new to Forum

[ED]

Hello , my name is ED i'm from the UK and along with my father in law I have just bought a 1990 plate K75 RT ex city of London police bike which had been in storage for 11 years. The plan is to bring her back to her original state and get her back on the rd. I haven't ridden a bike since 1997(mid life crisis ? ) and its been over 20 years for my father in law and neither of us has ever owned or ridden a bmw before , in fact I have never ridden anything larger then a 125 having never got further than doing cbt so not only will I be doing the bike up I will also be doing my bike test.
First impression of the bike is it that it is a big heavy old lump( getting it onto and off the van via a home made ramp was interesting) but it has a certain charm!
good points are that mechanically it looks to have been well maintained and we have a full service history which supports this, not so good is that it appears to have had a fair amount of fuel left in it when it was put into storage  and the body work is a little tatty.
We only picked it up late last night so other than to check the engine turns over in gear and a brief check over we haven't discovered all the wonder it has in store for us , given that its been in storage for so long we plan on a complete strip down and rebuild.

My mechanical knowledge is fairly limited and I will be learning on the job ,( luckily my father in law is an ex mechanic)so this forum will be invaluable as a source of information and I look forward to bombarding forum members with uneducated questions. :2thumbup:

[Scott_]

Welcome.

The search box is your friend. Depending on the type of storage, don't be surprised with critter nests.
You will probably want to figure on replacing any/all of the rubber bits, vac lines, fuel lines, o-rings, etc.....that are external to the engine.
Full spline lube would be good as well(clutch and drive shaft splines).

[ED]

Hi Scott thanks for the advice ,I imagine there will be a long list of replaced parts by the time it is road ready , my father in law plans to strip the engine down to its component parts .

[billday]

Welcome, you're in for some fun.

You can't go wrong by starting here: http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,370.0.html

[ED]

Thanks for the link , yes lots of very useful info there

[84K100RT]

Welcome to the forum too.

The K engines are pretty robust and its very unlikely the engine needs to be completely stripped.

Valve clearances and timing chains [more likely tensioner/guide than chain] are generally as far as you need to go, but possibly add the water/oil pump and rear engine seal and you shouldn't need to do any more. Compression test before you start will tell a lot.

The external components advised will need to be looked at [as in all the rubber bits, they do perish and go wrong] and the spline lube is a good move. I would also do a rebuild of brake master cylinders and calipers will probably need doing. Copper grease is your friend. Rubber bits includes what we call monkey nuts [cush drive blocks] inside the alternator drive.....

A good K75RT is a nice bike to ride, excellent weather protection and luggage and a lot of components are common to the K100. As for heavy, it's lighter than a VFR800!!

[ED]

Thanks for the advice , it may have been the fact the tyres were flat that it seemed so particularly heavy !

it seems from what ive read that the spline lube is a  must , slightly nervous as to what state they'll be in when we have a look.

[84K100RT]

The tyres will be toast anyway due to being old and hard. But trying to move a bike on flat tyres is very difficult.

My LT was an ex UK police bike. From what I see the police bikes were well used but also well maintained so you may not be too badly off. Being off road for so long is not the best due to the effect of lack of use hardening grease etc etc. Head bearings and the Fluidbloc damper is another issue you are likely to have to do. Its very unlikely they will have survived fine.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

RT/LT models are not lightweights by any measure, but still are lighter than a lot of others.  While clumsy in the garage or parking lots, they feel light when rolling along.

I agree that there is no compelling need to get into the engine beyond the cam chain or valve clearances.  Changing external rubber bits is a good idea if they show the least signs of oxidation or cracking, fuel line replacement is a must.  Most of this work can be done with the engine still in the frame.  Of course, you will want to pull the transmission to do the clutch splines and replace the clutch o-ring. 

Beyond that, changing all the fluids, cleaning the tank, changing the fuel filter and doing a complete spline and swing arm lube should get you on the road.   You may also want to do a complete clean of all the electrical connections followed by the application of dielectric grease to head off the electrical gremlins old electrics are subject to.  Loosen and torque all the fasteners after applying a bit of copper antiseize.   Exhaust nuts and possibly the studs will probably be candidates for replacement.  They seem to take a real beating down there.

There will also be a bit of frame paint touch up, especially under the tail cowl which is probably the most neglected spot on these bikes.  Expect that rear frame loop to be really nasty.

[ED]

thanks once again for all the really useful advice , really good to have all this great knowledge from people who have been there and done it already.
the strip down starts next weekend so im just compiling a (growing )list of what to check and what needs doing.

[84K100RT]

That was a good post from MightyGryphon.

My son bought a Honda VFR800 back in March and didn't tell his mother.....so 'Dad has a new bike' was fun for a while. He told me he couldn't ride a heavy yoke like my RT[he did take it out once]. He was mighty shocked when I eventually told him the RT was only 4kg heavier. The LT models are lot more. Having both an LT and an RT I found the difference staggering.

That rear frame gets really bad, I am doing mine piecemeal and using Hammerite, multiple coats are really good as I use the bike all year and it lives outside for now.

Given the non use of your K consider fitting headlight relays. The switches can get a bit poor inside and this would reduce the electrical load inside the switch which eventually burns out the headlight contacts. There are threads on rebuilding these switches but better to avoid it if you can help it.

The exhaust nuts are indeed problematic and given yours is off road and the nuts untouched for a long time long doses of WD40 over the time before you go at it might just help. Sods law one might break so an old mattress to lay the bike on its side may be useful.....easier than pulling the head off.

If you don't have one consider an extender for the front fender, protects the oil/water pump electrical connections from spray.

[ED]

thanks again for the advice , I am noting it all down , managed to finish work a couple of hours earlier so managed to get started on the bike took the fairing off which (with the use of the excellent guide in the workshop section)went reasonably smoothly with the exception of a rusted up nut holding the engine bars on.
Gave every nut and bolt I could see a dowsing in wd40 in advance.

you were right the rear frame is very manky!

[kris]

Ed, as most here will agree WD40 is a water-displacing fluid. That is what it was designed for. It is not much of a lubricant nor is it penetrating oil. Better to get the right stuff for the job. Don't be afraid to have a bit of heat around either. Map gas, propane torch...whatever. Copper anti-seize compound should go onto every bolt you take out. The hardware on these bikes is, in my opinion, far superior to that coming out of Japan. Treat it right and you'll be good for years to come!

[john11668]

Hi ED and welcome

I too am about to take my test so then hoping to  set out on my K100.
I am not sure about the engine rebuild being a good Idea.
As the engineers say " If it aint broke , dont fix it "
We have just put a velocette back onto the road which last ran in 1958.   Engine is fine as it was

As the guys say , fix the ancilliaries  but if the engine runs well enough you may be better leaving well alone!

Hope you enjoy your project though. 

[ED]

Hi Kris and Jon thanks for the replies , we have some penetrating oil now and have been using it a lot!
The bike is at the stage where we are pretty much ready to separate the frame from the engine but are being held up by the electrical connections to the fuel injectors which are seized together and so far we haven't managed to come up with a plan to get them apart.

As far as the engine rebuild goes , I am doing the bike with my father in law and as part of the project and he wants to do the engine rebuild for the fun of it  , I would be quite happy to leave it alone but as its a joint project and he has much more experience than me i'm going along with it.

[ED]

[Snowman]

Any updates on the project?

[ED]

HI ,thanks for asking  , yes the bike is progressing well , took the head off yesterday  , ordered a new clutch friction plate, service kit (oil/air and fuel filters and spark plugs) and a complete engine gasket and seal set least night.
The bike was horribly cruddy and corroded on the exterior but the the splines are in good condition and appear to have been lubed regularly , and the engine ,gearbox , waterpump all look to be in what I can only describe as pristine condition.
I have to say that as I have worked on the bike I have been struck by what a beautiful piece of engineering the engine block on the k bike is , the water pump in particular is a wondrous looking thing.
still a long way to go till we can start putting it back together as we've done very little work on the frame, forks and front wheel and have yet to start the tedious job of greasing all the electrical components.
 


I have a load of photos but I'm not great with computers and cant work out how to upload them , I tried earlier but it didnt seem to work.

[Snowman]

The K1100LT i currently have was totally rebuilt in 2007 by its previous owner ;Ed Hill (judges MOA vintage events & a great BMW wrench). He took it down to the last nut and bolt and then rebuilt it replacing things as he went, stove enameled the frame, replaced clutch, final drive, all rubber parts etc. I now have a very reliable K bike with a ton of miles left to go. They are an amazingly well built motorcycle and worth the effort to keep them on the road. Thanks for the update and good luck.

[ED]

Thanks , we estimate we will spend somewhere between £1000 and £1500 by the time we are finished (on top of the £575 we bought her for) but will have something pretty close to a new bike.