Telelever Ball-Joint Looseness

[Tbag <tbagtim@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is not a tyre thread!
 
But I must say this all started when, sadly, the Pirelli Scorpion S/T which had given me many miles of enjoyment was overdue for  replacement. I sprung for a new Metzeler Tourance, partly because I have one on the rear already but mainly because it was in stock. 

Hoping to get the bike back on the road by the weekend. Funny thing about hopes!

The bike is a 1995 R100GSA with 110,000 miles on it.

Cleaning up the front end I checked the forks for play. And found some! About 1mm at the fork ends in all directions.

Closer examination showed the play is located between the Telelever A-arm (control or leading arm) and the ball joint itself. You can see that the top hex nut, the allen stud and the part that sits right under the hex nut are all loose with respect to the A-arm itself.

I popped off the plastic top cap and put an allen wrench in the stud. It turns freely, so does the hex nut. The two are still locked together. The part immediately below the hex nut (which looks like a bushing through the A-arm hole, or maybe a washer) turns as well but not tight with the hex nut/allen stud.

I assume this is bad?

Looking through the Haynes, Clymer and BMW manuals I am unsure of a few points.

My main confusion is the nature of the method af attachment of the top part of the ball joint to the A-arm. The BMW manual shows a drawing of the ball joint with the application of Loctite 2701 at a point that looks like a set of wide threads at the base of the stud, immediately above the dust boot. This would be located on the bottom side of the A-arm and would imply the hole in the A-arm is threaded. I think this drawing may be inaccurate or badly represented.

The photo in the Clymers manual shows the top of the dust boot and no additional threads, just the stud. The Haynes manual shows the threads of the stud being Loctited but also mentions that new assemblies have a hex nut that is self locking and non-reusable because the old style could come loose. I understand the Loctite is in addition to any self-locking hex-nut.

My hex nut is locked to the stud, but not to the part underneath it, which could be a washer. That is the part that seems to move independently, mentioned above.

The dust boot is old and stiff and seems to seperate as the steering is moved side to side. The bike has 110,000 miles on it of which 40,000 were my contribution so I am assuming the correct decision here is to replace the ball joint.

So my objective here is to identify what the mystery part, loose but not tight with the stud/hex nut is. To determine whether I need to replace the ball joint or simply tighten what is loose. And to understand what needs to be tightened and why, so I get it all right. The manuals seem to be unclear about this step. My feeling is that you Loctite the stud, screw on the hex nut and holding the stud so it can't rotate, torque the hex nut to attach the stud to the A-arm.

Any help, experience and insight would be much appreciated.

Happy riding!
Tim McColm
Los Angeles, CA
(tmccolm0903@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Black 1995 R1100GSA
110,000 good ones (and 1/4 bad ones.)

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End of oilheads-digest V3 #83
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