Hi all,
This thread will be about my 1986 K75 and it's journey from craptacular to somewhat decent. I bought it back in May after selling my 2000 KLR 650 for $2k. I wanted a project bike that wouldn't take a lot of work to get to the look I was after, that might be rough cosmetically but mechanically sound. I read about the bulletproof brick and impulse bought the first K I saw.
This is it. My 1986 K75. Says 35k on the odo but the odo doesn't work... I believe it started life as a T-model due to the drum rear brake and k100 standard headlight fairing.
Took it for a test drive at the buyers house. Was blown away by how smooth the engine was. Not a huge fan of the bars on it, pretty tall and laid back, looking for something "sportier". There was a pulsing in the front when braking. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the coolant reservoir was missing. The seller was asking $1600 firm, so that's what we agreed on. Yes, I paid too much.
Got it home and ordered the Clymer manual and set to work. First thing was to lube the shaft input splines. I don't think they looked too bad, I hope?
Saw horse method of support worked a treat for anyone out there worried about it. Got it on there by myself. Only dropped the bike on my foot once.
Getting the transmission back on was a bear.
The clutch cup was torn and had leaked transmission oil all over the swingarm. Starting to figure out how much BMW replacement parts will cost...
Oil change, coolant flush, brake bleed, and we're ready to hit the road! Not so fast, bike won't start. It cranks but there's no fuel. I had cleaned out the tank when I first got the bike and the pump had sat dry for 1.5 months. Bench tested it hooked to the battery and yup it was dead. One off brand pump later and it started! Running a little raggedy, so I pop the valve cover off and holy hell all the valves were tight. Intakes were around 0.125mm and exhausts were 0.215! I'm currently waiting on the valve shims. (Shout out to Ken Lively at polpenhollow@yahoo.com for his valve tools) Bought some 4 hole injects from Ebay so we'll give those a try this week as well.
Wait you ask, it took 1.5 months to lube the splines? Not exactly. When I was taking off the exhaust for the first time one of the studs cracked off flush with the head. Thus began an odyssey: I drilled a pilot hole through the stud and tried a spiral extractor. The extractor cracked, also flush with the head. Tried using a dremel to grind the extractor out, no luck, those things are seriously hard steel. Bought a clever bit called the Rescue Bit which chewed through the extractor and remaining bolt like butter. Got another screw extractor and.... cracked the head. Sort of. The embossed hole the stud goes in.
Well shit. Got some permatex high heat gasket maker and slapped that exhaust back on minus one bolt. No leaks yet... I'll either swap a new head on there or build a new boss with jb weld if it does start leaking. I can't even describe how much effort went into that bolt, but it nearly soured me on the whole project. Getting it started again has warmed me to it again, especially now that the worst of the summer heat (fingers crossed) is over.
Tried painting a piece orange, wasn't a fan:
Stripped the tank. Some dipshit had covered it in spray truck bed coating. Wasn't exactly tough though, was peeling all over the place. Think I'll leave the tank bare for now, I really like the grinder swirls.
Things to come:
Paint!
Handlebar swap
Instrument cluster?
Naked headlight conversion.
