Radiator leak - maybe fan problem as well

After hard encounter with some trees a few weeks back, the bike seemed fine although there was some fairing damage around the radiator. In heavy national park traffic on Thursday and very slow going, a hole opened up in the radiator without overheat light coming on. Now that I have it apart, I can see some damage to fins but no obvious holes. Outside of case has some bending and tabs distorted. Fan was touching back of the rad but did not damage it.

I'm replacing the radiator (and try to get the old one repaired) but think the fan is probably ok. How do I check the fan and system to make sure?

Dave

Good luck on your radiator patch. Most of the time repair requires soldering the hole.

Re FAN: The easiest way I found to test the fan is after the bike's warmed up, ride around slowly with the brakes on putting a heavy load on the engine. If your radiator boils without the fan coming on, well you've got a fan problem. If you do a bad fan, an inexpensive replacement can be made from your local electronics surplus house. Or if you only want to go with factory parts, I got a new, in the box fan, I never used since going the surplus route. I've got over 10'000 miles on my $12 surplus computer server fan. Just find one the same size that pulls the most amps (more amps = more power & airflow...). and mount. I had to make one small bracket for the lower side to match the frame's holes. You can also do away with the shroud behind the fan. Good luck with getting it fixed....

Bill T.