2007 Grizzly 700, 4600 miles, 360 hours. Mostly ridden by my friend, but it’s half mine and is stored and maintained at my house.
Overheated last year on the Paiute ATV Trail, mud in the radiator. Overheated again later, mud in the radiator again. Both times, once we cleaned out the mud for the most part with a squirt bottle, it was fine afterward.
Yesterday, it overheated again at the top of a fairly long hill climb. But this time the radiator is pretty clean. I’d say maybe 5% blockage, in the upper part and center where it’s hard to spray with the grill in place.
As soon as it started to flash, he stopped, turned off the motor but left the ignition on so the fan kept running, and let it cool down for 5 minutes. It was fine after that, but we didn’t do any more hill climbs.
I just checked the coolant level and it was fine, but I discovered two things:
1. The coolant smells like burnt urine, and
2. There are metal shavings floating around in the coolant. A LOT of them. Very, very fine shavings.
I’m thinking the water pump is going bad and the coolant is long overdue for a flush. I have looked at a few threads here about it and we’ve ordered a rebuild kit, specifically this one:
Hot Rods Water Pump Rebuild Kit HotRods WPK0025
What do you guys think? Do you agree with my diagnosis? Should that kit do the job? Do you think I’ll need a new impeller/shaft, or are the metal shavings most likely from the seal, which is part of the kit?
Thanks for your time.
