[Voyager]

Well, I am about 1/3 done on my first 24K maintenance. Here are a few observations in no particular order:

1. Having taken off the tupperware a few times now helped a lot. I had the bike pretty well stripped in less than 1.5 hours.

2. Bleeding the brakes took me nearly 6 hours this first time. This included making up the spacer blocks and so forth and just being very deliberate not having done it before. I think I can probably do the job in a couple of hours next time.

3. The air filter was easy to replace once the tank is off. However, the filter that came out looked like new after 5 years and 27,000 miles. I will definitely not be in a big hurry to change the filter next time, although probably have to pull the tank at 48,000 for other reasons, but maybe not if I can do the valve check and coolant with the tank in place.

4. Have to get a strap wrench to get the fuel pump assembly out so I can change the fuel filter. I am guessing that this job can be done much less frequently than 24K miles. My cars go 100K on their fuel filters with no problem and they flow a lot more fuel in those miles than does the LT. I can't believe BMW has the fuel pump come out the bottom of the tank. Most cars I have seem have it come out the top and this would have greatly eased servicing on the LT. I sure hope I can find a strap wrench that will loosen the plastic collar.

5. The Clymer manual talks about greasing the side stand bushing with a grease gun, but I haven't seen a zerk fitting. Is there one there that is just hard to see? Or does the stand need to be removed to properly grease the bushing? It looks like removing those springs and replacing them could be a real pain!

6. Same for the centerstand, is there a grease fitting? Or is disassembly required?

Now on to the coolant change, valve check, and spark plugs. I had not planned to remove the airbox, but the bike has had an off-idle hesitation for the last year that I have been unable to find. I thought it was the canister, but I disconnected that last year to no avail. My leading theory is the crappy ethanol poisoned gas we have, but I am wondering if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. However, the idle isn't all that unstable so I am not sure it is a vacuum leak. Maybe O2 or some other sensor, but don't yet have a GS-911 yet to check.

 

[rattler50]

The fitting for greasing the side stand is a small hole and it requires a grease gun like the one I use to grease the anvil in my air wrenches. It has a sharp snout on it and you pump it into the little hole. It took me a while to figure that one out. I'm not sure about the center stand............

 

[jzeiler]

Center stand has o-rings on the pucks so you must take it apart to clean and lube. Bolts (with some heat for the blue Lottie) come out and then pry the pucks out with the circlip. Why BMW only gave you one I'll never know. Usually once one is out the other can be wriggled out with the stand.

Oh and let's agree that what you did with the brakes was "flush" and not a "bleed". Two different operations.

 

[Voyager]

Center stand has o-rings on the pucks so you must take it apart to clean and lube. Bolts (with some heat for the blue Lottie) come out and then pry the pucks out with the circlip. Why BMW only gave you one I'll never know. Usually once one is out the other can be wriggled out with the stand.

Oh and let's agree that what you did with the brakes was "flush" and not a "bleed". Two different operations.

Yes, I flushed the brakes using the bleeding procedure!

I am still perplexed somewhat as I got a fair number of bubbles out of the rear control circuit when I flushed through the first port. I did the other two ports in the prescribed sequence and then came back to the first port for the prescribed second "bleed" and got a couple more bubbles and then after 5 pumps with no bubbles I called it done.

I don't see anyway that air should have gotten into that circuit and the rear brakes had been working fine, so that baffles me a little.

Hopefully, when things are reassembled the ABS will pass the self-test!

 

[jzeiler]

I have always seen tiny bubbles in the control circuits. I believe they leak in at the base of the bleed nipples. You may have actually had some air in there, thus a "bleed" was appropriate.

 

[LTFan]

I am about to start the 24k service this week. Do you have a list of all tools you used to perform the service?

Amit.

 

[LittleJoe]

I have come to think that BMW purposely built this bike with maintenance requirements and schedules designed to line the pockets of the service dept.
We are not supposed to maintain these bikes ourselves, we are supposed to deposit insane amounts of $ for rediculously time consuming proceedures.

BUT as I was informed by a long time BMW rider. The K12000LT was the most expensive bike the company ever made when it first came out and the costs would never be recouped on the retail sale alone. Not sure on validity of this statement, but it does make some sense when you look at the big picture.

I personally know of a person who was charged 1600.00 to flush the brake fluid on a 2005 LT by a dealer in Miami. He thought this was normal!! I was speachless.

 

[powwow]

Well, I am about 1/3 done on my first 24K maintenance. Here are a few observations in no particular order:

1. Having taken off the tupperware a few times now helped a lot. I had the bike pretty well stripped in less than 1.5 hours.

2. Bleeding the brakes took me nearly 6 hours this first time. This included making up the spacer blocks and so forth and just being very deliberate not having done it before. I think I can probably do the job in a couple of hours next time.

3. The air filter was easy to replace once the tank is off. However, the filter that came out looked like new after 5 years and 27,000 miles. I will definitely not be in a big hurry to change the filter next time, although probably have to pull the tank at 48,000 for other reasons, but maybe not if I can do the valve check and coolant with the tank in place.

4. Have to get a strap wrench to get the fuel pump assembly out so I can change the fuel filter. I am guessing that this job can be done much less frequently than 24K miles. My cars go 100K on their fuel filters with no problem and they flow a lot more fuel in those miles than does the LT. I can't believe BMW has the fuel pump come out the bottom of the tank. Most cars I have seem have it come out the top and this would have greatly eased servicing on the LT. I sure hope I can find a strap wrench that will loosen the plastic collar.

5. The Clymer manual talks about greasing the side stand bushing with a grease gun, but I haven't seen a zerk fitting. Is there one there that is just hard to see? Or does the stand need to be removed to properly grease the bushing? It looks like removing those springs and replacing them could be a real pain!

6. Same for the centerstand, is there a grease fitting? Or is disassembly required?

Now on to the coolant change, valve check, and spark plugs. I had not planned to remove the airbox, but the bike has had an off-idle hesitation for the last year that I have been unable to find. I thought it was the canister, but I disconnected that last year to no avail. My leading theory is the crappy ethanol poisoned gas we have, but I am wondering if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. However, the idle isn't all that unstable so I am not sure it is a vacuum leak. Maybe O2 or some other sensor, but don't yet have a GS-911 yet to check.

FYI...I was able to use large channel lock pliers to remove the fuel pump lock collar.

 

[printman]

heck I was charge $800.00 for the 12k maintenence in miami

 

[printman]

so I did it myself see video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0HpmspTgw

 

[Cochinosucio]

I had not planned to remove the airbox, but the bike has had an off-idle hesitation for the last year that I have been unable to find. I thought it was the canister, but I disconnected that last year to no avail. My leading theory is the crappy ethanol poisoned gas we have, but I am wondering if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. However, the idle isn't all that unstable so I am not sure it is a vacuum leak. Maybe O2 or some other sensor, but don't yet have a GS-911 yet to check.

Make sure you run LUCAS fuel injector treatment every tank for 1K miles....I do that at least once a year. You never know how dirty the gas is that you are getting....
OR....
Did you unplug the airbox temp sensor? OR if do you have the infamous "BROWN WIRE" cut?

 

[printman]

bike has had an off-idle hesitation for the last year that I have been unable to find. I thought it was the canister, but I disconnected that last year to no avail. My leading theory is the crappy ethanol poisoned gas we have, but I am wondering if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. However, the idle isn't all that unstable so I am not sure it is a vacuum leak. Maybe O2 or some other sensor, but don't yet have a GS-911 yet to check.

make sure if you remove the canister remove all lines and plug each throttle port with a tight plug so they dont have air leak

 

[Voyager]

I am about to start the 24k service this week. Do you have a list of all tools you used to perform the service?

Amit.

I found this very helpful.

http://advwisdom.hogranch.com/Wisdom/service_abs3.pdf

Matt

 

[Voyager]

I found this very helpful.

http://advwisdom.hogranch.com/Wisdom/service_abs3.pdf

Matt

Well, I didn't luck out on the valve clearance check. Several buckets need to be changed. I have read the procedure in both the Clymer manual and BMW CD. It looks fairly straightforward, but I am not 100% sure on how to know that the cam chain tensioner pin is installed correctly. Is anyone aware of a video that shows camshaft removal on the K1200 engine that might show how this pin is installed correctly?

 

[Cochinosucio]

Well, I didn't luck out on the valve clearance check. Several buckets need to be changed. I have read the procedure in both the Clymer manual and BMW CD. It looks fairly straightforward, but I am not 100% sure on how to know that the cam chain tensioner pin is installed correctly. Is anyone aware of a video that shows camshaft removal on the K1200 engine that might show how this pin is installed correctly?

Here is a GREAT write up.... Check out half way down the page for pin picture..
http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/k1200rs/valves/index.html

 

[Voyager]

Here is a GREAT write up.... Check out half way down the page for pin picture..
http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/k1200rs/valves/index.html

Thanks. Well, I turned the engine over several times and the bike has been sitting for over a week, but I am still pretty sure that I didn't get the drill bit in correctly. When I pulled off the bottom sprocket, I felt the chain pull inward noticeably. So, I expect it to be a real battle putting things back together, butno use worrying about that now. I am hoping that I can depress the guide with something that won't cause damage and get the drill bit positioned correctly before I try to slip the sprockets back onto the cams. The tie wraps seem to be holding well, so hopefully I just need to get the tensioner depressed.

The bad news is that my valve inspection has become a valve adjustment as several of the intakes are out of spec on the low side and a couple of the exhausts are at the limit. I believe the buckets are identical for intake and exhaust, correct?

I recall people trading buckets here in the past, but I admit to not paying close attention since I had not yet come to that point. Well, the time has arrived. Is there a particular place here to post the buckets that one has extra and the ones needed? I need one 2.700 and three 2.750 buckets and I have two 2.850 and two 2.900 available.

I worked up a spreadsheet that automatically calculates the shims that are needed and then lists how many you have extra and how many you need by size. I am not sure if there is a place to upload that here or if someone has already done something similar, but I will email my spreadsheet to anyone who wants it. It has a few niceties such as conditional formatting to highlight valves in yellow that are at the spec limit and in red all that are out of spec. And a couple of other things like that if anyone is interested.

 

[Voyager]

Buckets are on order from Bob's, but will be a week or more since they had to order two of them from "the warehouse."

Bled the clutch today and that was easy once the grub scew fitting was removed. I thought at first that the hex drive plug in the end of the grub screw fitting could be removed and the bleeder installed there, but the bleeder screw I have was too long and hit the little check ball before the threads engaged. So I had to remove the entire fitting. That came out hard even with a good shot from the heat gun to soften the loctite. Not sure why that fitting is loctited, but it is. I had planned to leave the bleed screw in there and not put the grub screw back in, but again the bleeder screw has too long a snout and only engages a couple of threads. It was enough to bleed with, but I wouldn't dare put any appreciable torque on it as I expect it would strip instantly. I am going to try to find a different bleeder screw. Have most of your left the bleeder screw in or put the grub screw fitting back onto the host?

I also drained the coolant. I was going to remove the hose as others have suggested here, but since both BMW and Clymer's recommend removing the sensor I decided to take a look at that. The hardest part was getting the electrical connector loose, but that wasn't too bad. The brass sensor fitting looked pretty robust and had no corrosion visible so I put a socket on it and it broke loose easily. The threads are clean and the copper washer in good shape so I see no need to loosen a hose as this was a piece of cake. The coolant looked brand new after 3 years.

I then went to remove the overflow tank per BMW and Clymer instructions, but I can see no way to get it out of there without removing the left saddlebag, though neither manual mentions a need to remove that. Has anyone found a way to remove that tank with the saddlebag in place? I ended up just filling it full of hot water several times and then lowering the hose to siphon the water out. It cleaned up nicely so I don't see a need to remove the tank to flush it any more thoroughly, although I do like to clean the outside good when working on my cars. However, it isn't worth pulling the saddlebag just to clean up the exterior of tank.