Oil Leaks/HALF SOLVED

[bizzaro]

HI Yawl,
Newbie here with a new to me 1994 BMW K1100LT- 30 k.  I am hoping to find a mentor here?  As a new owner I have a "K"azillion questions of course. The first being addressing bleeding(oil) at both ends.

1. Up front the bleeding  is definitely engine oil of course. As far as I can trace it, it is coming down the hole by the water/oil pump where the temperature and oil pressure wires come though the pump housing. A wire chase as it where? I have not had the fairing/cowl off to see if it is above the wire chase.  I am not sure how far up from there it originates.  So I am preparing to do a pump seal rebuild and I had a question before I yank it out.  Are there other likely oil leak spots above the water/oil pump that the oil leak could be originating from? I was hoping this bike would need no work before Winter.....so much for that dream! :musicboohoo:

2. In the rear the oil is definitely transmission oil.  It is honey colored and not dirty.  What is the best way to get a look at where it is coming from with the least amount of tear down??  The guy before me lubed the splines and  I am afraid he mucked up the seals?  Or the famous clutch leak that I have read about.

Guess that is enough to get me stared! :dunno2: Oh and where is best the place to order parts at the best price of course......and tires seem hard to find at the discount places, it goes on and on.......Kazillion questions.........Any k1100lt owner want to take me under their wing? :riding:

And yes of course I have been using search engines.........................and are there other sites as informative as this one? So far this is the best I have found. There is a lot of info here, not always easy to find it though.  There is a good video up on youtube on water/oil pump work. I can link it if anyone is interested. 

Thanks for your patience,
Bizz

[johnny]

greetings bizzaro...

welcome to motobrick.com...

the worlds top motobrick sites and most everything you kinda oughtta figger out can be found here...

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,666.0.html

j o

[bizzaro]

Thanks Johnny,
Yep, been there. I was hoping to connect with an interested member to "guide" me on my path to K1100LT enlightenment!  I would like to get her seriously road worthy asap.  Not that I am lazy, just impatient.  I want to be on the road, not in the garage! And specifics like other likely leak points if the oil shows up at the water pump are hard to do a search on.

[TimTyler]

Did you not see the bike leaking when you recently bought it or was the price too low to resist?

I've done a lot of work on my K75 with the help of motobrick.com but when my water-oil pump needed fixing I brought it to a shop. It seemed like the kind of job that everyone has a hard time with the first time around and I too was impatient.

The transmission seals are not a big deal AFAIK but the job does require gearbox and gearbox cover removal which might scare a "newbie".

While fixing these seals it might be worth replacing the clutch-nut O-ring and maybe the rear main seal. Check your clutch friction disk thickness too. If the gear shifter is anything but tight, degrease/Loctite/tighten the grub screw in the gearbox too.

[bizzaro]

Thanks Tim,
Actually the pump job looks pretty simple and straight forward.  And there are lots of helpful how to's on it all over the place,  including here, and elsewhere.  I even found a good one on youtube.  I don't want to go through the effort, time, and expense though if it is possible/ probable the  leak is somewhere  above the pump and it is just weeping down that wire chase in the pump case? Being a K1100LT neophyte, I wouldn't know this, and it is impossible to do a search on that kind of a question! :falldown:

 I had to drive  a couple hundred miles with a trailer to pick it up.  Yes there was some oil, but hard to see how much till you drive it and park it a while.  And yes, the price was irresistible! ( guess that is the first sign something is up)  I have always wanted a Beemer and most of the folks love the K1100lt.  Anyway the distance I had to drive made it a do or die deal, so I did!  I just hope this is the worst of it.

I am trying to get the bike more road worthy than it is,(I am driving it) and do some serious maintenance in the Winter.
Thanks,
Bizz 

[johnny]

greetings...

stop your freaking and commence to motobricking...

every motobrick leak i ever had eventually stopped leaking...

j o

[bizzaro]

AHH, so just drive it and it will go away.  Freak n A.  Beemers are amazing Thanks for the heads up! :falldown:

NO but seriously Johnny, thanks a ton for that link to the info here.  You are absolutely right.  Everthing I need to know is there/here.  A wealth of info. Thanks again!Bizz

[552255]

well, at least you didn't buy a wrecked bike like I did...tearing into these bikes is fun if you like to work on bikes.  I have not done the oil/water pump yet, but have removed the gearbox twice, did a complete frame swap on one bike, fork seals, caliper seals, spline lube twice, list goes on.  It is a winter time job in my book.  How much oil is leaking? drops? 2 or 20?

Maybe stop leak type additive would buy some time,  check oil and coolant for evidence of mixing, if none I would ride on...unfortunately these bikes require deep pockets for mechanics, or an awesome set of tools.

And this site for guidance!!   

the good news is once your bikes' seals/rubber bits are updated, they will go on and on...

[wmax351]

I did the transmission seals on my bike. Not too big a deal. No major special tools required.

[gone_ape]

I had purchased a K75RT last summer and noticed a weep- one drop every time I parked it- at the "inspection hole" of the water/oil pump.  The bike had been neglected and sitting....after a few hundred miles the weep stopped.  I DO monitor the "color" of my engine oil and periodically check the coolant color for oil/water contamination, and have mounted a water temp gauge for early warning symptoms.

[bizzaro]

stop your freaking and commence to motobricking...

every motobrick leak i ever had eventually stopped leaking...

j o
 :clap:

OMFG So I took your advice, and sure enough, like magic.................divine intervention............whatever.  THE LEAKING HAS STOPPED!!! AND THE LAST LITTLE PUDDLE LEFT ON THE FLOOR LOOKS JUST LIKE CHEEZUS!!!!!!

[bizzaro]

 :clap: So with thanks to motobrick, and the help of a friend I found the transmission leak.......I hope the only one.  MY friend worked the clutch lever and I could see a tiny slit in the clutch arm boot.  It wasn't visible unless the the arm was flexed.     I hope that is the only one for the tranny.  And it was bleeding all over my back tior!  NOT GOOD.  So as soon as my local BMW dealer gets the boot I  will attempt an R&R with the transmission in place.  It looks pretty tight but not impossible.  I have done search after search after search and no one discounts BMW parts I guess?  It is cheaper to order at the dealer to save on shipping! Frankenduck' s link is good but didn't have the boot.

I was hoping I had found the engine oil leak when I re-torqued the timing chain cover and oil/water pump covers. Some of the bolts where just a bit more than finger tight!  Nope still dripping oil down the hole where the engine oil pressure and temp wires come through.  I guess I will be pulling the pump off to get a better look at where the oil is coming from. 

To all that have piped in here thanks and see you on the road. :yes
BIzz

[Motorhobo]

I was hoping I had found the engine oil leak when I re-torqued the timing chain cover and oil/water pump covers. Some of the bolts where just a bit more than finger tight! 

Is that the same valve cover that's on a k75? If so those bolts aren't t supposed to be torqued down all that much more than finger tight -- my cheat sheet says 5.2 foot/lbs. just enough to compress the rubber grommets that hold the cover on. Too much torque and you may damage the grommets and end up with a leak.

[wmax351]

Timing Chain cover and water pump covers have normal allen screws. So 12 foot pounds or so, IIRC.

[bizzaro]

 I did about 7 ft lbs as specified in my clymer manual. ( maybe 10 tops as my current torque wrench is really for higher torques. Long handled needle n bar type. I have to get a better one to work on this bike. Any recomendations?

[wmax351]

The Harbor Freight clicker type ones are pretty good, and very cheap.

For the low ones, I do them by hand. You get a feel for the low torques pretty easily.