[GHOSTRACER]

We made the 200 mile ride from Austin to Ft. Worth yesterday on our trusty Honda VTX's and rode back on a very clean 2005 K1200LT. I'm still gathering my data on this bike, but have a few quick questions:
- Is the gearbox/clutch separated from the engine crankcase? My question is in reference to my oil choice.
- is there a link to the the maintenance schedule with the specific maintenance requirements?

I'm sure that I'll have a couple hundred more questions down the road. Thanks in advance.

 

[sheldan2]

15w/50 Mobil 1 oil approx 3.7 quarts in the engine.
75/90 Mobil 1 gear oil in the transmission and final drive.
Rear tire 48 psi. Front tire 42 psi.

 

[GHOSTRACER]

15w/50 Mobil 1 oil approx 3.7 quarts in the engine.
75/90 Mobil 1 gear oil in the transmission and final drive.
Rear tire 48 psi. Front tire 42 psi.

sheldan, thanks for the quick reply. To be more specific on my oil question, can you use standard Mobil 1 oil or does it have to be the 4T? On my VTX, it was a wet clutch system and the oil was shared with the crankcase and the transmission/clutch pack, so the use of the standard Mobil 1 oil could not be used due to the anti friction additive.

 

[sheldan2]

sheldan, thanks for the quick reply. To be more specific on my oil question, can you use standard Mobil 1 oil or does it have to be the 4T? On my VTX, it was a wet clutch system and the oil was shared with the crankcase and the transmission/clutch pack, so the use of the standard Mobil 1 oil could not be used due to the anti friction additive.

Dry clutch on the LT. You don't need anything other than what I mentioned. Brake system is another can of worms.

 

[pauleknight]

LT = dry clutch (or at least pray it stays dry :histerica )

You will get 20 answers from 10 members on oil.

My .02 cents is that I have never seen an OIL related failure on any vehicle besides running low or out of oil..

Here are most of the important data from the Manual

Tire I use
ME880 120/70VB17 Front
METZELER ME880 120/70VB-17 FRONT K1200LT (110-10447)

ME880 - 160/70VB17
METZELER ME880 160/70VB-17 REAR K1200LT (110-10448)


Oil = Brand-name HD oil, API classification SF, SG or SH; suffix letters CD or CE are permitted; alternatively, brand-name HD oil of CCMC classification G4 or G5; suffix PD2 is permitted.

GearBox Oil .75 to 1 QT
Brand-name SAE 90 hypoid gear oil, API Class GL 5

Rear Wheel Oil / final drive .25 QT
Brand-name hypoid gear oil, SAE 90, API class GL 5.

Coolant - 2.6 US quarts
Antifreeze Use only nitrite-free long-term antifreeze and corrosion inhibitor.

For the quantities, check out the service manual in the HOW (Hall of Wisom)

 

[Dick]

We made the 200 mile ride from Austin to Ft. Worth yesterday on our trusty Honda VTX's and rode back on a very clean 2005 K1200LT. I'm still gathering my data on this bike, but have a few quick questions:
- Is the gearbox/clutch separated from the engine crankcase? My question is in reference to my oil choice.
- is there a link to the the maintenance schedule with the specific maintenance requirements?I'm sure that I'll have a couple hundred more questions down the road. Thanks in advance.

Hi, Doug - here is a good read in reference to your inquiry about maintenance schedules. Click here. Have fun, and yelp for help if you need it.

 

[K100Dennis]

The gearbox and clutch are indeed separate from the engine crankcase. The arrrangement is exactly the same as a conventional rear wheel drive car, i.e. dry single plate clutch with pressure plate and diaphragm spring. The main difference being that the clutch is actuated by a central rod through the gearbox input (hollow) shaft. Gearbox takes standard 80W90 gear oil to spec GL5, about 850 mls (up to the bottom of the filler plug threads.

 

[LTFan]

The service at a dealership can be pricey for the BMW. Get a cylmers manual or service DVD's and use the specs specified there. I also hope the OEM manuals were available when you got the bike. Use a combination of the manuals and the information on this site and you should have a very good riding experience.

 

[pauleknight]

The service at a dealership can be pricey for the BMW. Get a cylmers manual or service DVD's and use the specs specified there. I also hope the OEM manuals were available when you got the bike. Use a combination of the manuals and the information on this site and you should have a very good riding experience.

+1

The basic self maintenance on the LT as on most BMW bikes are simple.

The few things I have the dealer do is a brake flush, since no brakes would be a REALLY bad thing

 

[GHOSTRACER]

Thanks to all. I plan on doing most, if not all my own maintenance as I'm a pretty good wrench. I've been looking at all the options on service manuals and I see there are a couple of choices. I usually go for the OEM, but what are the recomendations?

 

[blueknightga6]

Here's a tip my dealer gave me for doing your own oil change. Fill the filter with oil and then install it. Then put 3 quarts in the crankcase. This prevents overfilling. He recommends it as they've had few come in overfilled because the owner couldn't see the clean oil in the sight glass and kept adding more.

 

[Retread]

Here's a tip my dealer gave me for doing your own oil change. Fill the filter with oil and then install it. Then put 3 quarts in the crankcase. This prevents overfilling. He recommends it as they've had few come in overfilled because the owner couldn't see the clean oil in the sight glass and kept adding more.

Great tip. Just about to change the oil in mine again. It is a pain to see the clean oil in the glass.

 

[K100Dennis]

This may sound anal, but a point on lube hygeine here - I always fill the oil filter, then I place a clean cover over the exposed filter top. Keep the cover in place till the filter is directly under the hole in the crankcase, then remove the cover and screw on the filter. This prevents any crud from getting into the filter during installation. Especially important if the crud happens to fall into the centre section of the filter as that's the "clean" side and from there its straight into the crankshaft bearings, not good.

 

[BecketMa]

I refer to the BMW CD quite a lot. I also get on line and look at exploded parts diagrams.

This site has a wealth of information on just about everything you'll ever neede to do, or want to do to your LT.

Thatks to a few select people, and those that got this site running, you have access to 12 years of cumulative knowledge about our Light Tank.

Best from Tucson
Bob.

 

[BecketMa]

I thought you good folks down under had to worry about the oil flowing from down under the bike towards where it screws in?

Or. Do you have to protect it like that from the Tasmanian Devils?

Cheers from Tucspn
Bob