Windscreen failure ( gears ?)

[becmat]

Hopefully I am not the only one that this has happened to ?

The windshield just collapsed against the stop and will not respond when the button is depressed. I manually raised the shield and it just returns to the down most position. I suspected the gears were toast and I was advised that is in fact the problem.

Has anyone ever repaired this problem? I can use some advise. I am basically a fair mechanic, is this something I should try to fix or should I just bite the bullet and have the dealer do it? The estimate from the dealer was enough to make you wince, since the gears (plastic) are not that much.

Any suggestions, experiences or words of wisdom?? will be greatly appreciated.

Mat

[Uggles]

Sounds a bit wierd. On the '03 the windshield is sprung to assist the motor raise itself. In other words if the gears were toast the shield should stay in the upright position at standstill.

Is the motor turning when you push the button?

You may have a switch that is trying to lower the shield permanently. You may be able to raise the shield but as soon as the electrical stop on the motor is passed the motor will pull it back down. Check your switch operation first.

It's no biggy to pull the shield off then the top cover to see what is going on. If you do and decide to pull the cover off the gearbox, watch out for the spring action on the driven shaft!!!

Cheers,

[Yeeha! Stephen]

There was a post on here a looooong time ago about someone who had the gear strip on the motor shaft, not the actual teeth. When they found out how much the real deal repair was... out came the JB Weld.

Claimed it worked really well.

[becmat]

I think it is worth a look see anyway. My bike is an 04 Rt. and the mechanic said he could hear the gears inside the mechanasm, so I just assumed that he knew what he was talking about. If it is as bad as he says it is it should be evident when I get inside the housing, If not then I may try to fix it myself. If I can't then I will take it to them to repair.

Thanks for the advise and info.

 

Mat

[Ken H.]

The motor gear mechanism is pretty reliable, but still, stuff happens. I too would suspect something has stripped internally in it.

 

The front faring/nose has to come off to get to it of course, but it is pretty straight forward. The ass'y should be readily available in the used/salvage market because as mentioned, there isn't a lot of failures of them. So a wrecked RT should have a good one.

[DavidEBSmith]

It's possible that the cover over the worm gear has come loose, allowing the gears to separate. That would fit your symptoms.

 

If it is a stripped gear, BMW now lists all the parts for the windshield mechanism separately (formerly you could only get the base carrier or the whole mechanism). The actuator is the only outrageously expensive part in it, so if the motor is turning and turning the little drive wheel, the repair shouldn't be too bad.