[Motorcycle] Air filter in the wrong direction?

S

Shade

Veteran X
Hey dudes.

I did some maintenance on my moyorcycle with a friend from work today. On my bike, we changed all 4 spark plugs, drained and replaced the oil and coolant, replaced the air filter and oil filter, and adjusted and lubed the chain.

However, the bike is now running VERY hot. Normally the temperature gague would sit below 50%, but after the work we did it now goes into the red. It tends to go up and down.. between 40% and say 95% on the gague.

I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. When my friend put the new coolant in, he filled it only in the reservoir. It took about 1/3 a gallon, so we didn't just fill the small reservoir..

I started thinking about when I was replacing the air filter, and the instructions told me to put it in the opposite way that I thought it would go... but all the diagrams I have found tonight since doing it show it the opposite way of what I installed it as. Could this be causing the overheating? Do air filters only allow air to easily pass through in one, proper direction?

Danke :)

LOVE,
Kip
 
i once tried to install a pully the wrong way for dem engine belts on a buick. i realized my mistake waiting in line at the autozone to return this "wrong" part... lol
 
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I've never worked on a motorcycle, but maybe there's air in the cooling system, disrupting the circulation? You bleed it out (in a car) by running the engine with the radiator cap off, but it's also almost 4am and I may be on crack.
 
aScotiA said:
I've never worked on a motorcycle, but maybe there's air in the cooling system, disrupting the circulation? You bleed it out (in a car) by running the engine with the radiator cap off, but it's also almost 4am and I may be on crack.
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I did read that in one of the books I have.. I don't think we did anything to prevent air from being caught in there when we reattached the hose after draining. Guess I might have to take it into a mechanic.. ugh. Meant to SAVE money doing it myself.
 
Shade said:
I did read that in one of the books I have.. I don't think we did anything to prevent air from being caught in there when we reattached the hose after draining. Guess I might have to take it into a mechanic.. ugh. Meant to SAVE money doing it myself.
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rofl. i might be getting me a tune up myself for the wifes 91 volvo. i got our volvo mechanics number on speed dial ... lol
 
Hrm I am a mechanic. It sound like a problem with the crank shaft. Open the engine up and look and see if there is a tortious in there, if there is, remove it.
 
I don't think plug gaps would have anything to do with it, nor do I think an air filter being installed the "wrong way" would cause an overheating condition.
 
it might affect their ability to dissipate heat :shrug:
but he used the exact same ones so thats not the problem

and yeah i dont think a backwards air filter would cause overheating, just make you slow :)


improper ratios of water to antifreeze in your coolant?
i dont even know how that works in bikes, ive stared at a bikes engine for a while but thats it
 
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I used premixed 50/50, so no :)

Oh well. Looks like it's a few hundred bucks to a mechanic. How annoying.
 
Nothing to do with the air filter, if it was causing bad air flow it would just run rich and foul the plugs. Correct that anyway.

You problem will be one of 3 things:

1) Your friend used straight coolant instead of blending it 50% with water OR

2) You have air trapped somewhere in the system. Find the high point on the motor coolant route and see if it can be bled or topped up here. Check forums or the workshop manual

3) I don't know if your bike has a thermostat. If it does it could have failed or is partly jamming. Also check what drives the water pump and see if you did anything to fuck with it - unlikely on a bike because they are typically crank or cam driven.
 
on the 'thermostat' front: I'm assuming your bike has a fan on the radiator? Can you hear it come on/off? could be something screwy there..
 
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