Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

That looks hectic.  How long did you ride with the clutch in to cause that damage?

Perhaps there is a small leak in your clutch master or slave cylinder that causes the clutch to engage less and less over time if you hold it in for protracted periods.

You would not notice this in normal riding because one does not typically keep the clutch lever in for long periods.

Charles, I really do not know, but someone came tearing up and told me there was smoke so we shouted to Cecil to stop so I could get it into neutral.

He could not hear, so it was trying to find neutral with no dash lighting that did the damage to the plate, hiiting first gear at about 45 kph, was too much. It catasrophically disintegrated.

Cecil then stopped and I knew it was game over.

no longer  a new battery job, but a recovery operaiton was required. 

At first I was thinking "who the hell would tow a bike in gear?" but you had mentioned trying to jump-start the bike.  Then I got to thinking about how hard it is to find neutral with the bike moving (and hadn't even thought about the lack of a neutral indicator due to no battery).

Accidentally hitting first at speed would certainly be bad news.  Lucky the wheel didn't lock up and cause an incident like I had while towing Julie after CABC.

Don't try this at home

I would like to warn inexperienced riders - although towing looks and is easy, there are many things that can go wrong and when they do you need to be experienced and quick and run on reflexes and instinct to avoid a serious mishap.

Also, towing a motorbike like this is illegal on public roads.  If you can avoid doing it, rather use BMW On Call, or any of the bike trailer services, many of the bike mechanics, or other club members with trailers.  The club trailer is also available for exactly this purpose.

I thought I would tow Julie home, and ended up nearly breaking her ankle and phoning KingTek to pick her bike up anyway.  Should have just phoned Andrew King before trying to tow.

Well,  Yesterday (Monday) I picked up the clutch plate in the evening I installed to 70% completion before I felt it was enough for one night.

It is critical that the clutch is installed dead centre in the loose sandwich between pressure plates before pinching tight, if not the pilot shaft (primary) of the gear box will not line up and you will not get the gear box to fit.

Next I screw a 'lining up' PINS onto the top left and also the bottom right gearbox mount bolt holes.

These pins are nothing more than 8mm bolts with heads cut off and ends ground smooth. You slide the gearbox onto these pins (like on runners, supporting the wieght and the line-up) and it auto lines up and all you do is ease it home, remove the pins and bolt it all together.

This a common practice. You are mating two faced surcaes which you do not want to damage at all. Thus you need to control the environment as much as possible.

Read then click on a photo to enlarge and you can watch them all in large format with captions

New clutch plate is in, centred to true centre by a mandrel

Once the plates are bolted to the flywheel you remove the mandrel (a socket with an old valve through it served very well)

guide pins are inserted, screwed into the engine a tad to receive the gearbox and keep it lined up true.

Easy peasy the box slides along the pins and home it all goes. Phew, relief!

If it all slips in easily, then you know you prepared well, luck does not come into it at all.

Surgery complete, now to reassemble the bike following the road map.

All bolts are torqued according to the specs downloaded off the web.

You do not want to rush this process. You need to be meticulous, sure and patient.

The next trricky bit is lining the subframe up to mate the front and mesh the drive shaft spline to gear box output.

This called 'inching' and involves moving from this side of the bike to the other side side and sliding the two closer, bit by bit to ensure it is lining up properly. Wehn we were still yung and in love Annie still had the apetitie to help me, now I am man alleen as she barely has tolerance to keep  the sherry rolling on  and sandwiches>

AT THIS POINT REFER TO YOUR NOTES, THIS IS THE CRITICAL POINT TO HAVE THE LOOM WIRES, OVERFLOW PIPES, CABLES, HARNESSESS ON THE CORRECT SIDE of a sub-frame bar, (INSIDE THE FRAME OR OUTSIDE) AS YOU WILL HAVE TO REDO THE MATING OF THE BACK AND FRONT ALL OVER IF YOU RUSH IT AND GET IT WRONG.

At this point it was time to take a break and carry on on Tuesday after work.

This evening I fitted the peripherals and it is finished.

Having the road map which I re-wrote agian to make more sense and change some sequences, and with the bolts in marked ziplok bags made the whole reassembly process smooth and painless.

I hardly spoke any Swahili the entire time.

 Moment ot truth, new clutch, new battery, time to test.

 Yup all starts fine. bleed the rear brakes and off I can go.

It might be dark, late at night, ice cold, but I need to know if it is A-OK.

 So Annie must leave her knitting and come witness and share the moment whether she liked it or not. She pretended very well tob e mildly intersted and then bolted after taking three photos.   And off I go. all good

 I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER.

 I used around 30 cable ties, 26 ziplok bags and removed and then fitted around 120 bolts, and 100ml of brake fluid. I sommer flushed the rear brake system while I was doing it.

Thanks for the effort you took with the pictures and captions.  This is the way I intended the site to work.

I have two questions:

1. What is a 'mandril'?
2. What are you doing outside in the dark in shorts in this freezing weather - trying to attract a zimbo or penguin?

Glad the bike was successfully stiched up and is on the road again.

No intestines discovered in the garage this morning?

And you probably saved yourself quite a few gold pennies.

man·drel [man-druhl] Show IPA noun Machinery . 1. a shaft or bar the end of which is inserted into a workpiece to hold it during machining. 2. a spindle on which a circular saw or grinding wheel rotates. 3. the driving spindle in the headstock of a lathe. Also, man·dril.

I know we're all ragging Andy and he takes it in good spirit :-) 

Thanks Andy.. the article really is very helpful and makes nice reading :-)

"the article really is very helpful" ... to some maybe.

Being somewhat mechanically challenged I found the whole article quite confusing and the photos didn't really help either.

So let's start at the beginning - What is a clutch and more importantly why does a bike need one?

What I have learned though is that if you need help, Andy (or someone else in the club) will always (?) lend a helping hand.

mechanically challenged.  But through perseverance and many, many stripped nuts and bolts, I now know my way around a bit.

It is part of being a rider - you need to take personal responsibility for the mechanical soundness of your bike, because when things go wrong it is you - not the mechanic - who gets hurt or stranded.

It is also a lot cheaper and quite fun and satisfying.  I have rebuilt the brakes, removed the ABS and refurbished the starter motor and bendix amongst other things.

Salim,

Thanks for the good explanation  of mandrel, it is exactly that.

BMW Motorrad know it as special tool # 476/987-344067 GB000006*8 and it is easily availeble in Stuttgsart 2 only €328.23.

Thnamks John, she started fine the morning, the new battery was fully charged and it rode the 52 kilometres to work, as ever before.

No washers, ot bits left over from the operation.

What I did find is that s mecahnic losts a torque head bolt- I found it under the bgateery pan and the rubber buffers for the Tool tray were aWOL, one I found down trapped in the electronic junctions for the Rear damper/preload circuitry and the other is missing in action.

So i delved into my drawer of rubber bits and found a gromet for  a 6mm electric cable/2mm metal plate and this is almost exact dims to the original buffer  so both pins now have their buffer back.

HMMMMMMMM I once had the absolute luxury of the same BMW mechanic for 12 consecutive years.

And recently asked Donford if I can please have the same mechanic on my bike every time from now on.

To me the mechanic on my bike beocmes like the fmaily doctor, gets to know my kwaale, and style ad pocket depth and ability and will then add more vlaue to the user-experience.

so now, having just booked the 100 000km service for two weeks time, I have to book for when the mechanic and a loan 1200 are AV at the same time, which is a complication worth going through.

But we managed to line it all up.

Next trip- Riding the railroad tracks to Hopefield.

I do take personal responsibility for the mechanical soundness of my bike. That's why I have it serviced/repaired by qualified BMW technicians and ride (mostly) with a group of people with better bike fixing skills than my own .

For (mechanically challenged) me it's not more expensive. Quite the contrary. It would be way more expensive (and dangerous) if I attempted any repairs/services myself.

Mr A....

That quick test ride.... Gear? Safety... 

Lol just yanking Ur chain. Glad the second wife had a good service. ;) 

P

Well, truth be told, feather watchers will notice that I slip out to the piggly wiggly and to Builders on occasion without ATTGATT.

But then I've already past the shelf life expectancy of my family and school teachers who predicted I would not see 50. so I'm on borrowed time anyway.

You still have plenty years sire. Life starts now... Lol.