Have been reading about some bad oo kodiak waterpumps and was curious as to how you tell if it is circulating without removing the cap? My antifreeze level has been fine. Where is the pump located?

 

Simply touch the coolant hoses. It should be equally hot everywhere. If one is hot, other is cold, there's a problem.

 

Mine has went out also. The pump is on the left side on the bottom. If you get down and look up you will see it. It will leak if its bad. One thing to look for is the motor getting abnormally hot on the left side.

Our Kodiaks have two thermostats. One is for the radiator temp "which controls the fan" , the other is for the engine temp "which is hooked up to the overheating light on the dash". It is possible for the light to come on and the fan never come on. If this happens the antifreeze is already gone from the radiator. If you start the Kodiak "and if any more antifreeze is left" it will leak from the water pump.

I hope this helps. And I wish I could figure out how to make this url work in my signature.

 

The best way to tell if a water pump is circulating on any type of machine is to remove the radiator cap, start it up and look. If it's circulating you will see it.

Now, in regards to the Kodiak water pump specifically and the problems you have read about it, the pump will leak like crazy when it goes out. It's located near the left floor board.

One thing to keep in mind which I found out over the weekend. Having a full over flow resevoir doesn't mean squat. Before each time I ride, I check the basics, air in the tires, oil, water in the resevoir, etc. Let me tell you what happened to me this past weekend. I did my basic checks, the resevoir was full. Started my ride and within minutes my temp light came on. I pretty much ingored it since I had plent of water and just figured something was wrong with the light. To make a long story short, the resevoir can be full of water and the radiator bone dry at the same time.