know I gotta keep her cool.

These are the things I did:

1) Changed the thermostat to a model that brings fan on earlier.

2) Got the manual "fan on" switch (for "preventivemaintenance").

3) Switched back from Muzzy's fan to stock fan (in light of the research Sean mentioned.)

4) Lastly, but NOT leastly, I changed coolant to "Engine Ice." It's really popular here in Hell..I mean Arizona...with a higher boiling point.

Since I've done these mods, the bike NEVER overheats.

Good luck!

Elimax said:

I live in Hell-like Phoenix, AZ. I used to live in Manhattan with my previous VMax (a 20001).

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WOW you got a 20001?!?! Does it fly? Levitate? Does it run on lizard poo and how many times round the sun can u go on one zap? :biglaugh::rofl_200:

Dennis, if your temp never went up it points at a broken thermostat - makes sure to renew it! Sound like it used to be stuck open.

Fan not coming on could be a number of things:
- first disconnect the wires at the fan switch and connect them to each other, fan should come on. If it does your temp switch needs replacing.
- if it doesn't, you'll need to check your fan fuse, and also run 12V directly to the fan connector (under left scoop and plastic cover) to make sure the fan is ok.
- if it comes on then it could be your wiring. If it doesn't you may need a new fan. It should come on automatically as the gauge reaches roughly 3/4 up to the red.

hello all, i have found out that you must burp the air out of the cooling system with the engine running and at full operating temperature,otherwise you will have trapped air in the engine creating hot spots negating the effectiveness of the cooling system and possible engine damage . i use the bleed nipple on the thermostat housing, using a clear piece of hose like from a battery overflow. one end on thermo housing the other end in a small glass jar .once you crack the bleeder open with the hose attached with the other end in the jar ,you will see how much air is in the system. bikes with overheating problems will have air in the system. just bleed until you see no more air then top off the overflow container to the full line.if you keep seeing air when you are bleeding you might have a stuck thermostat or a bad head gasket .i have also found that the dealer when preparing a new bike(like my 06) from the shipping crate, they will raise the front wheel two feet in the air while filling the bike with coolant (not running) to ensure all air is out of the cooling system. best to you all buckridge

Ok
The system has been flushed twice and as of right now is straight water(because I might still do the thermostat). I let the bike run to see when the fan would kick in and if it would go into the red. I also wired my fan switch. I let the bike run for almost 45 minutes and it never really got much higher then half way on the gauge. The fan did kick in also at around half way.
I have yet to change the thermostat. Call me chicken. I just don't want to open a whole can of worms this close to daytona. I even have the new one. I am just plain chicken.

I heard that one trick to getting a cooling system flushed really well is to use a vineagar and water solution, followed by couple good flushings with water.

The more I think about this, the more I think my fan did not kick in that night. While wiring the override switch I noticed how bad the contacts were on the sensor. So I cleaned them up and the fan seems to kick on much earlier. And the bike is running fine now. I will do my best to find traffic today and test the bike.

When you guys are talking about changing the thermostat, are you changing one thats not working, or putting one in that opens sooner? Also, I'm assuming that you can get a temperature switch that open sooner than the stock one from the dealer?:ummm:
Tim

tothemax93 said:

When you guys are talking about changing the thermostat, are you changing one thats not working, or putting one in that opens sooner? Also, I'm assuming that you can get a temperature switch that open sooner than the stock one from the dealer?:ummm:
Tim

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You can get a borg warner thermoswitch that will kick the fan on earlier from the autoparts store. Not sure on the part # but it can be found on the forum. Do a tag search on "thermostat" and you will find good info on both thermoswitches, and thermostats.

You can get a stant themostat to replace the stock yamaha one. Stant part # 13758 fits the vmax well and is rated at 180 degrees

Borg-Warner thermoswitch is TFS545 - yes it turns the fan on sooner, but I don't know the exact temp. The stock thermostat opens at 82 degrees C - that's 179.6 degrees F. , same as the Stant.

richwrench said:

The stock thermostat opens at 82 degrees C - that's 179.6 degrees F. , same as the Stant.

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Really? I thought the stock t-stat opened later than that.

[email protected] said:

Really? I thought the stock t-stat opened later than that.

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:ummm::ummm: :damn angry:

I found a discussion that claims it'll activate at approx. 230 degrees and this link talks about on and off temps of a couple different fan sensor switches.

here: http://www.the-clearing.org/Bike/Vmax/Tech/cooling :hitsfan::th_smilie: