Friday, June 20 2014 [12,072 miles]
Ready for service
It’s time. I moved the R69S off of the bike lift to make room for the GS. Not fully thinking I rolled the GS onto the lift and into the front wheel chock. More on why this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, later.
Remove injector cover
Remove coil cover
Coil removed
Stick coil and tool
The bike was cold. May as well start with a valve check. This is the first time I’ve had the valve covers off the bike. First the injector cover and the stick cover have to be removed then the stick coil came out. The coil removal tool is the same one that I used on my ‘05.
On board tools
Spark plug removed
To remove the plugs I need the thin wall 14mm spark plug socket that I keep in the on-bike tool kit. This is actually about 1/2 of the kit that contains sockets and related tools. Other stuff is packaged in a second set of old oil containers.
The plug looked OK but measured at the far end of the range. I’ll install new plugs and keep these as emergency spares.
Loosen valve cover
Valve cover removed
The valve covers can not be removed with the Hepco Becker crash bars in place. However, if you loosen all of the crash bar mounting screws you can get just enough free room to wiggle the cover out. Loosening is better than removing for me. Fewer things to lose in the garage when they’re still attached to the bike.
I repeated the same procedures on the left side of the bike. That’s when I realized I’d made a mistake by putting the bike in the wheel chock.
Timing hole
Timing tool, TDC end
On center stand
I removed the access plug and inserted the TDC end of the BMW timing tool. Now all I need to do is bump the rear wheel to rotate the engine until the tool indicates I’m at TDC and locks the flywheel in place. Ooops. The bike is sitting on the rear wheel.
I tied the front end of the bike down and used scissor jack to lift the bike enough to lower the center stand. That may have been error number 2. I never had an issue raising the ‘05 GS with a jack under the bash plate. This time I think I tweaked the bracket that holds the bash plate to the engine. Not a big deal, but still. I remove the bash plate and bracket to fix later.
Ready to check
Check rear exhaust clearance
Rubber bit
Check cam timing
The valves measured in the middle of the range on both sides. The ranges are intake: 0.10 ~ 0.17mm; and exhaust: 0.34 ~ 0.41mm. Measured values were
| Left Front | Left Rear | Right Rear | Right Front | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intake | 0.15 | 0.14 | 0.15 | 0.15 |
| Exhaust | 0.36 | 0.36 | 0.36 | 0.38 |
The third picture, above, shows a rubber baffle that must be removed to measure the rear exhaust valve. It just pops off. The last picture, above, shows the tool used to check cam timing. It is a jig which either fits or doesn’t fit. If it doesn’t fit the timing is off. My right side fit perfectly. My left side didn’t. The bike was not running that bad and I’m under a slight time constraint so I’ll adjust the timing some other time.
Inner gasket
Clean valve cover
Outer gasket
Valve are OK. Left side valve timeing will be addressed later. Time to put the valve covers back on the bike. I’m using the same gaskets. They are sturdy and will last a long time. The design of the inner gasket is nicer than it was on my ‘05. I don’t have to worry about it popping off while seating the valve cover.
Valve cover installed
Grease for coil
Coil almost installed
I installed both valve covers and applied a very little bit of white lithium grease where the the stick coil seals to the head. Don’t know if that was really necessary, but I noticed what looked like a small amount of dried grease on the coils when I removed them. I cleaned the old grease off before adding new. I installed the coils and wired them up then attached the coil cover and the injector cover. I didn’t take any pictures of those steps.
Lastly I tightened the crash bars, torquing them to their specified value. I had a little time left over so I removed the bash plate to see what I’ll have to do to fix the bent bracket. I’ll get to that and more of the 12K service, tomorrow.