2008 water pump seal leak

welcome to UHE


this is what happened to coffin's waterpump seal. he said; "it just wouldn't stop!"

you've been warned!

LOL!!!!

regards

Taffy

fasteddy said:

My first post, and I've just ordered my first Berg, an 08 F 550, it's not here yet, next week I hope. I've been lurking here the last couple of weeks and have learned much about the bikes, great forum and community. A quick question about the water pump seal leak, is it still a problem on the 08's? I just want to be prepared and if need be I'll get the fix ahead of time.

Ed..

Click to expand...

nah dont worry about it, after 4 x '08 650's on our team we only had a minor dribble that only showed with a bit of dust, its not worth bothering with, and thats with a combined travel distance of about 20,000km at rallye race speeds.

fasteddy said:

My first post, and I've just ordered my first Berg, an 08 F 550, it's not here yet, next week I hope. I've been lurking here the last couple of weeks and have learned much about the bikes, great forum and community. A quick question about the water pump seal leak, is it still a problem on the 08's? I just want to be prepared and if need be I'll get the fix ahead of time.

Ed..

Click to expand...

Hi Ed and welcome to the site,

You've chose a very fine steed indeed, I'm sure you will be very satisfied with your purchase.

Regarding the water pump seal. The "fix" you are referring to I assume is the Orangeberg kit, I have one installed on my 04 550. It being a water pump seal fix is a bit of a misnomer, the water pump seal and the oil seal both share the same weep hole. The Orangeberg kit fixes the oil leak problem that some people have had, but, even with the Orangeberg kit, the water pump seal remains the stock unit.

If you download the 07 manuals, free from either the Husaberg.se or Husaber.com sites, and look at the water pump seal bearing combo, you will see a small O ring that goes on the impeller shaft, and that O ring seals the bearings inner race from oil flow getting past the inner race and getting into the area behind the water pump seal, and then the oil ends up coming out of the weep hole.

I would suggest riding your bike and see if it leaks at all first and worry about fixing the problem when it comes up. If you want to support Mr. Orangeberg, who is having a bit of a rough go at the moment, you could go ahead and get one of his seal kits and have it on hand.

They did make a slight change to the water pump seals since 07 I believe, the material was supposed to be slightly different, and the outer metal casing has a coating on it that I believe is some sort of lubricant to ease installation.

And I'm not sure if this change made it to the owners manual, but here is a tech bulletin from Husaberg : http://www.husaberg.org/index.php?full= ... _photo.php

Best of luck with your new ride! Be sure and post a report in the race and ride reports.

john was working on an improved fix thats easier to install correctly and uses stronger bits

an even better weep hole fix.............

if we ever get to keep him long enough to get some that is...

my 08 dribbled a bit from new

there are more important things to get right IMHO, jetting, breather, exhaust, suspension, tyres and monitor crank end float if its a 550

regards
Bushie

Fast,

I don't know if the crank end float is much of an issue anymore, some units had problems with end float, also known as axial play, a couple of years back. I never had a problem with my 04, and the bike you are getting has increased web strength in the main bearing area.

If you do a search in the mechanical section of forums I'm sure you will find plenty of reading on it.

Your 08 is the pinnacle of this engine design, and any of the previous problems with this design should not be an issue with your bike.

And as I understand it, the 08's come with the DVR needle, which is a good set up and starting point, talk with Ahoolsema about jetting as he lives in your general area, I think. Go ride the bike and enjoy yourself and don't worry about anything.

The only advice I have for you are the following items;

Follow the manuals break in procedure.= First 3 hours do not load the engine more than 50% and no more than 7000rpm, change oil, check valve lash. Next 12 hours do not load the engine more than 75% on varying terrain. See my engine rebuild thread for what my motor looked like at 220 hours. I never maxed my bike out until I had 20 hours on it.

Change the oil frequently. It should not come out black. I have had great luck with Motul 5100 15W-50. However, you may need something with a lower Winters number for riding in the great white north. I change my oil after every time I ride it, probably around 60-80 miles depending. Although I have gone 150 before on a few occasions.

Keep the valves adjusted.

Put some kind of filter on the breather tubes to your carb, this will keep the fine dirt from getting into your engine via the gas, and will greatly increase the number of times you have to actually adjust your valves when you check them.

Ed,
Where abouts in Canada are you?
Don't worry about the weep hole leaking unless it actually does leak. It is hit and miss. My 07 550 didn't leak anything until about 100hrs. Then a slight oil leak, now a slight coolant leak. Not enough of a leak that I ever noticed the coolant level drop in the rad.
It's a non-issue for most of the newer bikes.
I am changing my cam chain right now, so I figured I might as well pull the sidecover off and throw on an orangeberg seal kit, which is guaranteed to stop all leaks from the weep hole. I wouldn't have bothered, but since it's winter and I'm already in the engine I figured what the hell.

Aaron

My 05 650 began weeping oil slightly around 20 hours up to present 82 hours. Not worried about it.
Pollo

plenty of 550s do their mains in australia, there are 2 bergs in my area, mine and an 07 550, the 550 did its mains and the local clowns whacked the guy with a $ 5000 bill. the same clowns said its a known problem with the stock mains that have a plastic cage that gets brittle and breaks.... I asked so did you put better bearings in or the same "known problem ones?" .. :roll: .clowns.

john advised check end float initially and then after 10 hours 0.5 to 0.3mm is OK. there is plenty of info on this in a huge thread started by john called "mains bearing failure must change" can check it with calipers or a dial guage with the ignition cover off.

the 650 crank is made out of forged stuff and is stronger apparently while the 550s rev more and have a softer more wobbly crank. there are many theories on it but john has enough experience with binned 550 mains fro me to trust his.

sometimes my end float is 0.05mm............. something in my engine is moving around while hot and settling in another spot while cold. If i warm it up gently eventually the end float goes back to 0.5.

not to serious a problem like dale says but its worth checking the end float from time to time, particulary in a 550.

regards
Bushie

I'm changing the chain because I'm at 140hrs. General consensus is to change it after 150hrs, before 200hrs. I'm gonna go up to 240-250hrs over the next riding season. I would prefer to work on my bike in the winter when I can't ride it as opposed to the prime riding time. Plus its easy and cheap. Roughly $50.

ps- I've never checked my crank float.