Suzuki 2 Strokes

I've written before in this forum on damage that I discovered on the water pump cartridge. During re-assembly this weekend, I turned by attention to the old water pump. (I installed a new cartridge assembly that is still available from Suzuki). The guy who worked on this engine in the past I believe owned 4 tools:
-a hammer,
-vice grips,
-a Crescent wrench, and
-a big screwdriver that also doubled as a crowbar and a cold chisel.

It apparently did not occur to him that water bypassing to the tell tale hole might have meant a leaking mechanical seal. See the photo. A mechanical seal face and the carbon ring should be mirror smooth. On my 'J' these were as grooved as I've ever seen a mechanical seal. The only thing I know of that would cause this is running without coolant.

The guy probably used his crowbar to get the impeller off--and succeeded in cracking the impeller boss.

I think this has become a widespread problem with less and less bike shops willing/able to work on older bikes. It is becoming more of a requirement that owners can do their own repairs. Unless you have a handy and adventurous neighbor mechanic friend.
The knowledge of how to do repairs is available. Owners only need the time, patience and tools to do their own.
It’s tough enough just getting a dealer to mount a tube type tire and tube, never mind pull the wheel off too.

Mark

It's never fun finding a botched repair like that.

I restored an old truck a few years ago that 2 previous owners had done a lot of work on themselves; one a retired car hobbyist and the other a high school student. When finding a previous repair it was always obvious which one had been there before me.

Shortly after buying my GT it developed an electrical problem that I didn't understand. I called the local shop and, wanting to be sure the mechanics knew the bike, I just asked if they could work on an old 'water buffalo'. The young guy on the other end kind of laughed and informed me they didn't work on Harleys there. I thanked him for his time and set about solving the problem on my own; which turned out to be an ignition point out of adjustment. 14 years later and I'm still doing all my own work on it.

Along with YouTube and this forum there's an old book that was pivotal for me: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Something that stood out was when the author was trying to solve problems his mind kept going to "maybe I should just let the shop figure this one out". It was only after he completely eliminated that as a possible solution that he was able to find the problem on his own - something that worked for him every time after. I've found that to be true as well.

If someone cant fix something as simple as the waterpmp imagine whats lurking on the rest of the bike they worked their magic on. I found an innovative repair on one engine where they threaded the weep hole and put a cut off screw in there.