Timing Cover Repaint

[Easyrider5258 (Mark)]

My 3 year old R1200rt timing cover was flaking paint, BMW would do a replacement cover,under waranty but as its the same finish, the problem will re-occur, so what follows is a pictorial sequence showing my effort to get a more "durable" repair

 

 

Its been reported on other forums that this foam pad causes some of the problem and is recomended that its discarded as it holds moisture

 

cleaned up a bit

Paint stripper and rotory wire brush removed the last of the paint

 

Etch primer provides a better "key" to the bare aluminum surface

 

 

 

 

Finished result, final coat is Simoniz Satin Tough Black, am now waiting for some A4 marine grade stainless bolts ,The bikes having a "major service" with all Oils, plugs,filters and a brake fluid change so its an ideal oppotunity to carry out this sort of cosmetic work.

[A-Red Bill]

Very sharp!. What paint brand paint system did you use?

[notacop]

Nasty cottage cheese there. What did you chemically cut the crap with or just do a scrape job?

Seems you did a good job on the repaint though. No one will ever know unless you tell them!

[Easyrider5258 (Mark)]

Very sharp!. What paint brand paint system did you use?

 

Wurth etch Primer and Simoniz "Tough Satin Black" top-coat, I used paint stripper (carefuly and with a small brush) to remove all the remains of the original factory finish, followed by wet and dry sanding to key the alloy case

[Albion]

As I understand it, it is not a good engineering practise to put stainless steel bolts into alloy.

This is due to thread galling, where the fastener sort of welds itself into the threads. A Google search will provide lots more info.

It happens! I needed to remove the front mudguard, which is secured to the forks with stainless screw. Tried to undo, but wound the head right off the screws on the left and the right, leaving the sheared screw in place, so I wound up drilling out and tapping to a bigger size, M6. Installed new bolts with a marine PTFE grease Tef-Gel (www.tefgel.com). Expensive, but if I believe their propaganda, should do the trick and prevent a recurrence.

 

Irritating though, as I could not find any matching torx headed screws, so had to use hex.

 

But using stainless fasteners in this way does seem a design error by BMW.

 

Maybe my problem was exacerbated by the fact that the English roads are treated with rock salt in winter, and this has an unhappy knack of corroding all the original fasteners: I am just in the process of replacing them all on a 2 year old machine to keep the machine looking good.

 

My RT's original timing cover was replaced at 18 months due to the corrosion problems you describe, and it seemed to me the corrosion started where the original plated steel fasteners were used.

 

I tell myself that none of us should have to worry about such matters on what is supposedly a top marque, surely good engineering design for longevity should come as standard throughout.

[Semper_Fi]

Easyrider - nice work - question could this have been done without ripping of the front end?

 

Good color choice - sharp.

 

Luis

[Easyrider5258 (Mark)]

Easyrider - nice work - question could this have been done without ripping of the front end?

 

Good color choice - sharp.

 

Luis

 

Yes, Its possible, (the whole front end was not removed, just the front wheel and mudgaurd), I, doing a major service on the bike plus other cosmetic work (Like the Front fork repaint) it may be wise to wait till you have other work to do and do it all at once, acess is certinaly improved with the exhaust system off.

[Easyrider5258 (Mark)]

As I understand it, it is not a good engineering practise to put stainless steel bolts into alloy.

This is due to thread galling, where the fastener sort of welds itself into the threads. A Google search will provide lots more info.

It happens! I needed to remove the front mudguard, which is secured to the forks with stainless screw. Tried to undo, but wound the head right off the screws on the left and the right, leaving the sheared screw in place, so I wound up drilling out and tapping to a bigger size, M6. Installed new bolts with a marine PTFE grease Tef-Gel (www.tefgel.com). Expensive, but if I believe their propaganda, should do the trick and prevent a recurrence.

 

Irritating though, as I could not find any matching torx headed screws, so had to use hex.

 

But using stainless fasteners in this way does seem a design error by BMW.

 

Maybe my problem was exacerbated by the fact that the English roads are treated with rock salt in winter, and this has an unhappy knack of corroding all the original fasteners: I am just in the process of replacing them all on a 2 year old machine to keep the machine looking good.

 

My RT's original timing cover was replaced at 18 months due to the corrosion problems you describe, and it seemed to me the corrosion started where the original plated steel fasteners were used.

 

I tell myself that none of us should have to worry about such matters on what is supposedly a top marque, surely good engineering design for longevity should come as standard throughout.

 

I agree, with the stainless corrosion issue, I,m using Alumslip (From Molyslip) when reassembling stainless into alloy, I also had the lower mudgaurd bolts shear, and I drilled them out and replaced them,It dos`nt help that the mudgaurd lower bolt holes are open (Straight Through) to the elements, I would recommend these are removed and lubricated with one of the above mentioned anti galling products from new !

[Semper_Fi]

Thanks for the clarification - from the pictures it looked like more was removed.

 

Luis

[Don_Eilenberger]

As I understand it, it is not a good engineering practise to put stainless steel bolts into alloy.

This is due to thread galling, where the fastener sort of welds itself into the threads. A Google search will provide lots more info.

Antiseize should prevent this - but requires adjusting your torque settings way downwards to make up for the lowered friction.

It happens! I needed to remove the front mudguard, which is secured to the forks with stainless screw. Tried to undo, but wound the head right off the screws on the left and the right, leaving the sheared screw in place, so I wound up drilling out and tapping to a bigger size, M6. Installed new bolts with a marine PTFE grease Tef-Gel (www.tefgel.com). Expensive, but if I believe their propaganda, should do the trick and prevent a recurrence.

Should work fine. When I owned sailboats, I found stainless bolts into aluminum (mast fittings) would rather quickly weld themselves in place due to galvanic action (made worse by the salt laden air). The aluminum around the bolt would turn white and bond to the stainless. Using simple silicone-grease on the bolts completely eliminated this problem. Bolts/screws could be removed years later as easily as they were put in.. no oxygen in the joint to allow the galvanic electrolysis to start. I also had a PTFE grease that I used in some applications that seemed to work equally as well (I suspect it had a silicone base grease.. with PTFE particles suspended in it. Still have that tube of grease actually, and have used it on motorcycle parts.)

Irritating though, as I could not find any matching torx headed screws, so had to use hex.

 

But using stainless fasteners in this way does seem a design error by BMW.

 

Maybe my problem was exacerbated by the fact that the English roads are treated with rock salt in winter, and this has an unhappy knack of corroding all the original fasteners: I am just in the process of replacing them all on a 2 year old machine to keep the machine looking good.

 

My RT's original timing cover was replaced at 18 months due to the corrosion problems you describe, and it seemed to me the corrosion started where the original plated steel fasteners were used.

 

I tell myself that none of us should have to worry about such matters on what is supposedly a top marque, surely good engineering design for longevity should come as standard throughout.

I have found almost all the screws on my '07 R1200R where dissimular metals are used have some antisieze on them from the factory.. so I suspect BMW has addressed this problem to at least some degree.