water pump replacement

[bruce P]

Has anybody had good luck with Caltric water pumps? I replaced the water pump (OEM) on my other 1200 "85 LTD several years ago and It's still going strong. I'm about to do the pump on my other LTD, due to the weep hole starting to leak a little bit. I'll probably go with another Honda OEM pump, but was just wondering if anybody has been running the Caltric after market pump with success.

[WingAdmin]

Has anybody had good luck with Caltric water pumps? I replaced the water pump (OEM) on my other 1200 "85 LTD several years ago and It's still going strong. I'm about to do the pump on my other LTD, due to the weep hole starting to leak a little bit. I'll probably go with another Honda OEM pump, but was just wondering if anybody has been running the Caltric after market pump with success.

I've heard of people asking the same question, but I don't know that I've seen anyone here posting results after having installed one. I do however know people who have installed the Saber Cycle water pump and had it fail and leak within 100 miles (or less) - and then tore things apart all over again to install an OEM pump.

Personally, the amount of my time it takes to pull the bike apart enough to get to the water pump is worth more than the $40 I would save by using an aftermarket pump, and potentially having to do it again. I would go Honda OEM.

[bruce P]

Thank you WingAdmin, I'll go with the OEM pump. I do have another question: How about the K&L o-ring pump replacement kit? It seems to be the one being used even with an OEM pump. Or should I order each OEM O-ring and gasket separately?

[WingAdmin]

Thank you WingAdmin, I'll go with the OEM pump. I do have another question: How about the K&L o-ring pump replacement kit? It seems to be the one being used even with an OEM pump. Or should I order each OEM O-ring and gasket separately?

The K&L and KP Gaskets gasket and o-ring kits both seem to work very well (I used the KP Gaskets one), as does the OEM gasket kit.

The only kit that I've seen repeated complaints about is (no surprise here) the Saber Cycle kit, which has gaskets that are paper thin, and as a result cause jamming of the shift mechanism on the inside of the front engine cover.

[bruce P]

Thank you, WingAdmin, I think I'll go with the K&L kit with five stars--and be really careful on what goes where. The first one I did is still working perfectly after several years. I hope I can do as well this time. I might add (as others guys have already written), that after a lifetime of working on light aircraft, where most surfaces are soft aluminum, the overall cleanup, and taking extra care that gasket surfaces are perfectly cleaned, with not even one little cross scratch from your tools, is a really big deal. Also, even though I've done this before, I'll be working with the shop manual and the how-to from this site every step of the way. Thanks again.

[simon609zp]

Don’t waste your time and money on a Caltric water pump. It lasted about 100 miles before coolant was dripping out of the weep hole. I have ordered an OEM pump and get to do it all over again

[JulianR]

Just another testimonial about using the OEM water pump and the K&L gasket set.
There are a lot of steps involved , and I for one would not want to repeat, and the net
cost difference was not that big (maybe $50.00)
However, using the detailed instructions and pictures provided by this forum,
even I was able to do it right the first time.
I did the thermostat too since It was right there.
No leaks and bike runs great. Hope the new OEM pump lasts for 70K miles as did the
original 1986 pump!

Finally, Thanks again to this forum .
The OEM shop manual, while invaluable for many things, assumes basically that you
are a factory trained mechanic and a lot of prior knowledge. For example, when my
stator failed I looked in the manual to R &R it; well step one listed in "stator replacement" is
1. Remove the engine. (this is an exact quote). So with the collective wisdom of this forum, I
did a poorboy conversion . A success story for another time!