Few drops of coolant

Hi All
After passing my test on tuesday, last night I finally got a chance to go out on my sv. Had a ball. the sv is so much nicer to ride than the old cb500 I did my test on. however when I got back I noticed a few drops of coolant inbetween the clutch cover and the water pump housing, do you think it is just the gasket or the actual waterpump?. Also on a scale of 1 to 10 how easy is it to change the waterpump / gasket?.

hope you can help
many thanks
Stu

[jambo]

I'd keep an eye on it and the fluid level, if it's only leaking a little bit I probably wouldn't worry about it till next time I was doing a service and wanted to change the coolant

That said if it's leaking at any sort of rate you'll want to be in there, it should be a case of draining the coolant and unbolting the water pump, from there you could just put a new seal in after checking all was well I'd have imagined. Not done it myself though.

[northwind]

I reckon, it'll be the 2 wee o-rings that sit between the pump and the casing. It's a sod to change- drain coolant, remove hoses, remove outer clutch cover then inner, then remove water pump bolts and the circlip that holds the big gear onto the pump, remove pump, replace 0-rings (there's one on the bit that goes through the casing too, might want to replace that, I didn't) , reattach pump, replcae inner clutch cover gasket (takes ages to clean the old bits off, by the way!), refit clutch inner cover (with pump bolted to it, natch) and that's a fiddle to get the water pump drive gear to fit right, then reattach outer cover (ideally with new o-ring), hoses, refill coolant and bleed. This is all for a curvy, BTW, injected's clutch casing is a little different. So, a sod. Plus, easy to get coolant in the oil.

What caused it with mine, was one of the water pump bolts sheared, allowing it to lift a little. I replaced the bolt and retorqued it but it continued to leak. Could be yours has had the same.