"Did the valve clearances on the BMW GS last night" thread in "Motorbike Chat"
And it was a piece of cake. I've never done them before and yet it took me less than an hour from the bike being ...

And it was a piece of cake. I've never done them before and yet it took me less than an hour from the bike being in the garage at the start of the job, to it being back in the garage and all the tools tidied away at the end of the job.

And I didn't even lose any important bits of the engine, or any tools inside the engine. My only complaint was that I only had time to drink one cup of tea whilst I was doing the job.

Fired her up and rode to work this morning and all the valve clatter has quietened down and she's purring like she should again.

Quite how the dealers justify charging so much for a valve clearance service I have no idea. I'm loving the GS, it's so user friendly for home maintenance.

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MC011

I think I told you how much I hate you on your various Devon threads, is it just a genuine attempt to piss me off?

VFR, home servicing normally involves knuckles, rain, blood, more blood and tears. Not the easiest bits to get to for the mechanically incompetent.

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TALK TO ME OR THE BUNNY GETS IT!

What have I missed I thought you had the 4 cylinder thing ?

They drink more tea and take the piss out of bike users with no mechanical skill?

Just be careful when you poke the rubber grommet back into the timing hole in the bellhousing. Very easy to poke it right through into the clutch chamber.


er..... alledgedly.

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aka 6x6

LOL

(he's right though - I've heard about that one...)


Also - you DID make sure that you fitted the plug-hole grommet back to the cam cover and NOT on the head itself when reassembling? (it's easy to wreck that grommet otherwise).


Was the bike cold?

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Yes, it's me, err, him, errr

Nope. It's just happened by accident

I've played that game. An ex girlfrind had a CBR400. Balancing the carbs on that required the use of a gynecologist to do some fiddly stuff inside a hole that you couldn't simultaneously see inside and have your hands inside.

I do. I just fancied a GS to go touring on this summer, so I bought an early 1150 a few months ago.

Corrected for you.

Yes, I did notice that. That would have turned a one hour job into a weekend job I reckon - looking on the bright side it would have been a good excuse to get the clutch changed.

Next job is to balance the throttle bodies - seems bizarre considering it's fuel injection but there you go. I need to track down some vacuum gauges now.

I'm loving the tinkering with the bike feeling that owning the GS has brought back to me. It's great.

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MC011

Yes and yes.

Both plug grommets were fitted to the cam covers, all rubber seals were coated with engine oil before re-assembly, and the bike had stood for about 30 hours since being last ridden before I did the clearances.

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MC011

Alternatively, you could just take the view that it's serveral kilos of metal spikey hot clutch versus a gramme or two of very soft rubber that'll soon burn away even if it doesn come into contact with something you don't want it to. No danger of the bits getting in the oil, either.

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aka 6x6

Well, it would be easy!

It's a pushrod flat twin, much the same as my Urals, (whose engines were copied from the BMW R71 of the 1940's) and not changed since the dawn of time.

I check the valve clearances about once a month, just because it literally only takes about 10 minutes per cylinder, so why not?

Well quite. It's going to become part of my regular servicing routine now. Every 6 thousand miles (or before if I feel like it). I reckon with practice I'll get it down to about 20 minutes total time if I've already got the tools out.

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MC011

If only you had carbs instead of that nasty fuel injection, then you'd be able to experience the joy of balancing them in minutes as well.

balbas,
Did ya remember to check the rocker arm axial for play?

My 1150 is due for a check, so I better break out the feeler gauges and a tea bag.

Yup. Thought I'd have a poke round whilst I was in there. End float was within limits and everything else was tickety boo.

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MC011

twinmax+throttle balancing=piece of piss

10 minutes if all is well. usually takes me longer to take it out of the box than sort out the balance.