What Did You Did To Your Motobrick Today ?

[Laitch]

Question mark was for, can two new seals turn so hard as to be almost forced?  Had my other one serviced the same way, spun just fine after and rides just fine.

Yes,  but wouldn't be difficult for 90 horses to spin it. It's appropriate to take it back to the service personnel if you don't believe what they are telling you, you are going by your experience with a different FD, and you don't want to check it yourself by installing it.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Fixed the heated grips on the K75RT.  Was having a problem with blowing fuses when I used them.  Went into the throttle side first since the fuse blowing was related to twisting the throttle.

First I removed the grip by rolling it back as far as possible, putting a couple drops of liquid soap for lube, twisting the grip a bit to move the soap around, and then pushing from the inner end. 

Turns out the insulation was worn off the wire from rubbing on the end of the bar.  I fixed things by putting some electrical tape on the wire(will be getting some Plasti-Dip for a permanent repair) and sliding the whole throttle about a quarter inch out on the bars to get the wires away from the end of the bar.

When I reinstalled the grip I noticed that there is a slot on the inside where the wire goes through the plug on the inside of the grip.  If the wire isn't in the slot, it is going to be pushed against the end of the bar so that twisting the throttle wears the insulation of to allow the wire to short out to the handlebar.

Getting the slot installed in the right spot isn't hard.  There was a fine line(technically, a mold parting line) on the outside of the grip that lines up with the slot.  Aligning that line with the row of bumps on the heater and sliding the grip on got things together properly.  Pushing on the end of the grip with one hand while guiding with the other got the grip on easily without having to use any lube.

Tested after reassembly, problem solved, next up is to replace the leaky rear master cylinder.

[Rcgreaves]

Found a helpful auto electrical shop locally who pressed off the bearing and bushing on my K75 starter.  Finally re-assembled the motor with fresh brushes and applied power for a satisfying spin of the motor.  Hopefully my headlight grounding headaches with be history.  Next is inspect the drive shaft splines.

[Chaos]

freakishly warm day so I dug the K out from the back of the garage for a spin.  Mushy front brake, crap, brake fluid dripping on fairing.  Topped it off and it firmed up, something to fix sometime.  Got a couple miles and felt something by my right boot.  Looked down and saw the battery cover had fallen off and lodged there.  Bungied it on the seat.  Got where I was going, found a couple other friends rode their bikes.  Made mine look sort of crappy, being held together by stickers and brake fluid stripped paint, but then mine has 6 times more miles than both of theirs put together.  gotta brag about something!

[Nine80seven]

Update on tight FD.  BMW mechanic was really nice guy.  Agreed that something was wrong with the drive.  Opened it up and shims were wrong.  Fixed it to spec, good to go.  Someone had been in there before.  Bearings were fine.  Really like this shop.  Some used parts need a little TLC.  And I don't have the tools or experience to open a FD.  Hat tip too good technicians. 

[Filmcamera]

Used some Trim Coat from Detail King to clean up the very sun faded plastic bits around the dash etc


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XWCTMP2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Not sure how well it shows in the photos but the parts look great. They have gone from a bleached grey to a nice black lustre.

[jakgieger]

Used some Trim Coat from Detail King

Does this product leave a residue that attracts a dust coat??

[Filmcamera]

Not so far no, but I will report back in a day or two

[Laitch]

Update on tight FD.  BMW mechanic was really nice guy. Fixed it to spec, good to go.  Hat tip too good technicians.

Consider posting the location and name of the mechanic or outfit that performed this repair in the Dealers ~ Independent Wrenchers section so others might benefit from your experience.

[Filmcamera]

It is now 24 hours since I put the trim coat on and it is dry as a bone and doe snot have any kind of 'wet look' feel.  No dust at all being attracted,,

[Laitch]

It is now 24 hours since I put the trim coat on and it is dry as a bone and doe snot have any kind of 'wet look' feel. 

I'm surprised. Doe snot should feel wet.

[Filmcamera]

lol...   :hehehe

[Martin]

Jack try a product from a company called Surf City they have a plastic protectant restorer called Black Max. Non greasy, restores plastic to a point as long as it is not too far gone. It lasts 2-3 weeks as semi glossy  then flattens out a bit, but it is not really waterproof and rain marks show up.
Regards Martin.

[jakgieger]

Thanks guys .  I think I'll try the black max...costs half as much and good reviews!

[Martin]

Jack let me know what you think of it. It's hard to get in QLD I have only found one shop that stocks it, the same shop also sells it on Ebay. I've tried heaps of products, it is the best so far. Some of the products I have had recommended to me by the forum, I've found can't be bought in OZ or extremely dear if you try to get them from the US.
Regards Martin.

[Snowman]

Ordered a RAM rear shock from UK
Ordered a Seth Laam seat
Sent my forks to Race Tech for their best rebuild.
I had my k1100LT for sale but it is worth a lot more to me than what someone else would pay for it. So, I have the Goldwing for when the Mrs wants to come along and the LT will be my rally bike.

[jakgieger]

Martin, I got the Black Max today.  It works and NO residue.  At 30 F, it didn't penetrate well :eek: ...but made the dash look great.  We'll see how long it lasts...

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Had a couple productive days out in the garage. 

Painted a "new" three spoke front wheel for my RT, and swapped the front tire from the old wheel to the new. 

Made an interesting discovery.  I always thought that the heavy spot on the wheel was at the valve stem, and that is where you put the tire's balance mark.  There have been a few tires that were a pain in the butt to balance.  On a whim, I checked the wheel without the tire.  Surprise! The heavy spot is 90 degrees from the valve stem.

Checked to front brake rotors and they were just barely in spec, so I installed my spare set after cleaning and painting them. 

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Showing my tragkorbs some love today.  Since I needed to repair some damage to the right from when I went down in Nebraska last summer I decided to pull the hinges and refurbish the cases

The hinges came of with a battle.  They were packed with 22 years and 80K miles of dirt and grit that kept them from sliding off.  First thing was to clean the cases with S-100 which is my favorite stuff for detailing parts.  The latches have always been really hard to open for as long as I have had the bike so I concentrated on getting them as clean as possible.  Shot them with the S-100 twice and worked it in with a chip brush.  The amount of dirt that came out was stunning.  By the second rinse they were working as smooth as silk.

The lids were pretty nasty, with stains and a lot of fine scratches.  I washed them and did a wipe down with PrepsAll followed by a good scrub with a grey Scotch-Brite pad.  Paint schedule was Adhesion Promoter, followed by two light coats of black engine enamel, followed by three coats of Dupli-Color matte clear coat for wheels. 

I didn't get real carried away with filling the scratches since I figure it won't be long before they have more, and I was too lazy to deal with the texture of the lid.  The matte finish should hide a lot of the damage, and what still shows just adds character.  The bike does have 80,000 miles, after all.

Last thing I did was get rid of the stretched out elastic straps inside the cases.  I don't use them since I got tragkorb liners, and they just got in the way. 

A final shot of dry silicone in the latches and they are ready to go back on the bike.

[Filmcamera]

Looking good - I agree about keeping at least some of the 'character' in the cases.   :euro

[Motorhobo]

Gryph, I don't see the rubber seal grommet in your cases -- did that turn to rubber chips like mine did back in the 2000's or did you find a replacement I didn't see?

[Motorhobo]

Used some Trim Coat from Detail King to clean up the very sun faded plastic bits around the dash etc


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XWCTMP2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Not sure how well it shows in the photos but the parts look great. They have gone from a bleached grey to a nice black lustre.

That sure looks a lot better than the OTC plastic 'restorer' I've tried. Let us know how it looks in three months. You pulled the dash all the way off just to do that? I'm impressed.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Motorhobo, it's in there, but very compressed.  I am waiting on some 5mm neoprene foam o-ring stock that I bought on eBay from a vendor in the U.K.  Installing new gasket is the last thing I need to do on these cases.

Then it's on to my "new" city cases.

[bizzaro]

Hey Gryph,
I have been suspicious of the  valve stem being the heavy part of the rim. I would think they would be balanced at the factory, but who knows.   Glad to hear you checked yours, and confirmed , that it is not always true.  I intend to check my rims form now on whenever I change a tire.  The less counterweight you need the better I think.
Bizz

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Bizzman, This was the first time I have checked the wheel, and it certainly confirmed my suspicions.  I guess BMW doesn't worry too much about wheel balance.   I change my own tires, and am pretty fussy about balancing.  In the past there have been wheels that have given me fits where as soon as I got one heavy spot balanced another one shows up.  I wind up with a couple sets of weights around the wheel. 

I think I also saved some time since I was able to get the tire balanced perfectly in under 5 minutes.   Normally, I spend about 10-15 minutes balancing.