Merging K75s

[Motorhobo]

This project will be similar to Scud's project here:

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,7638.0.html

except Scud is much more skilled mechanically than I am and the two bikes in question are a 95 K75 ABS and 94 K75 ABS respectively and are therefore pretty much identical off the shelf, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll have fewer issues to deal with. This is the most challenging thing I've ever undertaken moto-technically, so I'll write it up here and maybe someone else will benefit.

THe backstory is that back in 2005 I had a front-end accident with an illegally left-turning Ford Taurus on southbound Aurora at about 85th St in Seattle (beware this very dangerous stretch of road). I broadsided the cage at about 20 mph and the front end of the bike was all busted up. The dealer, Ride West BMW, told me to total the bike out and get another one but it was my first K-bike and I couldn't let it go. They made it rideable, but didn't tell me about the frame damage whereby the stops that prevent the fork tubes from slamming into the tank when locking the steering left/right broke off in the front-end impact.

A buddy of mine welded some metal nubs back on the frame where the stops were (see pics), but though I've put over 50k miles on it since then, it's never been 100% right: makes an quiet but audible creaking sound under load, isn't as nimble as other K75s I've ridden, and I have a nagging fear there's some other damage that was unseen at the time but may eventually end in catastrophic failure. If I'm going to ride a 20+ year old bike, I'll breathe much easier with a frame/front-end that's accident free,  not to mention the fact that the resale value of a bike with big blobs of metal where the factory stops used to be is more or less $0.

So -- I've decided to retire the damaged frame of my well-loved '95 K75 ABS with 108K miles and merge its engine and driveline with the frame from a well-loved and well cared-for +175k '94 K75 I found on Craigslist. The PO is an ex-Motobricker many of you know, and you may even recognize the bike. If you want to know whose bike it is, PM me -- but out of respect for his privacy I'm not going to put his name up here.


This is where I am now with this project. Next step is to roll the engine/drivetrain out from under the frame and disassemble it to make room the step that follows, which will be pulling the engine/drivetrain out from the damaged '95 K75 frame.

More to come. Btw I'll be having a K75 Retirement Garage Sale on the Marketplace forum soon -- keep an eye out for it.

--Motorhobo

[Motorhobo]

I got a kick in the ass today which will hopefully move this project forward -- spline failure on the 95 K75 that was supposed to be the donor bike for the engine and drivetrain. So today I had to bolt the frame back on the engine of the blue 94 K75, roll it off the lift, and get the 95 K75 on the lift and jacked up to find out which splines had failed.

I guess the silver lining here is that now the engine of the bike I want to keep is on the lift. It occurred to me once I got the frame off the engine I want to retire that I didn't have an easy way to move that engine off the lift. Scud had recommended I disassemble the bike whose frame and front end I want to retire first, leaving the engine in place, then just add the frame/front end to it since those sections are easier to move around. Now I see why that's the better way.

Tomorrow I'll finish removing the transmission and figure out what failed. This project has been bumped way up the priority list because now I have two non-running two-wheelers and nothing to ride except the sidecar rig which needs a new tire on the hack. So I need to get a two-wheeler up and running asap.

[Motorhobo]

I'd hoped to be able to get the frame off the engine of the '94, figure out exactly what needed to be done to make the swap, then do the swap quickly while still being able to ride the '95 till the day I was ready to do the swap. But the clutch spline failure of the '95 threw a big monkey wrench into the thing. Now I have both bikes disassembled and no two-wheeler to ride. So I need to get the swap done as quickly as possible to get myself some wheels. Once that's done I can take my time disassembling the '95 frame and '94 engine/drivetrain to see what I can salvage.

Most of my head-scratching has been related to how to move the engine out from under the frames. I need to be able to move engines and frames around as needed without relying on other people for third hands. As Scud recommended, I figured it's best to be able to lift the frame up so I can roll the engine out from under it, then roll the frame onto the target engine/drivetrain. I positioned the '94 under the rail of the garage door opener close to the bracket holding it to the ceiling. This way I could just jack up the rear of the frame using a ratchet strap, keeping the front wheel secure in the wheel chock. Then I made two engine dollies (one for each engine) out of a short section of 2X6 and two sections of 2X4 and some casters. This works great because the first thing on my agenda was dropping the oil pan on both bikes and swapping them (one of the threads for the oil filter cover screw holes had stripped -- I think I put a Helicoil in there a decade ago and it finally failed). This engine dolly is high enough to slide a jack under, so I could lift the transmission section while it was still connected to the frame to get the oil pan off, then just roll the whole thing over to lift the engine, keeping it on the jack to pull the transmission off again and get the clutch pack off. Otherwise, without the jack under it, it would have just rolled around when I turned the wrench on the clutch bolts and I wouldn't have been able to get enough torque to crack the bolts.

So now the frame of the '94, which I want to keep, is disengaged from its engine. Now I'm repeating that process with the '95 which is standing on the lift. While I'm waiting for the clutch washers and bolts, I want to put the swingarm, final drive and wheel back on so I can roll it onto the trailer and get it somewhere where I give it a good clean -- preferably a power wash.

Next step is to figure out how to roll the frames around. I need to get the engine out from the '95 on the lift, then move the '95 frame off the lift and move the '94 frame into position on the lift so I can roll the '95 engine/drive train under it and start reassembly. I have lots of wood and casters are cheap, so I'll probably keep the front wheel on and make another dolly to put the rear of the frame on. If anyone has any ideas on how to do this quick and dirty feel free to chime in.

[mr_10brook]

I have a similar project that I hope to start this winter, so keep us informed of the status.  This info is very useful to me.

I have a K1 with a bad (locked) motor (PO would not tell me how that happened) and my donor is a K1100LT that was rear ended (now totaled) with me on it.