Boxerworks.com

Ken in Oklahoma wrote:

daz wrote:. . . Here's to cheap and easy!

Please tell me you weren't thinking about Diane when you wrote that!

Ken

Well I don't really know how to reply to that. Since I don't know Diane personally (as in face to face) I can't say she is cheap. It wouldn't be right. However, from what I've heard, she is easy. Going on hearsay.

I switched my bikes to either the Gates Barricade or the all rubber line sold at the BMW dealer after my cloth covered lines let me down on two bikes. Gates Barricade in 1/4" or the BMW motorrad dealer line will fit nicely.

Chuey

Hi,

Okay. So I can just call up a dealer and have them send me some?

• One piece that I'll then cut up? If so, how much do I order?
• Or will I have to order a part number and the hoses will come pre-cut?


This is what the bike looks like now.
Is that pretty much the same hose set up on all of these engines? I don't know how there could be too much variation. They all had two carburetors, two fuel taps, etc. but I'm no expert.

Is the Gates Barricade a fiber or cloth covered hose? I thought I remembered someone at the Tech Day telling me they liked the cloth hoses. However their bike probably came with them from new so there is that motivation too. I don't know if mine did.

I find it kind of difficult to find very much information about my model. Even Clymers glosses over it and focuses mostly on the 1970s-80s with some mention of the GS/ PD (whatever that means) variants but only in a special section at the back of the bus - I mean book. These have some of the same parts as mine but it's not the same bike. I don't know. I thought I read somewhere that there were something like 20 or 30,000 of these made. It seems like that is not a rare or uncommon model.

For example:
My instrument cluster suddenly got all wobbly. I realized that it was supposed to be held on by three bolts, but it looks like one either broke or is missing. The third point of contact someone replaced with a zip-tie, which eventually broke now. I simply replaced the zip-tie until I find some information on what I'm replacing. Haynes mentions a procedure on removing the cluster but there are no pictures. Besides the classics, Clymers only mentions the PD versions of the gauges.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi,

I guess it's not my week with the bike...
Or maybe it is?

After last nights success, I decided to ride the bike to the market tonight.
Half way there the shift linkage fell out/off. It was still attached by the other pins but the main bolt had come out.
I was in a left turn lane and was just about to get the green arrow. I shifted to make sure it was in 1st when the whole peddle came off. The first thing I did was double check to make sure I did not hear anything hitting the street. Then I pushed the bike across the street (directly to my left, not across the intersection) to a gas station that happened to be at that corner (the left arrow gave me the cover I needed at that moment to cross the oncoming lanes).

Once in the gas station parking lot I took a good look and realized what had happened. The main bolt had simply come out. Unscrewed itself since it was put back when the spline lube was done weeks ago.

I just screwed it back in and continued on the the market. It worked fine and got me home again.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I want to re-tighten it but I don't see the torque setting for it.
This goes back to my previous post; it's hard to find this kind of information on these bikes.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

I bought a three foot piece of fuel hose from the BMW dealer. It seems expensive (for hose), but having trouble with your hose (!) is never convenient! There was some hose left over but I've got multiple bikes and like having some extra around, anyway.

Do not forget the piece that crosses the engine and ties the two carbs together. It is right in front of the air cleaner housing and that housing needs to be loosened to change it. It ties into the "T" at each end.

As far as cloth covered line goes, it looks very nice and traditional but one gasoline soaked boot incident is one too many.

Is it possible that the shifter bolt fell out because it wasn't tightened, as in, forgot to tighten? I just tighten mine with the torque wrench built into my hand/arm. That is hard to put into words but generally, wrenches come in graduated lengths and that helps the mechanic to feel how much force to apply to a fastener of a given size. When using a ratchet, which is not "sized", one must extrapolate.

Chuey

I also like nylocks for applications like this.

Chuey wrote: . . . I just tighten mine with the torque wrench built into my hand/arm. That is hard to put into words but generally, wrenches come in graduated lengths and that helps the mechanic to feel how much force to apply to a fastener of a given size. When using a ratchet, which is not "sized", one must extrapolate.

+1 on that Chuey.

In the past I have recommended, for people who don't have the feel, that they break some bolts on purpose to see what too much torque feels like. Get a mild steel bolt and nut of the diameter and thread pitch you're dealing with. Drill a hole in a piece of scrap iron, put the iron in the vice and the bolt in the iron, and then slowly tighten the two until the bolt breaks. "Register" the torque. Far less torque than that will be enough for virtually all applications.

Of course, if you're screwing a bolt into aluminum that's a horse of a different color.

Also lock tite can be used as a belt and suspenders approach in many applications.

Chuey, I'll wager you can't even remember the last time you broke a bolt by over tightening it.

Ken

Ken in Oklahoma wrote:

Chuey wrote: . . . I just tighten mine with the torque wrench built into my hand/arm. That is hard to put into words but generally, wrenches come in graduated lengths and that helps the mechanic to feel how much force to apply to a fastener of a given size. When using a ratchet, which is not "sized", one must extrapolate.

+1 on that Chuey.

In the past I have recommended, for people who don't have the feel, that they break some bolts on purpose to see what too much torque feels like. Get a mild steel bolt and nut of the diameter and thread pitch you're dealing with. Drill a hole in a piece of scrap iron, put the iron in the vice and the bolt in the iron, and then slowly tighten the two until the bolt breaks. "Register" the torque. Far less torque than that will be enough for virtually all applications.

Of course, if you're screwing a bolt into aluminum that's a horse of a different color.

Also lock tite can be used as a belt and suspenders approach in many applications.

Chuey, I'll wager you can't even remember the last time you broke a bolt by over tightening it.

Ken

I've thought about that. When I was a kid and worked on my bicycles, I did break some of the small bolts that had holes in them for anchoring a cable. Some of those are VERY small. The worst one is on a universal cable for 3 speed hubs. As far as anything else, it is true that I've not broken any bolts in my adulthood. Also, things that I install on bicycles do not come loose on their own. I did buy a torque wrench when suspension forks came out for bicycles. In the beginning they had small (5X.8) fasteners to join the hoop over the wheel - the one that ties both fork legs together. I figured they would break a lot and wanted to be able to say I had torqued them to a specification instead of saying I know how tight to tighten things without overtightening. Turns out, they weren't as under engineered as I thought they were.

Chuey

Cloth-covered fuel hose...had my share of problems with that with my first car, a '73 Super Beetle. To this day I won't have the stuff.

Funny about that shift-bolt; the one on my former R100R did the same thing once- but it hadn't been out since I got the bike. I think they all do that once. After I made sure it was good and tight it never came out again.

Hi,

I did as suggested and just torqued the shift bolt down with an allen key. So far, so good.

I've also finished a bit of editing on the footage of me repairing the carburetor. If you'd like to see some of the other end of the dialogue from the previous pages then have a peek at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXrlm1jZXn8

Hope you enjoy that and it's useful or at least entertaining for some down the road.