[hmmmm90s]

Looking for advice and assistance from the collected wisdom of the board.

After several years of less-than-intense usage, my LT has been racking up miles again, and in the stunning heat that has been thrown at the MidAtlantic states. I'd been doing 100% virtual work for the last 12 years, and thanks to an unplanned and non-optional 'retirement' (long story), I've been doing a great deal of riding to try and find a new job.

Apparently, the bike didn't like it. :-(

After returning from Carlisle, PA on Friday I found oil under the head side of the bike. After burping the tupperware, I found oil at both lower corners of the valve cover, and on further inspection, fouled throttlebodies indicating the steekin' crank breather has also taken a dump. Perfect timing, of course - no job, no income, and this bike is my primary transporation for rebooting the whole micro economy.

So I have a few questions.

Will just putting the fairings back on and whisteling dixie -- i.e just letting it leak -- hurt anything other than my pride of ownership?

Second, IF my terminal anal retentive qualities won't permit this, help me make sure i understand the job and the required parts, as I cetrtainly won't be able to pay someone else to do this.

The Valve cover seems pretty straightforward - I'll need the gasket, the rubber bushings that the cover bolts run through and some black hi temp selant for the half moons and the joint at the timing cover. Clean up, replace and let cure for a day.

The breather, on the other hand, looks to be a major pain. Looking at the parts diagrams isn't really instructive - its shows an assembly labelled 'distribution hose' - PN 11151465009 that appears to include both halves of the breather and all of the clamps etc -- am I reading this right or do i need to order clamps etc in addition?

Does anyone have any pointers on what to use to clean up everthing before disassembling -- brake cleaner and rags? -- and any gotcha's about how to get everything back together properly? From other posts it looks like losening the entire FI assembly from the head, sliding it out of the rubber sleeves and then unclamping, removing and replacing the breather, then reassembling is the what of it.

Is is possible to do this without pulling the front suspension? Sombody mentioned using medical forceps or really long nosse pliers is a way of working around the 'my steenking fingers won't fit in there' problem.

I apprecaiate any and all assistance to help me fully understand this job before hitting the point of no return. And if any Baltimore/Washington area guys have done this before, and think this is their idea of a good time, I may not have a paycheck, but the mancave fridge is still full of the good stuff. ;-)

Thanx

 

[jzeiler]

I just use Castol Super Clean degreaser and water. The valve cover is a common leak area if the sealant was not applied correctly. Easy fix - reuse the $40 gasket after you clean it up.

The breather hose is fun. Good article in the MOA rag on how to replace it. Take lots of pictures before you rip the fuel rail and throttle bodies off (it will help greatly when putting it all back together). 11 15 1 465 009 is every thing you need as you can re-use the one clamp at the engine port.

 

[amarider]

I was able to replace the breather with only separating the throttle bodies and leaning them out of the way, leaving the injector rail on.
It's a pain and takes a lot of time but can be done.

 

[saddleman]

On the breather hose the clamps can be reused just pull the hose off the throttle body with the clamps still on & reinstall the same way. To save money on the hose clean it with lacquer thinner or acetone & force O2 safe silicone into the cracks & leave a little on top of them. Let it cure for at least 24 hours before you reinstall it on the throttle body. I still have my original hose at 165,000 miles.

 

[hmmmm90s]

I just use Castol Super Clean degreaser and water. The valve cover is a common leak area if the sealant was not applied correctly. Easy fix - reuse the $40 gasket after you clean it up.

The breather hose is fun. Good article in the MOA rag on how to replace it. Take lots of pictures before you rip the fuel rail and throttle bodies off (it will help greatly when putting it all back together). 11 15 1 465 009 is every thing you need as you can re-use the one clamp at the engine port.

I'm not an MOA member.

Is Paul Glaves the author? Paul is a friend who would no doubt provide original copy.

If not, Is there some whay I can pick up the text of the article?

 

[saddleman]

I'm not an MOA member.

Is Paul Glaves the author? Paul is a friend who would no doubt provide original copy.

If not, Is there some whay I can pick up the text of the article?

The article should be online & it was not Paul Glaves. I think it was last months mag. The one thing I don't agree with the article is the need to replace the 4 small OEM clamps.

 

[johnbaker15]

The article really isn't a step by step replacement article, it covers major items and tells you to take lots of photos to document the removal.

They didn't take Dave's advice and chopped the old one off and replaced it with a new part.

 

[hmmmm90s]

I'm afraid I didn't take Daves advise either -- as much as I'd have like to keep the 75 in my pocket, I ordered the part before his post. :-(

It DOES bother me, though, that this part seems to be as failure prone (100%?) as it seems to be. Does anyone think there's a way to reinforce the 60 degree joint that always fails on the new part before installation?

Coat the outside of the joint with hitemp silicone?

Find some sort of metallic high temperature tape and wrap the joint?

Safety wire?

You'd think that with the reprts of field failures, BMW would have redesigned this part, woundt'cha?

 

[jzeiler]

Hmmmm... Lets see a 12 year old rubber part exposed to high heat and oil vapors and it is failure prone??? There was a member here that designed a replacement that he built but no one seemed interested. Looked like it would last forever. Maybe he will chime in again with his soultion.

 

[hmmmm90s]

Upon further inspection....i got a good news/bad news think going on.

With all of the bodywork off and better light, one can clearly see oil trails on my engine cases, both on the head side and on the crankcase side.

To me, this clearly indicates that the oil i saw at the valve cover gasket corners wasn't COMING from there, but was ENDING up there -- i.e. the oil leak was coming from the blown breather on the top of the engine and dripping down both side of the engine.

Net/net -- looks like i only have to fix the breather - the valve cover gasket, which hasn't been off in 50k miles -- is very likely just fine.

As for whether this thing should fail or not -- my 1973 and 1975s have their original factory breathers, and those are INSIDE the engine cases. Its not like the engineers didn't know - after 17 years, that the top of a K motor is hot. ;-) sorry -- seems they all fail in exactly the same place, when used as intended. They should have used a metal joint, at very least. This is a deficient design.

 

[BecketMa]

Glad to see it's less work than anticipated.

One other item to watch on the early LTs is the rubber brake lines. Many times a line will spring a leak. When one on my 00 let go I wound up ordering some pre mades. I remember seeing posts from people who brought their lines to a local place that made replacements for less than the proce I paid for pre mades.

Best from tucson
Bob

 

[hmmmm90s]

Well, a friend of mine once told me that once the rider is older than 50 years of age, a service lift might be a good idea.

He may have had a point.

I dove into this job friday and was wrapped up by last night.

I can truthfully say that the most valuable tool for the whole job was an old spark plug boot puller that allowed me to thread the breather on in that little space where my hands would not fit.

That and the luck that had my little parts organizer spit out a set of four fuel injection clamps of the right size to clamp the breather back on to the throole bodies after the BMW 'kit' DIDN'T have the four small oetiker clamps that were supposed to be in there.

Its all back together -- it started without exploding, and there don't appear to ba any major fuel or oil leaks after sugery. Still -- I'm going to run around for a few days without the belly pan just to keep an eye on things before closing everything back up, just in case I end up having to do the valve cover after all.

All in all, while it was apart i changed brake and clutch fluids, lubed and adjusted the shift linkage, and changed my air filter, while I was in there. ;-)

Thanks to everyone for their knowledge and assistance. And that goes double for the help on the Ohlins preload adjuster that I refilled just before this happened . FWIW one can just back the Ohlins preload adjuster off all the way remove it from the line and just refill the preload adjusted from where the line connects. Worked like a champ.

Thanks all!