RantMachine

Update: We've just opened it up again, dismantled the clutch, cleaned off any remaining dirty oil and reassembled everything, oiling with clean oil as we go. Got the clutch cover back on again (found a few tricks to make it easier) and tested the clutch... still nothing. Officially got no idea what is wrong. Worth filling the oil again and running it for a bit to warm up and circulate the oil then trying to operate it once more? Or is it just new plates and springs time?

http://www.reactionimage.org/img/gallery/453038722.jpg

TMBF looks a bit plain, don't you think? I made us a nice little banner image to go between the forum logo at the top left and the ad at the top right. http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k96/spastic_potato/TMBFBanner_zps8900fd34.jpg

The term "Death Wobble" just sounded so funny to me Not laughing at your impending doom, I assure you!

See my post in the other thread where you mentioned this!

Ran a fresh batch of oil through the bike to flush out any contaminated crap still in there before changing the oil filter. Another batch of clean oil will be going in after opening up the clutch this Saturday (which still isn't working ). This second batch of oil came out again looking awfully similar to chocolate milk... On the plus side, the coolant level doesn't appear to have dropped. And the oil didn't actually smell of antifreeze like the original contaminated batch, which hopefully is an indicator that it's not quite so horribly contaminated . So I'm going to assume that there must've still been a fair bit of contaminated oil lingering in the system on account of the original drain being done stone cold, and this has cleared it... But I think that once I'm back on the road I'll be monitoring my oil veeeery closely and doing some regular changes, even if just emptying the contents of the remote reservoir from time to time to check for contamination. Not convinced. Sooo... f**k it, I may have gone through all this expense and misery and achieved nothing more than a buggered clutch

I've got some of those Ikea shelves with the big square alcoves that are vaguely helmet size, with enough room for a folded pair of trousers underneath. Jackets end up hanging from various chairs, and boots get lined up by the door. Bit messy but works for me!

Chin up, it'll be fine! You have the benefit of experience this time round, just stay calm and remind yourself how easy it'll be.

So Joeman... why aren't you running to the patent office?

Hmm, good point - didn't really think of that. It's a tough one, the more you think about it. Could go really crazy with trying to collect statistics trying to correlate garage ownership and type of bike owned... Makes my mind start racing I suppose the best bet is just to work out which is the biggest of the ~600cc low cost workhorses and cater to that. I think adventure bikes are still probably the ones to make allowances for, pretty big buggers on the whole and popular enough that you wouldn't want to miss that market. Work around the measurements for a DL650 maybe?

Given the sheer number of them on the roads (nice big target market right there) and the fact that they're pretty big buggers, this might be a good reference point: http://andyw-inuk.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/R1200GS-BMW-Motorcycle-Photo/R1200GS-Schematics-Diagrams/i-6KX6PmM/2/L/r1200gs_04to07_measurements-L.jpg

Thankfully my bad luck seems to be focussed entirely on the bike, life is going pretty well otherwise - maybe this is the balance

I did one training day in December, one in January, then passed in January... so I wouldn't worry about it, personally! Just make sure to check where the weather is going so you don't end up losing your test bookings to snowy weather.

f**k it, now my battery has died too. Which makes me realise, I've probably only ridden three times in the last month courtesy of the suspension and then the water pump.

You dirty old man

My bike is single handedly ensuring that they approve a second batch

Just how easy is it to work on a ZZR? Fairings aside, of course. I don't mind having to remove them, can't crap that up too badly

Also, note to self: No more BMWs, next bike needs to be idiot proof.

Stu: Well if pulling the clutch were making even the slightest bit of difference I'd be pretty happy Ran it for a bit to circulate the oil and had a fiddle, shifted all the way up and down a few times... no change. I'd almost be tempted to say it's not shifting gear as well as it used to, but I won't really know until I take it on the road. Which I can't do without the clutch working at least a little bit. Bob: I had to be in town about 40 minutes ago so I'll have to try those when I get back, fingers crossed... Any other suggestions that people can add to the list are greatly appreciated, I'll be swearing in the garage into the small hours no doubt and I'll certainly owe a pint to the person that makes the winning suggestion

I should add a disclaimer to my Pitsop threads: Warning: Prepare to be appalled. Your hamster probably knows more about how my bike works than I do. Even if you don't own a hamster.

Haha, right, here we go replying to Bob: 1. Clutch is on the left hand side and from the amount of oil that came out when I first opened it despite already draining the bike, I'm going to guess that it's not something I can skip... although I might try clamping the hose from the upper reservoir while I work so I don't have to drain that too. It's the coolant that's the main pain, I haven't got enough to fill it up again and I used my last drain bolt crush washer... back to Halfords I go 2. That was my immediate though, but then I know how freely the operating shaft should rotate if it isn't meshed - and if the two weren't meshed properly but are in contact then surely I should feel the difference in the action of the shaft as the two components grind against one another? From having seen the inside of the thing I can't see how it could not mesh properly and still allow the cover to sit flush :S 3. What would cause the plates to stick? Would an absence of oil be a factor? Because the only idea that came into my uneducated brain was that this might all be down to the oil; I drained the bike on Wednesday so that it had a couple of days for all of the stone-cold oil to trickle out, and so it's probably as dry as a bone in there. Although I've put the first 2L of oil into the upper reservoir, I haven't run the engine yet to get it to circulate the oil - at most a pitiful amount may have trickled down the line from the reservoir, but the clutch is probably still pretty dry.

Right, so in the process of repairing my leaky water pump, I seem to have buggered the clutch. Hopefully only a minor clutch buggering, given as the work I had to do wasn't very intrusive. In short, BMW made refitting the clutch cover on the F650GS an absolutely miserable and nigh-impossible job. After a few hours of swearing I succeeded, everything seemed to go fine and fit together alright. Except... the clutch doesn't work now If I disconnect the clutch cable and use a set of grips to rotate the operating shaft, it rotates fine but the rear wheel still doesn't turn freely. There's would seem to be the right amount of resistance in the operating shaft (and it's rotating smoothly without any worrying noises of the grinding variety), so I would've though it safe to assume that it's meshing with the release bearing; if they weren't then surely it would just be rotating freely without resistance OR grinding against the parts it's supposed to mesh with? I are confuse. Oh, and of course I didn't try the clutch lever until I was part way through refilling the oil and coolant, which is wonderful; will have to drain them all over again in order to get the clutch cover off again Anything I should check before I undo all my hard work? I really don't know the first damn thing

Managed to resolve the gasket problem, but the oil line persists with being a bast*rd while I'm trying to line up the clutch cover properly. It came off, so it must go back on... persistence and swearing. Awesome.

f**k it! All done fixing my water pump but can't get the bast*rd clutch cover back on without knocking the gasket out of place in the process thanks to that f**king rigid oil return line...