Oil breather pipe.

[The Mechanic]

Next time you remove the fuel tank (1150 GS) make a special point to take a good look at the engine crankcase breather pipe where it exits from the engine ....top right hand side as you look down on the engine facing the front of the bike....Mr B*W could have designed this important part a little more carefully, there is not enough room between the tank and the engine mounting through bolt and nut.

This cramped fitting means that even though the hose has a 90 degree bend to point it towards the back of the engine the hose is reduced by almost half due to being crushed between aforesaid mount etc. Careful repositioning is required to prevent total collapse of this hose and special care is needed when installing the tank back in place.

Having reworked the routing of this hose it occured to me that some GS's might be suffering from excess crankcase pressure caused by this fault; and it is a fault as the design is not good.
Oil site glass leakage/popping out, unusually high oil consumption and erratic/ poor performing engines all could stem from this problem.

In a similar vein the two fuel tank breather pipes running to the rear of the bike where they pass over and around the air box can be trapped and crushed, again giving performance and starting
problems.

My machine is quite new so the tank has only been off a few times
and it was whilst running a wiring loom for some FF50's back to the fuse/relay box that I noticed the problems.

Scince the reworking and the subsequent sudden coughing out of about a coffee cup of condensation from the breather outlet on initial start up the old girl seems to go even better.

The annoyng thing is I would expect this type of breather problem on an older bike as it is something I come across on a regular basis, but not on a brand new (well almost) one. Especially from you know who! Oh well welcome to the real world....again.

 

[Timolgra]

Respect to you Mr Mechanic your'e good.

Very useful tip, easily overlooked.

Tim

 

[notadrop]

Pssst.......mechanic mate....if your going to Princetown I'll bring me spanners and let you sort my bike proper like!!
I'm good like that!

 

[needlongerlegs]

Smells of Oil

Sometimes my bike smells of hot oil after a good thrash none to be found anywhere no leaks nothing this could be a breather prob, off with teh tank tonight I think, Only been doing it since I fitted me Techlution.

Well done Mr M, It will be down to its bra and pants tonight yellow clothing all over the lawn and a good wiggle of its rubber ware.

G..

 

[MikeP]

After getting an occasional whiff of hot oil I decided to have a close look at the crankcase breather hose on my bike (04 1150 GSA).

Sure enough the crankcase end looked like this........

Not only has it split around the circumference, it has split along its length on the inside of the 90 deg turn.

The problem with replacing it is that access to the airbox end is virtually impossible without splitting the rear sub-frame (even with the right tool for undoing the spring clips)

With a replacement hose, I cut the existing one and used a 'rats tail' connector to join it to the (now shortened) replacement breather hose.

I cut the replacement hose slightly over-long, this takes some of the pressure off of the 90 deg turn, then used a jubilee clip on the crankcase end as these are easier to undo and the original clip on the joint (I had to use another jubilee clip as I didn't have another of the spring clips for now).

If or when I have to replace the hose again or split the sub-frame, it's just a case of parting the hose at the join instead of fiddling around at one or the other end.