R1100 / 1150 Clutch Access on bikes with ABS

[Alan Sykes]

Just having done two clutch jobs on boxers this last week, I thought I'd write up a Step-By-Step before my old noddle forgot what I did.

I'd searched the web for How-To videos for this job, but the only really authoritative and detailed project is the famous and thankfully now revitalised and relocated Chris Harris doing the job on a cable-operated clutch, where the process of tear-down prior to pulling back the complete tranny as a unit, is slightly different to that required for a hydraulically-actuated clutch bike with ABS.

 

Any comments / pointing out things I forgot, would be most welcome from those who really know...

 

Maybe the tome could be of help for someone contemplating tearing into their bike to examine / refurb the clutch and its hydraulic actuation.

 

Best wishes from a still-sunny November Andalusia.

AL

 

 

"BMW R1150 with ABS – Clutch Access Procedure

 

Bike on its side stand – crack the rear wheel's 4 lug-nuts. They're Charles Atlas tight at 105Nm dry.

Bike on its Center Stand – strap it firmly with a cam-lock to the front wheel; bike can't roll off it.

Remove seats and gas tank, along with right-side injector cover held by one forward bolt.

 

Remove battery – negative connector first. Remove the two 10mm washers and nuts in the dished cavities in the bottom of the battery holder.

Remove Diagnostic Plug and Air Temperature Sensor Plug, both clipped to Air Box Lid, then remove the Lid, Air Inlet Snorkel, and Air Filter.

 

Remove silencer / muffler ( rotted pipe-clamps ? ) and left-hand saddlebag frame if fitted.

 

Follow Oxygen Sensor cable from Cat / Y-pipe up to its connector plug near the ABS unit and unplug. Note the cable routing and from now on, take Very Big Close-Up photographs of everything. Or you'll forget what goes where when you come to re-assemble the bike.

 

Remove rear brake caliper with hugger / mud splash guard if fitted.

Remove rear wheel. You already cracked those 4 extremely-tight lug bolts, didn't you ?

 

Follow the ABS Cable on the Final Drive up towards to its connector and unplug. Tthere is absolutely no need to remove the sensor unit with its hooked spacers attached to the Final Drive.

Identify the (2) thin cable(s) – stop-light ( and speedometer ) – then snip the(ir) zipties and undo the(ir) connector(s) on the rear frame's top rail on the right-hand-side of the bike.

 

Remove the 3 foot-peg assembly fixing bolts each side of the bike and zip-tie them up. No need to undo gear-shift linkage. Do not disturb ABS pipework on rear brake cylinder.

 

Struggle to remove the 14mm nut and 15mm bolt that fixes the top bush of the shock absorber gas strut & spring unit. Might need to remove any seat-height adjuster kits. Then remove lower shock bolt whilst supporting the swing-arm with a jack. Don't let it fall and cut into the large rubber boot where the shaft unit joins the gearbox.. Remove suspension adjuster hand-wheel unit and lift shocker away and out. It's quite heavy.

 

Now the Air Box Removal Procedure – which is not easy.

 

Remove the two screws, one each side, hidden behind the cables just above the Telelever pivot.

And don't forget the top-rear-edge single screw inside the Air Box.

There is no need to remove the Injector Unit assemblies on each cylinder, because the gas lines which incorporate the Gas Pressure Regulator can be de-grommeted from their slot at each side of the top front edge of the Air-Box when it is removed in a few minutes from now. The right-side slot holds a triple composite grommet and the left side slot has a single grommet. Ne perdez pas.

 

Loosen the stainless-steel clamps at each end of the Air Box Inlet Tubes and struggle to slide them both back into the Air Box, taking care not to damage the thin rubber-ring seal next to the throttle body on each side of the bike. If that ring is slack, an hour in the freezer brings it back to its senses. Snip off the BMW single-use hose clamp securing the Crankcase Fumes Vent Hose attached to the right-hand side of the Air Box at its top front edge. Pull the hose off its stub. You need a Jubilee Clip when re-fitting.

Next, the need to raise the rear frame by pivoting it upwards.

Just above each cylinder, a long transverse bolt has a nut on each end. JUST LOOSEN these two nuts, do not remove them. Just below, is the frame's forward fixing bolt on each side – very tight indeed, usually factory-thread-locked – remove both. One or other of these may be used to attach the crash-bars if fitted. If so, a very long socket extension is needed.

 

The ABS twin-pipes leading to the rear brake are perhaps held to the gearbox on the right-hand side by a plastic double clamp with a single fixing bolt. Remove and store these carefully.

 

Remove the Starter Motor – no need to disconnect its cables. Cut the zip-tie surrounding it and note the routing of the cables behind it. To avoid trapping them elsewhere on re-assembly.

 

Remove the hidden forward-facing bolt holding the end of the ABS pipe banjo just above the rear brake master cylinder bolt. ( Remove any forward-facing frame-securing bolt near this )

 

Connect a very strong bike-hold-down cam-lock strap between the headstock and the tail. Now the dexterous multi-taskers among us can gradually raise the tail by lifting the top-box frame or passenger grab-handles, at the same time adjusting and tightening in stages the cam-lock strap. . Whilst doing so, VERY carefully watch out for and clear away any dangling and interfering wires and tubing. See what I mean by multi-taskering. Snip any zip-ties – BMW loves ‘em !

When the tail is as high as an elephant's eye – 45 or 60 degrees - latch the cam-lock strap securely and check it won't slip.

 

Now remove the Air-Box, untangling it from wires and tubing as you drop it down and back.

 

Remove the two forward-facing screws securing the rear-frame-stiffening crossbar and withdraw it from the RIGHT HAND SIDE – to reveal the Clutch Slave Cylinder and its 3 fixing bolts, only torqued to 7 Nm. On a bike with more than 20K miles on the clock, this item and its hose leading to the clutch lever must be renewed, along with the viton oil-seal hidden deep inside the Slave Cylinder cavity at the back of the gearbox. Seal-picks and an hour's fight are needed if the OEM seal is shot.

 

After removing the Slave Cylinder and undoing its 2 banjos – new alloy 6mm crush washers are needed with the new unit – it's as well now to take the short bleeder hose to the bench vise, clamp the hose just below the black end-fitting - “Werkstück” - heat it gently to soften the factory-applied thread-locker, continuously checking that the plastic hose fitment below stays cool, and replace the Werkstück” with a Speed Bleeder – size : 10mm by one.

 

Next step is to split the gearbox / transmission / final drive as a single unit away from the bike's motor crankcase.

 

But first, withdraw the Clutch Actuation Rod backwards from inside the Slave Cylinder Cavity. If that rod is bent as the transmission is withdrawn from the crankcase, a new rod costs $40 !

 

Now let's ask ourselves, which Teutonic [censored]wit designed and planned the wiring route running from the Gear Shift Indicator clipped to the back of the gearbox underneath the slave cylinder, along to its connecting plug ? Holy shit, even if you squeeze the two spring prongs holding the indicator in place, so as to free it from the casting, the fecking indicator WON'T come out of the hole that its wires run through in the gearbox casting. So you have to unplug the wire at its connector hidden up there behind the thick loom bundle just beneath the battery, then fight to pull the wire and its purple / maroon / reddish coloured connecting plug free, so you can pull back the transmission.

 

Now remove the catalysator box – a 15Kg lump of garbage. Again, maybe rotted pipe clamps will hold you up, but the two countersunk screws that hold its back end to the centre-stand assembly might come out much easier. Remember it's heavy and don't rip the Oxygen Sensor wire as you carefully withdraw it.

 

Now re-fit the rear wheel. No need to strangle the lug-bolts. Yet.

 

Gently support the gearbox with a trolley jack, remove the six Crankcase Ringer Bolts, carefully noting which of them has a special bracket to hold one or other cables. Replace the top-left and the bottom-right ringer-bolts with 150mm-long headless M8 high-tensile guide-dowels to help the unit to slide back in-line. More if you like – I use four. High-tensile long M8 bolts with their heads lobbed off and the end cut across with a screwdriver slot.

 

UNFORTUNATELY – there is a snag to a smooth pull-back. And I mean SNAG !

 

At the top-front of the gearbox are two short rubber-cased metal spigots / bolts – those that had the two 10mm nuts holding down the Battery Box. Looped around the LEFT HAND spigot are 2 very thick earthing cables off the loom. That pair must be lifted up over the spigot – if not, the transmission cannot slide backwards. A long pry-bar is required. Or an attempt to force the battery box upwards. Or as one correspondent on another forum simply says, lob off that offending left-hand spigot. The other bolt is enough to firmly hold down the battery box..

 

HNow, with the aid of the trolley jacques, not necessarily made in la belle France, the transmission and rear-wheel assembly should slide back on the guide pins away from the crankcase to reveal the clutch and the Gearbox Input Splined Rod. Don't drop it when it comes away because it's not centrally balanced. It wants to tip over to the right because of the weight of the shaft and Final Drive.

 

The 2 dowel-tubes in the crankcase are usually rusted into the bell-housing, so a few hefty whacks with a very heavy lump hammer against a stout wooden pad are needed.

 

For Clutch Replacement, see authoritative Chris Harris videos."

 

That's my list of jobs for the clutch access on a ABS-bike. Any comments / suggestions for alterations to the text are most welcome, provided their in the spirit of helping others !

 

Alan Sykes, Forum Member, Almería Province, SPAIN. First of November 2018

[Jobus]

Hi Forum!

I'm in the middle of a clutch replacement on a 97 R1100RS.

After the gearbox has been installed and we re-attach the cable it appears as if there's very little tension or not enough. The bike was sitting for two years, I don't know if that matters. I just want to make sure I did it right before we put the whole bike back together.

Maybe you can help?

Is the cable shot?
Did I reinstall the pushrod wrong?
Do I need to do something to the whole boot spring thing attached to the clutch arm?
Is there a base setting for the adjustment screw?

Thank You!

[dirtrider]

19 minutes ago, Jobus said:

Hi Forum!

I'm in the middle of a clutch replacement on a 97 R1100RS.

After the gearbox has been installed and we re-attach the cable it appears as if there's very little tension or not enough. The bike was sitting for two years, I don't know if that matters. I just want to make sure I did it right before we put the whole bike back together.

Maybe you can help?

Is the cable shot?
Did I reinstall the pushrod wrong?
Do I need to do something to the whole boot spring thing attached to the clutch arm?
Is there a base setting for the adjustment screw?

Thank You!

Evening Jobus

 

We can't see or feel what you did so we basically need more information from you to tell you much. 

 

we re-attach the cable it appears as if there's very little tension or not enough--- You need to explain this in more detail. Little tension or not enough is in reference to what. Do you have the lever end set correctly? 

 

Is the cable shot?--Probably not, but we can't see it so you will have to tell us that. 

Did I reinstall the pushrod wrong?-- Probably not, but again we didn't see you install it. 

Do I need to do something to the whole boot spring thing attached to the clutch arm?-- Not really. Did you do anything to it when it was apart?

Is there a base setting for the adjustment screw?-- Yes, you set the lever end first then get you lash at the lever bolt on rear of trans.  

 

Adjusting the Clutch:

 

Adjust the cable adjuster located at the handlebar end of the cable
so that the distance (exposed threads) between the adjuster and the locking ring is
12mm (.47”).

Then, at the rear of the transmission loosen the 13mm locknut and adjust
the 10mm adjusting bolt so that the freeplay distance measured between the handlebar
lever and its housing is 7mm (.28”).

Freeplay is the distance the lever moves taking up  the slack in the adjustment prior to actually beginning to disengage the clutch.

Then pull the clutch lever in so that there is pressure on the 10mm bolt to hold it from turning, and

tighten the 13mm locknut .

Lubricate the clutch cable ends by applying grease where the barrels on the
ends of the cables contact the clutch levers.

 

 

[Jobus]

Thank You Dirt Rider!

 

we re-attach the cable it appears as if there's very little tension or not enough--- You need to explain this in more detail. Little tension or not enough is in reference to what. Do you have the lever end set correctly? 

 

With the cable attached the clutch lever at the handlebar feels loose, like not right.

 

Is the cable shot?--Probably not, but we can't see it so you will have to tell us that. 

Did I reinstall the pushrod wrong?-- Probably not, but again we didn't see you install it. 

Do I need to do something to the whole boot spring thing attached to the clutch arm?-- Not really. Did you do anything to it when it was apart?

 

We didn't do anything to it.

Is there a base setting for the adjustment screw?-- Yes, you set the lever end first then get you lash at the lever bolt on rear of trans.  

 

Adjusting the Clutch: