BMW K100 Tear Down
This weekend was not bringing any riding weather, so it became bike tear down time. Any new bikes needs to be taken apart to a certain degree and intimately examined and problem details given the appropriate detailed attention.
The problems I was looking at included a very heavy throttle feel, heavy clutch lever, no low beam headlight, fubar-ed heated grips, shitty OEM grips, a high idle outside adjustment range, with no idle position switch engagement, old fuel hose (can you say burst and burn?), crappy mirrors, and probably more I'm forgetting.
I ended up spending a healthy hundred at the moto store to get new cables, grips, heated slugs for the bars, and a few bolts for the ones which I destroyed the allen heads on with the wrong tool. (Don't be a monkey, use the right tool! Especially if you have it on hand.)
New cables and some cleanup fixed the heavy controls. This bike is fucking fast. Now it's going to be even easier to make it scare me. Sweet.
The slugs are heating elements I slid into the handlebars to heat the grips. They are supposed to deliver more even heat than the surface heaters. They seem more robust and don't leave wires blocking the bar ends. I hope to put some bar ends with blinkers in as soon as I can fab such a thing up. I even added the spare round bar-end mirror I had left over from the GPZ into the left bar. Better field of view and wider angle so I don't over react to tailgaters as soon. (but watch yourselves bitches...)
I'm hoping my cleaning and fiddling with the throttle bodies will fix the idle. The idle position switch is clicking now, so I think it will. I also had the fuel injectors off. They look clean. I didn't replace the o-rings, so I'm hoping no fiery fuel leaks are in my future.
The headlight switch was the fault causing no low beam. Someone had soldiered the wire onto it's stud, moving the actual contact, well, out of contact. I heated the same contact again, and moved it back into place to touch the metal slide inside the switch. Testing shows it works well now.
Here are some pictures:
An overall of how un-motorcycle a motorcycle can look if a wrench gets too close.
Hello! That long-hair thir in yer engine might just be yer problem der.
Noticed this carbon on the inside of the #1 cylinder (front) throttle body. Valve seat damage leaking combustion gases? I hope not. Fire damage from the one fire this bike's been through? Strange as it sounds, I hope so. This will be something I will be looking at closely in the future...
Cylinder #1 Intake port and valve. Note dark marks almost like a waterline at the bottom. Cylinder #2 was similar, though less severe. #3 and 4 were clean and bright. The checks will include compression, valve clearance, and if necessary, remove the head and inspect valve seat.
This is some German engineer's idea of logical. You are looking at the area under the fuel tank where the bulk of the wire harness rests. Once you really get into it, yes, everything does seem really well thought out, but too much thinking in the design means too much thinking for the poor mechanic. You would not believe how small these wires are. Average size about 22 gauge. The heated grip power leads are no bigger than 22 gauge too! And these draw at least 4 amps. They've engineered the wires to their minimum allowable size for their currents. I've found more than one wire with melted insulation. This is all teaching me so much (but how much did you want to learn. Ok, you do want to learn it all, damnit).
This is one of the two ABS solenoids which, with no brain, is just dead weight right now. I will be having new brake lines made to bypass these so that I may remove them. Only allow weight that make you go faster!
That gray thing on the gray transmission is the clutch lever actuated by the clutch cable. Very different. I keep telling Andrew this bike is built as BMW builds cars.
You can see the inside of the single sided swingarm/driveshaft and the rear wheel hub. Unique and very effective. This makes the bike very solid and smooth.
Both wheels off the bike. Exciting, I know.
The problems I was looking at included a very heavy throttle feel, heavy clutch lever, no low beam headlight, fubar-ed heated grips, shitty OEM grips, a high idle outside adjustment range, with no idle position switch engagement, old fuel hose (can you say burst and burn?), crappy mirrors, and probably more I'm forgetting.
I ended up spending a healthy hundred at the moto store to get new cables, grips, heated slugs for the bars, and a few bolts for the ones which I destroyed the allen heads on with the wrong tool. (Don't be a monkey, use the right tool! Especially if you have it on hand.)
New cables and some cleanup fixed the heavy controls. This bike is fucking fast. Now it's going to be even easier to make it scare me. Sweet.
The slugs are heating elements I slid into the handlebars to heat the grips. They are supposed to deliver more even heat than the surface heaters. They seem more robust and don't leave wires blocking the bar ends. I hope to put some bar ends with blinkers in as soon as I can fab such a thing up. I even added the spare round bar-end mirror I had left over from the GPZ into the left bar. Better field of view and wider angle so I don't over react to tailgaters as soon. (but watch yourselves bitches...)
I'm hoping my cleaning and fiddling with the throttle bodies will fix the idle. The idle position switch is clicking now, so I think it will. I also had the fuel injectors off. They look clean. I didn't replace the o-rings, so I'm hoping no fiery fuel leaks are in my future.
The headlight switch was the fault causing no low beam. Someone had soldiered the wire onto it's stud, moving the actual contact, well, out of contact. I heated the same contact again, and moved it back into place to touch the metal slide inside the switch. Testing shows it works well now.
Here are some pictures:
An overall of how un-motorcycle a motorcycle can look if a wrench gets too close.
Hello! That long-hair thir in yer engine might just be yer problem der.
Noticed this carbon on the inside of the #1 cylinder (front) throttle body. Valve seat damage leaking combustion gases? I hope not. Fire damage from the one fire this bike's been through? Strange as it sounds, I hope so. This will be something I will be looking at closely in the future...
Cylinder #1 Intake port and valve. Note dark marks almost like a waterline at the bottom. Cylinder #2 was similar, though less severe. #3 and 4 were clean and bright. The checks will include compression, valve clearance, and if necessary, remove the head and inspect valve seat.
This is some German engineer's idea of logical. You are looking at the area under the fuel tank where the bulk of the wire harness rests. Once you really get into it, yes, everything does seem really well thought out, but too much thinking in the design means too much thinking for the poor mechanic. You would not believe how small these wires are. Average size about 22 gauge. The heated grip power leads are no bigger than 22 gauge too! And these draw at least 4 amps. They've engineered the wires to their minimum allowable size for their currents. I've found more than one wire with melted insulation. This is all teaching me so much (but how much did you want to learn. Ok, you do want to learn it all, damnit).
This is one of the two ABS solenoids which, with no brain, is just dead weight right now. I will be having new brake lines made to bypass these so that I may remove them. Only allow weight that make you go faster!
That gray thing on the gray transmission is the clutch lever actuated by the clutch cable. Very different. I keep telling Andrew this bike is built as BMW builds cars.
You can see the inside of the single sided swingarm/driveshaft and the rear wheel hub. Unique and very effective. This makes the bike very solid and smooth.
Both wheels off the bike. Exciting, I know.