My experience when bleeding my clutch fluid

[Smoothride]

2003 1150RT. I recently purchased it and it was well taken care of. I decided to keep the care up so I decided to bleed the clutch fluid. The task was pretty simple. I found that I needed to buy a bleeder from the dealer and found that its the same size as the bleeder on the front brake. cost $8 bucks

 

I used Dot 4 fluid which is synthetic based and was told not to use Dot 5 due to it being Silicon based and will ruin your clutch system

 

I removed the cover on the right side and removed the plug from the bleeder port. it has a ball bearing in it so air won't get in. I screwed in the bleeder valve tight so it won't leak fluid then attached a clear tube over the tip of bleeder and then the other end went into a water bottle cutting a hole in the top so its snug.

 

Next I opened the clutch reservoir and rolled up a paper towel and dipped it into the reservoir to soak up the old fluid. It work well and no I could not find my dropper

 

I filled the reservoir with new fluid put the cap on loosely then my son pull in the clutch in while I opened the valve then closing it before he let the clutch out. After 10 pumps I topped it off and did it again for another 10. After 20 I was done and the fluid was clean. I removed the bleeder, put the bleeder cap back on then strapped the bleeder port back to the frame.

 

Done, overall the process worked well. best thing to know was the clear tubing and snug hole allowing the water bottle to fit snugly. No drips or problems.

[ESokoloff]

Good job

 

Next up is a brake bleed.

[Unhofliche_Gesundheit]

smoothride - nicely explained. you should consider a career in technical writing. :^)

[flattwin]

Nice job--now there will be no stopping you on maintenance and mod projects. Well described.

[SAAB93driver]

there was a nice write up on this sight in the FAQ section under "clutch bleed", http://bmwsporttouring.com/faq.html, with photos but the link no longer works. I seem to recall you can get a 10 mm bleeder from Napa and remove the filler gadget on the end of the bleed hose and simplify the procedure for the next time.