Well crap, the 1200 has an oil leak in the water pump.

[John Schmidt]

After reassembling the engine a few months ago which included new o-rings and gaskets everywhere, after running it a while I noticed an oozing of its life's blood out the weep hole in the bottom of the pump housing. Did a little checking and decided the only recourse is pull the front cover and replace the pump. Kind of a PITA on the 1200, you have to remove the engine front cover and the pump comes off with it. Sure enough, once off there is a slight wiggle sideways on the pump shaft/impeller, something that was not present when I first put it all together. Oh well! #@&*%$#@  I enjoyed spending an hour draining the oil and water, then removing the cover....again!  I ordered my parts from an outfit named ProCaliber, they advertise "cheap" parts and they aren't kidding. Got the pump for $112, that's $10 less than anywhere else I found including PartsZilla. They also state free shipping on OEM parts for orders over $99 so it can't be beat. I found their parts cheaper pretty much across the board so if you need something, be sure to check it out.

http://www.procaliber.com/

[TJ]

Let me know how the service and delivery are ??  

[John Schmidt]

You bet TJ, I'll post on here so everyone can make there own judgement. Hope it's good, darn thing is taking up space on my otherwise cluttered bench. 

[flsix]

John, there was a fellow at the Shell station this morning where we met Bob and Michelle, and he was riding a 1983 1100cc Gold Wing with 139k on the clock. He was meeting another Valk rider to take a spin around Lake Okechobee.

Hope the new oil pump fixes the problem.

[John Schmidt]

Jeff, it's the water pump, apparently the bearing is worn so the impeller shaft has some side to side movement allowing oil seepage. Parts probably won't be in for a week.

[flsix]

I knew that..........I think.........
It will be fun to see her up and running again.

[John Schmidt]

The new vendor I tried came through in fine shape. They're in Vancouver, WA but the parts were shipped USPS Priority 2-day deliver. The order went in on the 15th, delivered today....free shipping over $99. I'll be using them again, not only are the OEM prices less than any others I've found but the free shipping makes it well worth it. The time involved wasn't any longer than any other vendor I've used. And as a plus to this, I called them to add three additional items. So they added them and noted for them to be shipped with the original order so I wouldn't be hit with a shipping charge since it would have been less than $99 for the add-ons. Very friendly folks. 

[Flrider]

I am glad you got your parts John, hopefully you can get things rolling again.
Looking forward to seeing the end result of your project.

I have been having issues with USPS as of late.
Packages seem to get within a day of delivery and then they end up somewhere down south or north of Florida.
Kind of crazy cause it gets close to me and then it back tracks and it takes another 5 days to make it to me.
My last package came from up north and came to Orlando, then to Leesburg, then to Gainesville and then back to Orlando before it made it back to me.
Called the Leesburg post office and the lady said it was nothing new, they get so many lost packages every day, that they just send then out again.  

Sorry, had to get that out of my chest, NOW BACK TO THE REGULAR SCHEDULED PROGRAM  

[John Schmidt]

I finally got around to changing out the pump, put the whole thing back together and hit the starter to circulate the water. Nothing! Now what? Then it hit me....no neutral light. So I drain the radiator and remove it, then the front cover. There's a small gear sensor switch in there that has to be aligned with a  particular spot and it was way off, hence no light. I must have bumped it when putting it on the first time. So, realigned the switch again(fits in a double slot on the shiting mechanism), put the cover in place and just inserted two bolts to hold it while I turned on the key to check. Bingo...I have a neutral light. So, I just got done bolting it all down and will install the radiator tomorrow, fill with oil and water, then set up the gravity feed for the carbs. With the Valk tank I shouldn't need a fuel pump. I still need to sync the carbs(just overhauled them) when I get it running. If I've stemmed the oil leak for now, my next step will be rebuilding the forks. I found a source to get the wheels powder coated for $125 or $150, I forget which. This engine has been the bane of my existend this past year so I'm hoping things are starting to come around. If I have much more trouble, it will probably be more advantageous for me to simply find a different motor. Don't really want the expense but might be needed.

[TJ]