The next bike in the stable an old 1984 R65

I went to look at an old R65 that has been sitting for 5+ years. She's pretty beat up, but looks like she could have some life left in her. I'm trying to work a partial trade for some computer equipment. Of course I need another bike like I need a hole in the head.... but she's an old R bike! I don't have any cash right now, I've put it all into the K and Little Wing I've been working on. No real big purchases. The brake bleeder, oil, screws, nuts and bolts all add up.

Damn, I've found myself in another hobby that soaks up lots O muny. And I don't know what makes me think I can get an old R bike running. I'd like to delve into the mysteries of carburetors but don't want to screw with the running bikes I own. With the Old R I can work on it and if I screw it up I really can't make it any worse than it is. Well, not much worse.

It's an old 1984 R65. That makes it four years newer than my old R100RT. It's blue, not as dark as my old blue, close to Pacific Blue, which is sail cover blue which I hate, it's bearable though. It has BMW side bags and the old black panier racks just like my old R. The interesting thing is that it has a fairing mount attached, sadly no fairing goes with it. From that age it could be for a Vetter or a Luftmeister. There may be some I don't know about. Fairings are fairly common on Craigs and ebay it's the mount that's hard to come by. Even if the fairing I bought was wrong I think I could probably cobble a fit.

Things I found:

1. I actually got the bike to go into first gear. It was tough but I was then able to get it into other gears and heard valves opening and closing, or the suction caused by them. With my modest knowledge I would say that the engine isn't seized.
2. The gas cap had an issue and someone put a blob of epoxy up under it, I suppose to hold it together.
3. The gas tank, well it might have been rusty, or someone painted the inside rust red. 
4. There was a hole that was welded up on the lower right side of the tank. A good indication of rust in the tank. 
5. There must have been some damage to the speedo, there was another blob of epoxy on it, sealing a hole I guess.
6. The petcock was missing. 
7. The headlight is missing.
8. The right panier mounting latch fell apart when I took the bag off
9. The title work is being done

Things I didn't find out:

1. If keys were available
2. What, if any the oil looked like. After 5+ years what would you expect
3. If there were any electrics at all.

I think it's safe to say that the Pheonix K has risen!

I took the bike out today for it's first run more than a mile from home. As we used to say when sailboat racing "She goes like a RAPED APE", how ever that goes! Of course I still didn't go over 40. Perhaps I'm a little mislead, I haven't been on a bike without a fairing or windshield in a long time. The wind noise was significant in my shorty helmet. I think I'm going to try and fashion a stick on higher windshield similar to some of the aftemarket styles I've seen.

A little ride to get gas, air in the tires, and some nuts and bolts

I went out for a little ride this morning. About a half mile out things went dead? I pulled over, tried to start. I had ignition light but no go. I thought computer or sensor, mostly computer. I pushed the connector in and she started. I went two blocks, hit a little bump, it died. I pushed the connector back in and she started. I took it slow to the gas station, filled the tires with air and put 2 gallons of gas in. I had about a gallon in the tank, the extra 2 turned the 7 liter dum dum light off, so that seems to work. I fiddled with the connector and thought I might have to borrow a rubber band to hold the connector. That's when I noticed the flat sheet metal spring clip. I saw the little nub on the connector and pushed that sucker in as far as I could. I gave it a little pull and it didn't come out. You have to remember, this is really the first time I've ridden the bike. I never bothered making sure it was tight because the bike was never moving. I went up to the hardware store, using the back roads, about a mile. No problems there, no problems back.

I got some new screws that fit the coils so I could put the cover back on and I found that I was missing a couple of cap screws holding my seat.

Boring stuff, but helpful for me.

Some Little Jobs to make the bike rideable... side panels on, gasket for fuel fill and mount, coil cover, not yet

Last night I washed the coil cover and tried to mount it. It was a tight fit and the screws just didn't seem to be biting. I took the cover off and tried the screws, they were too small. The coils were perchased on ebay from an 88. Apparently there was a different screw size. I need four new screws.

I washed the side panels and put them on.

I polished the screws for the filler cap assembly. I'd bought some fiber gasket material from the hardware store. I cut a new gasket based on the OD and ID of the filler cap. Other than cutting the first one through there were no problems.

Another Stupid Mistake

I have been working on the left side rider/passenger peg panel. Don't ask me why I got into this. It isn't integral to running the bike. As I've done work, I've removed whatever I could and cleaned. It's actually a good thing as I get a feel for how all the parts go together. The one thing I was after was the polishing of the Kerker muffler. It looked really ratty. To get to it I had to remove the aluminum "panel" that holds the rider and passenger pegs. There was alot of rust on the bolts and the muffler looked like it had been living under a lawn mower.

Whenever I remove parts I polish all the bolts, or I may replace them with stainless steel. SS is expensive and sometimes I can't get bolts the right length to do a replacement. I might then replace the washers or lock washers with SS. I polish the bolts and other parts with a wire brush on the grinder. This seems to work very well. Bolts that were very hard to remove prior to cleaning are usually turn easily after polishing. I'm very careful not to remove too much material thus compromising the integrity of the part.

To get to the muffler with a wire brush on a drill I had to remove the left panier bracket. To remove the bracket I had to remove the rear license plate housing, nothing is ever simple. The license plate bracket was fairly simple there is a kind of U bolt that goes up into the rear tail section. After removing a little rust and crud this piece came out without a hitch. There are two sheet metal type screws that come in from the rear just above the license plate that need to be removed, they also came out without a hitch.

Note for the diagram below: When I remove parts from the bike I put each group of parts into zipper snack bags and label them with a sharpie. In the diagram below I labeled the front bolt #1, the number #2 bolt was the top bolt further back, the #3 bolt is just below it, the #4 bolt is second to last and the last bolt is #5. The #5 bolt was connected to the muffler bracket. The #4 bolt was connected to nothing? I'm guessing that it is used on a bike with a stock muffler and also connects to the muffler. If not, I don't know what that hole/bolt is used for.

The muffler is attached to the bike with a muffler clamp and in the rear an S bracket that connects to the peg panel. The bracket had a fair amount of rust. I brushed it down to bare metal. I painted it and the U bolt with engine primer and high heat black. All the peg panel bolts and fixtures got polished except the ferrules that go inside the rubber grommets. These all looked pretty good and didn't seem to pose a threat for rust.

The one thing I was undecided about was whether to polish the plate itself. The brush on the grinder is fairly fine grind. I decided to leave it alone. I know others bead/soda/shell blast these parts. They look good when done that way. I'll have to wait until I have blasting capabilities.

After putting everything back together I decided I wanted to go for a ride, test everything and put a little charge on the battery. That's where I made my STUPID MISTAKE. As I was warming the bike up the thought crossed my mind, "should I add gas"? I didn't. Big mistake. I headed out on the bike. Luckily, I just headed down to the local park. As I got to the top of a hill the bike sputtered to a stop. At first I thought I had a big problem, then decided it was gas. I tried leaning the bike, no luck. I drifted it down to a parking lot.

I called my wife. Sadly, at 11pm on a Friday night she was returning from a meeting in Northern Virginia, and told her of my situation. I didn't think I was much more than a mile from home. I was right, I made it home in just under 20 minutes and then measured it on the odometer of my car and with the GPS. When I got home I threw my helmet and reflective vest in the car, I grabbed the hot shot and the gas cans and put them in the trunk. I ran back up to the bike put the gas in and she started right up. I called my wife, she was actually at home. We'd missed each other by minutes. I rode the bike home. I felt terrible about asking her to take me back to the car.

My one saving grace is that I'd gotten her a dozen roses and a congratulation card for her success at work.

The K had it's first bath

I was surprised at how much I'd "dry" cleaned during my rebuild of fuel system. What was somewhat disappointing were the stains on the wheels and engine. I know there are guys who take the whole bike and engine apart and either bead or soda blast the whole thing. It makes the bike look new but it's alot of work. I'm not sure I'm up to tearing down the whole bike much less the engine.

There does seem to be a problem that keeps occurring. After it's washing it wouldn't start, no electricity to the whole system, as if the relay was out again. Each time I took the relay out it didn't look like it had been welded. I think I have an electrical issue which could be very difficult to track down.

She's running and I'm happy

Filling the Tires Rear 50 psi cold, Front 42 psi cold

I came home because I didn't have a tire air pressure gauge. After cooling and telling Kari about my ride I decided to brave the heat and fill the tires up. The 10 minutes I spent under umbrella shade looking for the fill levels had me sweating. The weather channel (useless) says that it's 88 with a heat index of 92. I rode down to the local shell station, they have a great compressor but it doesn't have a gauge. I didn't know if the tires were hot or cold, I decided I'd settle for a pressure just less than max, I'll check them in the morning cold. I filled the rear first and found that I'd way over inflated and that my gauge maxes out at 50 psi, I had to bleed alot of air leaving it at about 48 psi. I then did the front leaving it at about 40 psi. The bike felt alot more stable with more air in the tires.

This is a new pressure gauge and is yet uncalibrated. I had one that was fairly accurate but lent it out on a ride and it didn't get returned. It's not too big a deal, they're only $2 at Wally world, but I knew it was close to correct.

It's almost a funny story. I'd taken my Camry in for service, a tire rotation was on the list. When I got home I checked the tires and they only registered 23 psi or something like that. I called and raised hell. They said bring the car and the gauge in. they checked both and it was my gauge that was wrong. They said they ordered gauges by the dozen or gross and a high percentage were off and they just threw them away. With my tires properly inflated I went to the store and bought three gauges, tested them on my tires, and returned the two that were off as defective.

It's now 2pm, too hot to do diddly. I thought I'd go out and wash the bike. It's never had a bath. When I got it, some parts were off the bike, I had no idea if part of the fuel system was disconected, I chose to leave it dirty. The one thing I probably do is to attach the fuel filler cap so water doesn't get in.

IT RUNS... IT RIDES... IT SHIFTS... IT GOES!

I think title speaks for itself.

I started it as usual, with the hot shot. I tested gears while on the stand, all good. I got my wife/photographer, and got ready for the test ride. I'm going to load the videos below, hopefully.

At this time there are two videos, the first and last of the series, there are three more. Blogger doesn't like large videos, and I think there is a daily limit. It actually seems to be having issues with the two that are up.

I was going to go for a ride down by the bay through Bay Ridge. I remembered that my tires only had a nominal amount of air. The little 12V pump we have only got the tires up to about 30 psi. The tires say 42 psi. I went up Hilltop and cut down a side street and did a U turn. I decided I would go to the hardware store to get two screws that hold the ignition panel on the handle bars, they didn't come with the bike. When I got there, I remembered that the bike may not start. I'd parked on a fairly steep hill, I thought I might be able to jump the bike on the hill. It started right up. The thought of taking a scenic ride passed though my mind. I stopped on the hill at a stop sign to turn right and felt the front tire kind of mush. So it was home to pick up my tire gauge and then to the shell station for some "Breeze".

Am I pleased? Hell Yeah!

As I said to my wife when I told her I was going for a ride, "I'll see you in a month, I'm going to Alaska"!

I now have to develop some milestones for the bike.

1. All the fluids need to be done.
1. Transmission/clutch fluid
2. Rear gear oil
3. Proper crankcase oil (it currently has 20-40 which I knew would be wasted)
1. Oil filter
4. Brake fluid ( it may seem redundant but those lines were sitting for 9 years)
5. Radiator coolant
2. Air filter
3. Another new battery?
4. Splines should be inspected and lubed
5. Whole bike lube
6. Brake pads to be inspected
7. Increasing distance rides

Breaking the clutch free while the bike is running

I consulted the forums as best I could. How do you search "1985 K100 clutch stuck in gear/adjustment"? I did pull up some results. The most promising was that when the bike sits moisture gets to the clutch plates and rusts them together. The least promising was that one guy pulled his transmission and the plates where put in wrong. He had to pull the tranny to correct it. Had my PO pulled the transmission? Would I have to pull it and rebuild it? The easy fix, put it in gear and rock the bike, which I tried, it didn't work. The next thing was to start the bike and shift, slowing the wheel with the brake.

I pulled the bike out this morning and got it started with the hot shot and started shifting gears and slowing with the brake. Finally, after about 10 minutes on a down shift there was a clunk. I had a little trouble getting the bike into neutral but it seemed to be out of gear when neutral was indicated. I had an errand to run, I shut things down and took off on my errand.

I'm now back home and am going to try all the gears while running and then possibly RIDE!

Adjusted Clutch Cable

Either the relay isn't what is shutting down or each time I open the relay up it shakes the weld loose. Each time I open the relay up, it's free. When I mount it I have electrics again? Who Knows?

I took the "Pheonix K" out to try and ride it yesterday. Yes, I said "try". I started it using the hot shot, I didn't want to take a chance on a cut out again. I removed the cables and she was running fine. I took the bike off the center stand and put it into first gear. The bike lurched. I had the clutch in and it was immediately in gear. I tried another time, same thing. I put it up on the center stand tried running it, same thing. It seemed as though there was a cable adjustment to be made. Back into the garage.

I consulted the forums for cable adjustment and read the clymer manual. It wasn't a bad job. I of course cleaned up the connections with a dremmel brush and the adjusting bolt on the clutch linkage on the lower right side. See part 9 and 10 in diagram below

Everything seemed to be in order. I had the bike on the center stand, I didn't start it but put into gear and tried to spin the wheel with the clutch handle in, it was in gear. I tried to shift up, it didn't feel like it was shifting up.

It was too hot and too late to continue.

All Three Brakes are Flushed and Filled... Bike didn't start.... Relay out again

The rear brake was a pain. I think there was old gunk in the lines. It took me two hours to get the rear done. The front brakes went without a hitch.

I took the bike out of the garage with the hopes of riding it. The relay welded again. I think I need a new battery, and I may need a new relay soon.

Rear Brake work and cleaning up the right rear brake area

After I got the bike running I put the Sabre outside under cover and brought the K into the garage. I brought it in butt first so I could work on the right rear brake area. I don't have enough room to get to both sides of the bike, it's always a shuffle to work on different sides of the bike.

I started reading the Clymer manual to check on how to attack the brake. My main goal was to attach the new brake reservoir. While I could actually attach the reservoir I couldn't see the point where the hose was attached to the master cylinder. Clymer said that the three bolts attached the brake pedal, rear brake master cylinder and the right driver and passenger pegs had to be removed.

They gave a good tip, attach a bungy cord to the bike so the whole assembly can be hung beside the bike while you work, which I did.

Once I got the assembly off things were a dirty mess down there. I don't think the bike has been run since 94, and I'm pretty sure the area hasn't been cleaned in a long time. I figured I should clean things up. I started with a wire brush and then used a dremel brush on the area.

The remnants of the old hose were attached to the nipple of the master cylinder with clamp ring that requires a special pair of pliers to attach and remove, I don't own those pliers. I spent at least an hour working on that damn clamp. Eventually, I was able to use snips to get inside the little loop and cut the clamp.

I also wanted to clean up both the rider and passenger foot pegs. These clevis pins and cotter pins were rusty and were impossible to get out. I ended up just replacing the cotter pins with stainless steel pins. I'm hoping that some "PB Blaster" and riding the book will eventually loosen the clevis pins.

Late in the day, I thought I was ready to replace the brake fluid. Back to Clymer, the K100 forum, and youtube. Another problem, even though I don't have a brake flush pump, I had bought the wrong brake fluid. I bought DOT 4 and need DOT 3. What did I know? Why in heaven's name would you need different brake fluid. But, in truth, I suppose it's like oil and everything else.

My plan today is to hit Harbor Freight Tools in Glen Burnie early this morning and pick up a vacuum pump. I think the rear brake would be fine without the tool I think it would be much cleaner and safer to have the tool for the front brake. I don't want fluid killing what is left of the finish. I also want to change the fluid in the Sabre and "Little Wing", the tool should make it easier.

Second try today to start the bike

The bike started to rumble right away. I was starting it on the charged battery. After about 5 tries, I about to turn the key off and heard a click, all the lights went off. I'd run into this problem before.

There is a relay in a box just under the rear end of the tank. When you try to start the bike on a low battery it tends to weld this relay. Which means, I may have to remove the tank to get to the box of relays. The problem is that I forget which relay it is. I need to go back the BMW forum and find my thread.

When this happened before I freaked out. I thought it was a fuse, but none were blown. I went to the forum, it may have been the first time. The ultimate answer came from a lady K rider in Norway!

It was still over 90 so I decided that I'd wait until it got cooler. Sadly, I forgot that we were going out to dinner. The fix of the relay will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

I got right to work after the Dr.'s appointment

I got out at about 10:00 am. Since I work outside I always work with limited tools. This time it was a screwdriver and my 35 piece microdriver. I've put my toolbox on a dolly so that I can roll it out but with two bikes in the garage it just would fit through. 

When taking the beemer apart I'd put all screws, nuts and bolt in labeled snack bags. I went into my set of storage drawers and there was a single clamp in a single bag. Normally, I would slip the hose through the clamp and attach the hose. But, since this clamp goes to the bottom of a pressure valve with two other connections I undid the clamp and wrapped it around the connection. This is the type of hose clamp that the screw pulls the strap through. Once the strap is free it tends to deform a bit and makes it difficult to re-start. This one had to go to the bottom of a pressure regulator in a tight corner next to the airbox. It took about a half hour to get the son of a gun attached.

I checked all the other connections that I'd tightened earlier and made very sure that there was nothing else to tighten before I put the airbox back it.

I tried starting the bike and it started to rumble. I looked down and saw some drips, I turned the ignition off to check what was dripping. I dabbed it with my fingers and smelled it, yup, it was gas. It seemed to be trapped in the exhaust pipe and was dripping from the header/muffler connection. I couldn't think of a way to get into the connection. I thought I'd let mother nature do the work. The temperature is above 90, between the leak and evaporation I figure the gas would be gone in a couple of hours.

Started working early this morning...heat due in the high 90's

I started early due to the heat and I have a Dr's appointment. I may have found the leaking fuel issue. Again, due to my neophyte mechanics status, I hadn't tightened all the fuel hose clamps. Which isn't too bad for those hoses located on the outside of the bike. However there is one clamp I missed which was located on the bottom side of the pressure regulator, which is inturn located behind the air box/air flow sensor. The airbox had to be removed.

Today the bike starts and a new rear brake reservoir

This morning I headed out to get some gas. After the gas I decided to call my friend Madigan at Bob's BMW to find out if they had a rear brake reservoir. They did, I headed over to Bob's to drool over bikes and pick up the brake reservoir and the hoses I needed. For $23, it's not the worst purchase I made.

 When I got home I pumped out the spiked gas and put in high test. It wouldn't turn over. The battery and portable hot shot were exhausted. I put everything on charge and got out of the heat. The thermometer at 11am was reading 94 degrees, I can't work outside in this heat.

I tried to start it in the afternoon and it popped. I ran it up for a little while and then shut it down to let it cool. I wanted to get some coolant in it, I was unsure if it had any coolant in it at all. I didn't want to start the engine and get it hot to run the Sea Foam and have the block crack due to heat.

I thought I'd read on line that a special BMW coolant was needed due to the water pump and aluminum block. I checked and found a note saying that. These days I'm not sure it's that critical. While the K bike was groundbreaking in the eighties. There are plenty of aluminum block engines now. But for the cost of a few extra bucks I think I'll put in the BMW stuff.

To get the job done I decided to just put some water in the overflow reservoir. When I checked the reservoir some coolant dumped out on me. I used the hose to fill the reservoir. I started the bike and it looked like water was pouring from somewhere. It was getting dark out so I really couldn't see where the water was coming from.  I kept the engine going because I'd put some treatment in it. I started smelling fuel! I put my hand under the bike to check if what I thought was water, was really water. It seemed that it was mostly water but there was gas in it. As I shut the bike down I noticed the fuel injectors were wet, I'm guessing fuel. I used the hose to wash down the area, I didn't want a fire.

Last Night I couldn't get the bike started...

I think it was due to the gas being heavily laced with Sea Foam.

A Note About the Blog

 I started with Blogger a couple/few years ago. One of the things I found lacking was that a blog by it's nature is a chronological journal. This means first things are the last things to be seen. I note like this would end up at the end and be fairly useless.

I was viewing another Blogger blog and saw that the author had "Pages". The pages can be accessed at any time or place within the blog. I've started utilizing the pages function for things like parts, bolt and screw sizes, and in the case of this blog about the K100, the cost of parts, service and purchases made for the restoration of the bike.

The Oil Change

I thought I might have a problem. The Clymer manual says that the plug is removed with an 8mm Allen wrench, I didn't have an oil bolt on the bottom of the crankcase. Of course I'm not a consumate mechanic, when I find something different it makes me think I'm not looking in the right  place. As it turns out the 17mm bolt is in fact the oil drain plug.

The plug is a magnetic type and it was full of metal shavings. I used toothpicks and Qtips to clean it out. Some of the goop that came out looked like a grey milky fluid. I'm guessing it's water. There wasn't enough to be concerned. After all, the bike sat for nine years; the heating and cooling would have produced some residue.

The oil itself wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It's dark but not milky and there was little or no sludge.

Now after a short break for dinner I'm going to start it up again and use the Sea Foam.

IT'S ALIVE... IT'S ALIVE.... IT'S ALIVE

It's not quite running like a champ but it is running.

I hooked up the fuel lines in the tank. The problem was that the hoses weren't over the little ridges. I use the plural because when I was trying to hook up the one that had come off the other end came off the hard fuel line inside the tank.

I then tried to start it, it didn't kick. I had not installed the air filter and top of the air box where the airflow sensor lives, so I settled in and put that back together very dejectedly. My wife had come out to water the garden and gave her condolences. After putting the airbox back together I tried again.

I hit the starter and it ground and ground, just as I let my thumb off the button it popped about three times, well the engine turned three times. I tried again and it rumbled then stumbled. The third or fourth time it caught and fired up. I thought it might have been fired up because of all the smoke but it was just exhaust.

The last Virginia inspection sticker on the bike is for 04. To the best of my knowledge it hasn't been started since then, nine years.

Of course, if I hadn't been so stupid, it might have started last year.

I went right up to advance auto parts and bought some Sea Foam, people swear by it. I came home and heated up the engine and pushed the bike into the garage. I'm going to change the oil and then hit it with the Sea Foam (back outside again).

STUPID...STUPID...STUPID

Just when you think you've tried everything, 

you take a second look, and 

discover how stupid you are.

It's been along while since I've worked on the K. I did swap spark plugs about a month ago. When I put it up for sale a fellow "K"er offered the load of mass airflow sensor to see if that was the problem. It didn't start the K up. I have to return the sensor to him. He was then going to lend me a computer to see if that was the problem. 

But, I started thinking about the whole thing; turning the systems over in my mind. I'd tested the plugs and the new coils, they worked. I put in the new plugs, they worked. So if the system is getting fire...what's the problem?

I never did test the injectors singly to see if they were squirting. Winter was coming on and I sure didn't want to squirt gas all over the garage, so I never checked. Each time I tried to start the bike I smelled gas, the ASSumption is that gas was getting to the cylinders. 

So, again, letting the system roll around in my mind. Did I make the hose connections properly inside the gas tank? I took a peek in. 

This is what I found...

If you can't tell. That's a Detached fuel hose from the back of the fuel filter. Yes, I smelled gas, the fuel pump was pumping it right back into the tank!

I'm sure that all you "good" mechanics are out there saying, check everything, then when you're very sure it's all correct...check it again. That's probably how you get to be a good mechanic!

Had I checked this I might have saved myself countless hours of frustration and a couple of hundred dollars. I might not have broken the coil.

I now have to disconnect the battery, pump all the gas out of the tank. sop up what is remaining and then connect up the fuel hose and see if it will start. If not, check everything again and start at the beginning.

I am going to try and key the starter to see if gas is in fact pumping through the system.