RE: oilheads-digest V4 #188

[jholtz@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Clive,

  I stand corrected. I heard Paul Glaves talk about not lubing cables at the Vermont BMWMOA rally. I understand that the clutch and throttle cables involve Teflon and so you don't put lube down into the cable, because that can make them swell, but instead  just use a lube like KluberPlex on the very ends where the little ball rotates.  I don't actually know what the speedo cable sheath is made of,  but  since that whole cable constantly rotates within the sheath, compared to the clutch cable where only the little ball at the end rotates, I made an assumption, and it looks like I was incorrect.  On mine, I did run some WD40 through the sheath to clean out the black junk that was in there, drained it well, and then used a light application of "cable lube" on the cable itself, and then wiped it off before reinstalling it.  The cable definitely rotated in the sheath with very little friction then, but time will tell if that was a good thing or not.  I did observe that my speedo cable a
t the wheel end had been completely full of thick dark crusted stuff and that was what was originally preventing the cable from turning. The local BMW dealer parts guy told me to just put a light amount of lube (he said KluberPlex was fine) into the speedo drive, just as you said.  The parts guy said if you put too much lube in the speedo drive assembly, that in time it just oozes out and gums up the cable.

--
Jerry Holtz

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Clive Liddell" <cliddell@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Jerry,
> As I understand it the speedo cable is similar to all the other cables on
> these BMW bikes - no lubricating of any cable to be done.  Just the ferrule
> at the end of the, for example, clutch cable where it has to accommodate
> some rotational friction against the lever.
> 
> So, it can and does "hurt" to lube the speedo cable.  However a light lubing
> of the bearing and gear surface of the white PTFE large gear with Vaselene
> has worked well every time I change a tyre.
> 
> Regards
> Clive Liddell
> Pietermaritzburg
> South Africa
> R850R
> R1100RT 
> ===
> 
> "3) it doesn't hurt to lube the cable while you're in there
> 
> Jerry Holtz"