For thirty years, I have sworn I would find the BMW engineer who designed the mounting of the retracting springs on the center stand that make trans draining a rear chore. The coils of the springs have always been mounted so that they were "forward", right in the way of draining the trans. This time, I reversed them so that the coils are "rearward", and now draining the trans is much less of a juggling act. I researched many pictures on Google, and as many from BMW I could find, and most can't be enlarged to clearly show the mounting of the springs. By far, most of the picture I find show the spring coils "forward", but not all do. The parts fiche drawing is inconclusive, and so is my long-trusted Haynes manual.
So- are your center stand retracting spring coils "forward"? If so, turn them around.
Pic is of center stand retract springs "rearward", showing easy clearance of all items, and thus making trans draining easier (and cleaner!).
