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TECHNICAL MOTOBRICK WRENCHING In Remembrance of Inge K. => The Motobrick Workshop => Topic started by: caroper on November 07, 2015, 12:11:10 PM
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I broke 3 clutch cables putting 20,000 miles on my '79 R 65. Every cable I bought was more expensive than the last. I carefully started using the clutch only when taking off. After 4,000 more miles and wearing out six more rear tires, (that's how I kept up with mileage after the spedo started going round and round) the clutch cable is still good.
I've only owned this new to me K 100 for three thousand miles and I'm doing the same thing, so far without problem. I never spline lubed the old R 65, even though the clutch began slipping pretty bad at the end when it was cold weather.
I could work on the old R 65 when needed. But this K bike is a little scary, reading the Clymer manual on just about any repair. Especially tearing the bike half apart just to do clutch spline lube. So I would like some informed reinforcement on the way I'm doing.
My questions; If I'm just using the clutch only 15% as often as normal, can I forestall clutch spline lube a proportional amount of the recommended mileage? Maybe every 50,000 miles or so?, 75,000 maybe? What would be the symptoms or indications of clutch spline lube needed being imminent? Is the K transmission different enough from the R I may be doing undetected damage to it? Appreciate the benefit of any experience here.
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On the K, There's a little barrel in the hand lever that holds the cable and it needs to be lubed to rotate freely, or the cable bends and breaks there. You may be able to get by putting off the clutch spline lube, but if your shifting gets iffy it's time. Pulling the rear and lubing the driveshaft splines no big deal.
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IMO The clutch spline lube is the biggest single thing you can do to make riding your brick more enjoyable. The difference it makes in smooth shifting both up and down is amazing. I have done it to two K bikes now and it has completely eliminated that stiff, clunky shifting and changed it to be as smooth as anything coming out of Japan.
Yeah, it is a pain in the ass to get in there, but you only have to pull the transmission back a couple inches, and when you are done you will have checked, lubed and torqued everything in the drive train right back to the rear wheel which is good insurance.
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You will soon know if spline lube is needed(there are plenty of threads on it)by the way the bike downshifts.I would not let the manuals put you off : the job itself is not particularly demanding skill wise but as already stated there is a lot of gear to strip out.Chris Harris covers it in his youtube vids.
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I've got my trans removal down to an hour and 15 minutes. It's not bad
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Thanks all. Especially the reminder about lubricating the little solid cylinder at the hand lever end of the cable. I believe learning that lesson cost me one of my R65 cables. The K bike is just so much more modern, I guess I figured BMW had come out with something better there by now.