Coffee Grinder Sounds

[argent brick]

My job has kept me on the road for the past few days so I missed being around for all the earthquake fun we have had here in Napa Valley last Sunday and Monday. I was finally able to get through to my wife, to find that the family (and cats) made it through without injuries. Also, the home suffered very little damage so it looks like we will be ok. Not everyone in town has been as lucky. Some people are without jobs, homes and/or cars.

The one thing that the misses did not talk to me about was the  bike. I spent three days not knowing if mother nature had dropped my bike for me or not. Well, I rolled in late last night to find my bike standing upright. Whew!  I have enough on my plate to stress about without the worries of a damaged machine. When things get back to normal around here I need to check out the bike because it just started making a bunch of engine noise up near the battery just before I left town . If I had to describe the sound, I would have to say it is up by the battery and it sounds like a coffee grinder.

I am thinking it's time for new "monkey nuts". I can only hope that is all that is needed. Any advice that you  brickheads can give me about this problem would put me in your debt.  Any ideas?

[Blast69]

I can't answer your question, but I'm glad you guys are okay. We got lucky down here in SF (I live on sand, which is what the Sunset is built on). I woke up to everything shaking and thought, am I gonna die, nope, prolly not, and went right back to sleep. When I got up at 8 am, the first thing I did was run outside and check to see if the bike was still standing (it was). Definitely a relief.

Napa and Vallejo were hit pretty hard. Considering how close we are, I'm still surprised we didn't get hit harder here.

I've never replaced the monkey nuts, but there's detailed instructions on other threads on the forum.

[pdg]

If there's any sort of strange sound anywhere near the alternator I'd pull it for a look-see. If it's sounding 'coffee grinder' then I'd be pulling the alternator straight away - it should take well under an hour to get it out, check and put it back, including having a cup of tea....

Alternator check procedure with standard seat -- remove seat, remove any side panels and alternator cover, disconnect battery, remove ECU, remove battery, unplug alternator and remove 3 bolts, pull out alternator.

To replace -- line up alternator drive (there are usually cast nubs on the outer of the cup that line up with the dog fins), push alternator into place (some silicon lube helps here with new rubbers), put 3 bolts and plug back in, refit battery and ECU, THEN connect battery, refit panels and seat, go for a ride.

A lot of people seem paranoid about unplugging the ECU, in the course of my fannying around with mine I've unplugged it maybe 8 times since I bought the bike - disconnect the battery first and there's really no reason why it should cause any problems at all unless you force something.




I had no strange noises (that I noticed, I hadn't had the bike long) and one day the battery light came on. It still got me home, but it cut out as I pulled up outside my front door. Here is what I found.



and



The rubbers are pennies, the alternator cup isn't a huge amount, the driving dog is expensive for what it is.


Of course, it could be your starter being 'driven' because the sprag clutch is sticky. Pulling the starter should add less than 17 minutes to the above procedure if you are pulling the alternator anyway.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

I'd like to know what that noise is as I have something like it as well.  Mine is a rapid clacking that comes from the vicinity of the starter clutch, comes on about 1300rpm and goes away at about 2000rpm.  Comes back sounding like a cicada bug(the buzzing you hear on summer nights) at 5000rpm when I'm running down the road.

You could also have bad alternator bearings.  I had a rough grinding sound that went away when I replaced the alternator bearings which were running rough.  Changing the monkey nutz didn't help it.

[johnny]

if it starts gurgling... check your resin trap...

j o

[Mongrel]

A lot of people seem paranoid about unplugging the ECU, in the course of my fannying around with mine I've unplugged it maybe 8 times since I bought the bike - disconnect the battery first and there's really no reason why it should cause any problems at all unless you force something.

I've unplugged mine dozens of times in the past 8 years, many times without disconnecting the battery first. I didn't even know people were paranoid about that. Nothing ever broke by my doing this, that I can tell - but maybe I've been courting disaster all this time by doing so before disconnecting the battery?

[pdg]

I've also unplugged mine without disconnecting the battery with no ill effect. As long as the ignition is off it should be fine. The plug unplugs for a reason after all.

A much bigger problem would be if you slide out the ecu without unplugging it or disconnecting the battery and shorting the case to the batt positive - that'll kill it...

[Grim]

K1100 that ECM is mounted on the hold down plate for the battery. No way to disconnect the battery first. Seems BMW isn't all that concerned about battery being disconnected first since they made no provision to be able too. ;)