Late last fall, I noticed a clicking noise from the front of the LT when I hit bumps in the road. Upon inspection, I found the steering damper had come loose from the fork brace at the front fender. The damper was shot as well so I replaced the damper. Yesterday, I noticed the front wheel seemed to be out of balance. Today I started removing my Tupperware to replace the brake lines with new SS lines. When I got to the front of the bike to unplug the PIAA lights, I noticed the steering damper had pulled out of the fork brace. All the hardware seems to be in place; i.e., the bolt, heim joint, washer, etc. Looking at the fiche from A&S, it shows a number 5, but under the picture there is no #5 on the parts descriptions. There are 9 numbered parts, but 5 is not listed. The top of the fork brace has a land on it that looks as though it should have a snap ring of some sort, but there is not one on my bike and the fiche doesn't show one. Any ideas from you folks? This is starting to get tiresome.

Someone here just rebuilt their dampener for less than 20 bucks.

Don,

I did rebuild my steering damper as well, but it got gooched up so I replaced it. The rebuilt damper is the one that came loose and now the new damper has pulled through the front fender brace. It appears that there should be a snap ring in the fender brace but nothing of the sort shows up on the parts microfiche. I've looked at A&S as well as the local dealers'. Just wondering if anyone out there knows for sure what secures the heim joint, and washers and the bolt to the fork brace and holds the damper to the same brace.

Are you saying the little ball came out of the lower tree? If so, you have to replace the lower tree. The ball is not a serviceable item.

Could you post a pic of your problem?

I just happen to have my lower fork bridge removed and partially cleaned up. Attached are pictures. As you can see, no snap ring. Bummer.

Attached Thumbnails

   

I found the problem. The space that I thought was for a snap ring is actually the space between the top of the fork brace and the outer race for the heim joint. It turns out that the ball came out of the outer heim race and that's why my steering damper ist kaput. So, the local friendly dealer got me the new heim joint, spacer and bolt and I should be back in business as soon as I can figure out how to get the old outer race out of the fork brace. I have gotten it to move, just not far enough to get it all the way out. Looks like it could have been worse.

Rebuild is always honorable but in this case you might want to replace the damper with an after market product of better quality. I suggest that you replace the OEM with a HYPERPRO active. Hyperprousa.com

This is my first post to the LT forum and I have been reading with interest the many innovations and adventures of this group. I am posting on this particular subject because I believe I have come up with a rebuild/repair to the steering damper.

For a bit of history I have the 1999 K1200LT that I bought used with about 26000 miles in the end of 2008. I now have 45000 miles on it.I guess I like the bike. The steering damper seals failed somewhere about 30000 miles and I completed the rebuild as suggested on this forum with like seals from a bearing service place. The repair lasted about a year. After doing this one more time with the same results I was looking for a better solution. It would appear that the seals that BMW used are special in design an stiffness but still will fail as all of us have found eventually.

The damper itself is a nicely designed unit and does lend itself to being repaired fairly easily other than this seal issue. My current solution was to replace the seals with a machined aluminium plug the same size as the seal but with grooves to accommodate standard o-rings you can get anywhere. A groove cut on the inside and on the outside to seal the unit. I have access to an excellent machine shop that can now make these fairly easily since we got the right tools to accurately reproduce this.

The results so far are about 500 or so miles and not a drop of hydraulic fluid and function is wonderful. The question I have is there anyone on this site interested in repairing their damper with this technique? Between the machine shop and me to make it worth our while $50 for the machined parts and some o-rings would be fair. We don't expect to get rich but have enough for a fair beer fund. You can directly email me at [email protected] if you have an individual inquiry. I am seriously interested in any comments on this.

I have come up with a radio improvement that seems to rock that I will post at a later date, love tinkering with this bike.

Bill

Now thats what I like, an innovative first post.... ! welcome. Hope I dont have to call on your fix though ;-P
cheers

Thanks Bill. The radio mod sounds interesting.

Wow a reply from down under! How small the world has become due to the internet. Thank you for the compliment on my first post. The only significant place outside of the US I have ever been was Norway. Australia is one of those places I would like to visit given time and money. Time is our worst enemy. Been offered a sponsorship once to move there but didn't take it, too many ties keeping me here. One day maybe.........

Cheers, Bill

Bill. Welcome to the forum, btw.

Norway is more or less like Australia but without kangeroos, so don´t worry about it.

It´s basically a very big island inhabited by strange and inhospitable people avoiding the British judicial system, and worst of all, run by a woman, who isn´t called Sheila, with RED hair.

Mind you, she was born in the UK which makes up for it. They couldn´t find anyone from there to do the job (properly)

Is that the gal who looks like Conan O'Brien?