BMW Luxury Touring Community banner

New to K1200Lt , twist throttle revs go up

4K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  cws 
#1 ·
Hi just bought a K1200Lt love it. Not sure about when I twist the throttle to give it heaps to pass or take off it seems to die but revs go up. Its like something is slipping or retarding.
 
#2 ·
what do you mean seems to die, if you roll on the throttle in top and the revs go up your clutch is slipping.. hope you have a spare few grand lying around. :( if you are slipping the clutch to take off say from the lights then stop doing it immeadiately if the clutch over heats it will slip it is a dry clutch same as a car. the clutch lever needs to be fully out before roll on the throttle
Linton
 
#3 ·
yeates68 said:
Hi just bought a K1200Lt love it. Not sure about when I twist the throttle to give it heaps to pass or take off it seems to die but revs go up. Its like something is slipping or retarding.
I hate to say it, but it sounds like someone sold you a bike with a slipping clutch. Not the first time we've heard of that on this board.

The slipping clutch is a known issue. I've no personal experience with the problem but have read several reports on this site. Characteristic symptom is that when you open the throttle to accelerate, particularly when in high gear, the rpm's go up but the bike doesn't accelerate.

A known cause in some bikes is a leaking clutch slave cylinder which lets clutch fluid get on the clutch resulting in slipping. Others have had the rear main seal leak causing clutch slippage.

If this is the problem, too bad because the fix is to replace the clutch.

Many posts on this site about the subject, search around and you'll find plenty to read.
Darn shame if someone knowingly sold you the bike with a slipping clutch.
 
#4 ·
If you've done a clutch or torque converter in a car/truck you can do the bike yourself too. Just take patience and time. Otherwise... you can keep riding it just don't slip it from a light too much and stay off lots of right hand twist in higher gears.

Not sure how good their pricing is but: http://www.beemerboneyard.com/clutches.html I just bought some body parts for mine off them and I have to say SUPER FAST service!!!! VERY pleased.
 
#6 ·
If the "5th Gear Acceleration Test" does not indicate a slipping clutch, disregard the rest of this post.

If it turns out to be your clutch, you can do it in about a day and a half, maybe two. There are a couple of really good write-ups here on the site, and many threads of the challenges faced by those doing it, myself included.

Many of us here in the USA who have done it bought our parts from the BMW dealer in Fayetteville, AR. Great people, great service, great pricing.

You will need a few special tools to make the job easier. If you cannot find a member in OZ to loan them to you, let me know and you might borrow mine. Having BMW and Clymer's service manuals a big plus, but use the member write-ups as your road map and the BMW/Clymer's as reference material.
 
#7 ·
G'day mate, you'll get all the answers and info here, this is a fantastic forum. As you are new to the bike, there are quite a few things to learn about, 1 being the technique of getting off the line without toasting the clutch. The K12LT has what I call 'V8 Supercar syndrome'. The bike is extremely heavy and has very tall gearing in first gear. This combination makes it very easy to overheat the clutch during takeoff, so the correct technique needs to be learned in order to preserve the clutch. Plenty has been written about it here, just search though and educate yourself. If it is a slipping clutch, and you elect to fix it and keep the bike, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Ride safe.
 
#9 ·
Hi Shaun, welcome to the madhouse.
Add some more info about the bike, km's, year etc... helps those trying to help get to the bottom of things quicker.
You can burn out a clutch on these things trying to accelerate from dead stop too quickly, did mine at 16,0000km. Still on the replacement clutch now at 95,000km, although towing a big fat trailer around Oz didn't help it much.
When taking off, no more than about 2000rpm just to get it rolling to 5-10kph, as soon as it grabs and starts going then you can jam it, just not from a dead start. That'll put you about 1/2-1 sec behind where you might be if on a sportsbike.
Try the 5th gear acceleration trick when you are moving, around 50-60kph put it in 5th and open up quickly, if its slips then its likely you're up for a new clutch.
You can baby it along until its just about gone by careful application of initial acceleration, but at some point it will likely need to be changed.
No need to run around in 5th at low city speeds, just does more bad than good.
5th is really for 80kph and upwards. Mostly mine runs in 4th when commuting.
New clutch options... OEM from BMW or there's an "oil-proof" option from Siebenrock in Germany. I've got one (Siebenrock) sitting in my garage waiting for this clutch to finally give up on me.
Don't be concerned about buying and shipping stuff from the US, Beemerboneyard is very good for that. And Au$ to US$ is still favourable for buying stuff at the moment.
I believe there's a good BMW parts supplier in WA that some guys have used too IIRC.
Drop into the Aus etc forum for local stuff.

cheers
 
#10 ·
Hi, thankyou for all your advise.
The BMW K1200 LT is 2004 model and has 50 000 km on the clock. It would appear from your info that it is a clutch problem, It does do the 5th gear acceleration test in all the gears. however I purchased from a dealer and it comes with a 3 month/5000km warranty so should be able to get them to sort it. I will take it to a BMW dealer first for there opinion to have some back up.
 
#12 ·
cws said:
Hope you've dodged a bullet having the warranty. Best of luck!
+1
 
#14 ·
Shaun, make sure you have a good read of CharlieVT's posts, jzeilers posts, etc etc about the leaking slave cylinder that Charlie mentioned above.
Look down the bottom of the page for "similar threads", and do searches for "leaking slave" and "clutch slipping" and make sure you're aware of the possible replacement items depending on what they find. No point them doing a half-job then as soon as you're out of warranty it goes south on you again.
It sounds like you bought it from a non-BMW shop so you want to be well armed with your knowledge. Going to a BMW dealer first is a good step, hope it doesn't cost you $$ to get an opinion.
cheers
 
#15 ·
CharlieVT said:
I hate to say it, but it sounds like someone sold you a bike with a slipping clutch. Not the first time we've heard of that on this board.

The slipping clutch is a known issue. I've no personal experience with the problem but have read several reports on this site. Characteristic symptom is that when you open the throttle to accelerate, particularly when in high gear, the rpm's go up but the bike doesn't accelerate.

A known cause in some bikes is a leaking clutch slave cylinder which lets clutch fluid get on the clutch resulting in slipping. Others have had the rear main seal leak causing clutch slippage.

If this is the problem, too bad because the fix is to replace the clutch.

Many posts on this site about the subject, search around and you'll find plenty to read.
Darn shame if someone knowingly sold you the bike with a slipping clutch.

Ok thankyou for your help, With the clutch replacement do you put a complete kit in or just the plate because I would of thought if it was caused by an oil leak the damage would be done to anything that absorbs the oil.
 
#16 ·
yeates68 said:
Ok thankyou for your help, With the clutch replacement do you put a complete kit in or just the plate because I would of thought if it was caused by an oil leak the damage would be done to anything that absorbs the oil.
If nothing shows heat damage (blue/brown spots) then the only thing you need to replace is the friction disk, as long as everything else is cleaned completely.

When a clutch is replaced due to slave leakage, you need to also replace the front and rear input shaft seals on the transmission, as the brake fluid from the clutch leak causes them to fail soon.

Also, any time the transmission is pulled, replace the engine rear oil seal and O-ring. That O-ring is the usual cause of oil leak, as it hardens and cracks. There are VITON O-rings that will withstand the heat much better, someone here once purchased some, but I cannot remember who.
 
#17 ·
Sean, have a look through the technical files on this site, LINK

There you'll find notes listing all the replacement parts (1200LT Main Seal & Clutch Parts List) , and also a complete description of the change out (Changing a Main Seal and Clutch Slave Cylinder Guide).

Most info you'll ever need you'll find on this site... its pretty hard to come up with a new problem. The guys are very supportive and knowledgeable.
 
#18 ·
The only significant difference between the LT clutch and most other brands is that it is a dry clutch just like in a car or truck. Any motorcycle dealer should be able to verify it's a slipping clutch, no need to visit BMW first. They all (dry or wet) act the same when they start to go.
 
#19 ·
Huuuuuuuum?

Just bought it from a dealer, a dealer that didn't catch that the clutch is slipping?

Best from Tucson Arizona Mate
Bob
 
#21 ·
dshealey said:
If nothing shows heat damage (blue/brown spots) then the only thing you need to replace is the friction disk, as long as everything else is cleaned completely.

When a clutch is replaced due to slave leakage, you need to also replace the front and rear input shaft seals on the transmission, as the brake fluid from the clutch leak causes them to fail soon.

Also, any time the transmission is pulled, replace the engine rear oil seal and O-ring. That O-ring is the usual cause of oil leak, as it hardens and cracks. There are VITON O-rings that will withstand the heat much better, someone here once purchased some, but I cannot remember who.

They have replaced the oil seals and put a new clutch kit in yet the clutch still slips
 
#22 ·
yeates68 said:
They have replaced the oil seals and put a new clutch kit in yet the clutch still slips
It still may be in your technique. Try to start out by letting the clutch out slowly and do NOT exceed 1200 to 1500 RPM until the clutch is fully engaged and your hand is off the clutch lever. Then hit the gas and see how she does.
 
#23 ·
hi I rang the shop today and they have finally fixed the problem, it was the master cylinder push rod sticking and was not allowing the clutch to release completely. With all this under warranty they replaced all oil seals, put a new clutch kit in and recond the master cylinder.
 
#24 ·
Congrats, let's hope this is the last of your issues for many happy k's!
...and all under warranty... Piece of mind, hopefully.
Cheers
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top