K1100R

[MikeP]

My current project is to turn a K1100LT into a K1100R.

I bought the bike intending to keep it as an LT but discovered that the superficial fairing damage was less superficial than it appeared. Now the plan is to take longer and turn it into a naked bike, certainly not a "cafe" so K1100R seems the best moniker for it.

The issues so far:

The brakes were seized solid. To get the bike on to the lift I swung the front calipers out of the way and the pad material promptly fell out!

The rear master cylinder was seized too:

The main fairing mountings have pulled out of the plastic:

One of the rear disc retaining screws has been sheared off and the F-D seal is shot:

The powder-coat is split and lifting:

The frame has suffered:

All the TB adjuster screws have been buggered:

The headers have been ignored for years and the studs are more rust than steel:

Blue Hylomar everywhere:

"Baby Poo" coloured seat:

Rear caliper pistons have been damaged:

I will fit K75/K100C handlebars (here for comparison with the LT bars):

A round K75/K100C headlamp and cowl will go on:

A normal front mudguard will replace the semi-shroud LT version and RS wheels so that radial tyres can be used:

Lots to do. I'm trying to sort out the parts as they come off. Gearbox should be off today.

This will be a long job as both the bike and me are not in particularly good order at the moment.

 

[corsicandreamer]

Good luck with both Mike, I always enjoy your stuff.

 

[timeandtide]

Good luck with both Mike, I always enjoy your stuff.

Likewise. . . and as the proud owner of one of your ex's (that was much admired outside Rainbow by another ex policeman this week)I hope you're better soon!

 

[MikeP]

Ta.

Just to bring this a bit closer to the current state, here are some photos of what's been done so far:

The rear master cylinder came apart after I managed to get the seized piston out:

The rear caliper stripped, cleaned, painted and ready for the new pistons and seals:

The ABS had been removed before I got the bike so I removed the sensor bracket:

I managed to find a pair of working front calipers fairly cheap. these have been cleaned, new pads etc. The rear master cylinder rebuilt with a new piston kit:

There's the usual scraping and cleaning to do:

The footrest sub-frame has redundant ABS modulator mounts:

I cut them off before cleaning and painting:

Some bits done:

The inner footrest plates:

Final Drive split for bearing and seal replacement:

First time I've actually had to use a puller on one of these:

The F-D halves, Paralever arm and swingarm have been sorted and then given a coat of silver enamel followed by an enamel clear-coat:

As the bike will be naked the radiator needs some sort of protection from stones etc. Before slinging it out, I took the front LT panel:

and cut out the grille:

A bit of bodgery:

Then it was rubbed down, primed, colour coated and given a clear coat:

The two part front mudguard is prepared:

The headlamp cowl is pretty second-hand:

I cut and shaped a plate to reinforce the cracked/broken indicator mount:

Which was then bonded in place:

Then it was filled and re-profiled in readiness for the first primer coat:

Then a swift coat of primer to reveal the blemishes which were treated to some knifing stopper:

Rubbed down again:

Then more primer:

Once that had been flatted back, the colour coat could go on the edges:

Then on the upper surfaces:

Next it was the first clear coat, cured, rubbed down with cutting compound and another clear coat. Sod's law; as I turned away from finishing the cowl slipped off the wire it was hung from:

Bollocks! Nothing for it but to start again.

I took this opportunity to mock-up the cowl as I want to retain the LT (decent) horns and to see if they can be mounted inside where the usual single-tone, meep-meep, horn would be:

The cover just fits:

I'll trim a little off the edge of the horns just to be certain though.

After more colour coat and two clear coats with a cutting back between them:

Continuing with the headlamp and instrument assembly, I opened the Motometer to clean the contacts, check the telltale bulbs and remove the ABS one (now redundant):

Then the dull housing is given a clean with rubbing compound:

I had to look back at the photos of my old K75C that had a the same cowl to check that the Motometer mounts directly to the headlamp cowl's mounting plate. It doesn't utilise the rubber mounts and counter-weight of the handlebar mounted vesions:

Next job was to sort through my collection of indicators and find two decent fronts (they all use the same lens but the mounting is different):

The front ones have different mounting lugs and are longer (front on the right):

Again, a buff with cutting compound gets rid of the accumulated grot that makes them dull:

Then sorting out the lenses to find enough that don't have the tabs broken:

The tail unit base was cleaned and rubbed down:

Then it was painted with satin black before the tail unit was re-assembled with the indicators:

The same goes for the cowl, headlamp and Mototmeter:

There's a growing pile of brackets and small bits being readied for paint and the exhaust is off:

It has left me with one sheared exhaust stud:

I'm a bit pissed off as the nut was turning out nicely but the stud was so badly corroded further up that just as the nut was on the last few turns it let go.

Still, as it's my intention to have the engine out altogether I can more easily deal with it then.

Oh and the "Baby Poo" seat has been re-covered by a local outfit I've known for donkey's years:

Gearbox off next and clutch inspection, Then it's off with the airbox and throttle assemblies (I may have a lie down first as updating this is almost as much effort as stripping the bike ).

 

[ChrisJF]

Blimey

Even if you are feeling under par I wish I had your energy, let alone ability ! Looking good, as always.

 

[Hustler]

Even if you are feeling under par I wish I had your energy, let alone ability ! Looking good, as always.

I'll second that.

Very impressed, and thanks very much for taking the time to post it all up here.

 

[Ogmios]

Mikes restorations = always a good read, an education and a kick up the jaxie for the lazy feckers like me that just talk about it. :
Dont stop Mike.

 

[BlueBird]

Thanks Mike

How long did it take to get all that done


very enjoyable to read

 

[Turkish]

Loving your work

 

[MikeP]

How long? I don't really know. I've had the bike a few weeks now.

So, getting ready to remove the gearbox, I took a close look at the clutch pushrod rubber boot now that things are a bit cleaner. It was as black as a very black thing when I stripped the swingarm out. The usual suspects are the gearbox output shaft seal or more often the pushrod boot.

It covers the pushrod thrust bearing and spring, is held by a hose clamp and the clutch actuating arm:

Sure enough, the boot is split:

Who knows how long it's been like that but a little oil goes a long way and as the output seal is okay the muck was probably all from lost gearbox oil.

Off with the injector rail (taking the injectors with it):

Then the airbox and throttle bodies:

The lower half of the airbox wasn't actually fixed to the engine. Anyone know if that's how it should be with this model?

There doesn't seem to be any good reason to separate the airbox & inlet tubes, the clamps are all tight and the seals look okay. I may replace the cable-ties with stainless clamps that can be tightened if needs be.

Before I removed the TB's I spotted that the pipe from the airbox to the balance tube behind the throttle assemblies was not connected. This is a 16v specific arrangement and I believe that it's to equalise air pressure between the TB's above the idle speed.

Now just looking at the brass by-pass screws (BBS), they are all over the place (I haven't removed them yet but when I do I'll count the turns 'till they come out), the TPS is at the extreme of it's adjustment and the broken TB adjustment screws all points to someone struggling to get the TB's to balance properly. Anyone know if the disconnected balance pipe is the likely culprit?

It may also help to explain why I'm the 16th owner!

Anyway, I reconnected it and began cleaning the 20 years worth of dirt and grime away:

I've re-crimped the connectors but I may find a "rat's tail" connector and replace the crimped clips with hose clips.

Bit of a scrubbing:

Including opening the throttles to clean the butterflies:

The injector bodies have been cleaned. The O-rings are pretty good but they be replaced anyway. I may send the injectors off for a proper cleaning.

The engine will be cleaned once I've dropped it out of the frame:

The spaghetti monster will be given a good clean while it's out. The redundant ABS multi-connector had been covered in a rubber glove (presumably to prevent water ingress) and taped to the frame. I'd like to chop it off but am concerned that doing so might cause problems so unless anyone knows for certain that removing it and sealing the end will be okay, I'll find something better than the latex glove and tape it somewhere better.

I'm going to leave it like this for a while:

I'll get the bits that have come off sorted before I remove the stands and the gearbox and I can keep soaking the forward engine mountings ready for the attempt at undoing them.

The inlet rubbers/injector tubes can stay put for now. They look good but they can be a source of bad running if they are perished or cracked. A close inspection will follow once the block has had a clean.

 

[JH]

Thanks Mike,

I have to say your restoration threads are an inspiration and help to make this the best Forum out there.

I have read all your previous work and look forward to following this project, it is really top stuff and makes really good reading, especially now that the nights are closing in.....

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Thanks for posting Mike...
I always look forward to one of your restos,,,,
I wish I could be as disciplined as you.....
Mind, Devon is getting there

 

[Twotter]

I read your restoration threads with great interest Mike and this one is brilliant. Your choice of colour for the new bike always surprises me and I start off thinking but before too long I think the bikes look

 

[jonnie comet]

As ever, a MikeP restoration makes compulsive reading/viewing.....Great stuff......

 

[Ogmios]

Teaching Granda to suck eggs ...

The lower half of the airbox wasn't actually fixed to the engine. Anyone know if that's how it should be with this model?

I'm sure i'm stating the obvious here / and Mike, you already know - that looks exactly the same as an old K100 - held with two neffin big allen bolts.

 

[MikeP]

Marc,

I have to say that I was surprised when I found that it wasn't fixed to the top of the block. It is indeed the same as the K75 & K100 (8 and 16 valve) airbox base.

At first I wondered whether it was a Spandau, Friday afternoon bike but the two rubber grommets through which the fixings go on the older bikes are blanks:

It seems that it is meant to be this way. The only reason that I can come up with is that this was a way to deal with the problem of the cracking/splitting lower tubes from the throttle bodies to the cylinder head.

The Jetronic equipped 2-valve-per-cylinder bikes have the Air Flow Sensor in the airbox and a plenum chamber connecting the box to the throttle bodies. Perhaps the fact that the 16 valve bikes have a lighter airbox without all the Air Flow gubbins, means that it can just be held in place by the tubes to the throttle bodies?


This morning I've made a start on the spaghetti monster. Ordinarily I'd just check and clean the loom, plus all the connectors would get a squirt of contact cleaner but the removal of the ABS has left redundant wires and plugs. In addition, there are some LT-specific bits that won't be utilised, the front section is longer than needed too so I'll be modifying things a little to suit.

I began by pulling off the latex glove from the ABS-Brain multi-connector and stripping off the old self-amalgamating binding:

My plan is to leave the unused sections but re-route them forward and under the tank. This means that the wires to the gear position switch, the fuel tank electrics, speedo sensor etc that are bound to the ABS cable need to be separated so that they can remain in the correct place (under the right-hand side panel):

Then it was time to remove the rest of the self-amalgamating tape. A horrible job. The stuff is either still sticky or turns to dust so you end up with a sticky mess. Good old Wurth brake cleaner and elbow grease cleans the exosed wires:

As the old binding came off, I cleaned the wires and wherever possible I bunched the redundant items into one sub-loom (the bit on the left of this photo):

The various sub-strands of the loom were then just given a whip of insulating tape to hold them together for now. Once I've sorted the front section of the main loom and the separate EFI loom, the whole thing will be re-bound with new self-amalgamating tape. Before doing that however, I'll lay the loom and relay box back into the frame to check it will lay cleanly in place.

 

[peepingtom]

Even if you are feeling under par I wish I had your energy, let alone ability ! Looking good, as always.

Mikes restorations = always a good read, an education and a kick up the jaxie for the lazy feckers like me that just talk about it. :
Dont stop Mike.

Loving your work

As ever, a MikeP restoration makes compulsive reading/viewing.....Great stuff......

All of the above, its amazing to me easy you seem to make it. God only knows how you know what to do with that loom !!

thanks for taking all the effort to post it all , top man

theres lots of stuff ive learnt

 

[MikeP]

God only knows how you know what to do with that loom !!

TBH, BMW make it simple. With only a couple of minor exceptions, none of the plugs are the same so it's not difficult to be certain what goes where.

This is the engine management/fuel injection sub-loom after cleaning and treating with Gummi-pflege. The four injector connections are identical but they are of a length that makes it difficult to connect them to the wrong injector:

Likewise the coils and HT leads. A previous owner has added one, two, three and four little cable-ties to identify which lead is which:

If he'd cleaned them he may have noticed that BMW helpfully number them:

Even the coils have which cylinder they serve on a label attached. Rocket science it ain't.

 

[Ogmios]

Air box etc

It seems that it is meant to be this way.

Seems you are right.
I have to do SOME(no idea really what though)thing with the Guzzi electrickery - to eliminate bad earths and ensure good live connections.
This thread gives me some hope and direction!

 

[MikeP]

Good luck with the Guzzi Marc. I wouldn't know where to begin with one.

Gave the alternator a quick whizz with a wire brush. The only point being to remove the furry crap and to be certain that the face that seats in the bellhousing is free from the usual fur and will sit flush when it goes back in:

The cush-drive rubbers have worn a bit and are just starting to crack so they'll be replaced:

The starter has also been given a quick clean on the outside:

Before opening it for a clean and to check the carbon brushes:

Watch you don't lose this washer on the armature:

If you draw the armature out from the splined end there's a likelihood that the magnets will pull the washer off and you'll have to fish it out.

The body was given a flush with brake cleaner:

As was the base cap:

The commutator cuts were cleaned with a cocktail stick:

Then as the brushes were good, he bearing was repacked with grease and it was re-assembled. The outer casing will get a clear coat to slow the inevitable re-growth of fur.

Next job is off with this:

I will carefully store the cobweb for re-installation.

The LT models have four spacers between the sub-frame and the gearbox to accommodate the taller profile tyres:

It's not as bad as some I've tackled:

The fixing bolts are longer too. M10x50 for the LT whereas all the other 16 valve bikes use M10x40. As I'll be fitting RS wheels and low profile radial rubber, the spacers will be left off when it goes back together.

The bolts are pretty shabby, even after cleaning so three new ones won't break the bank - only three as the fourth is longer to accommodate the silencer support bracket.