First BMW (maybe) need advice

Westco battery is not really a vehicle battery. It is a gelled electrolyte battery with slightly different chemistry. As such, it has a higher resting voltage than a conventional wet-cell battery. The charging system on the bike probably operates at higher voltage than that from the battery tender so will be able to fully charge it. After running the engine for a bit, I expect the battery voltage is higher than the maintenance voltage of the tender. This is what produces the unexpected behavior you are seeing.

Leave the bike for a few days or turn the lights on for a while and I'll bet the expected behavior returns. You should really try to get a maintainer for the Westco battery but I don't think it will hurt to use what you've got.

OK, thanks

I'd probably be more likely to get a different battery than a different charger. I've had real good luck with the Battery Tender Jr. and I like having standardized stuff in the garage ;-)

In the worst case, you will be maintaining the Westco battery at less than full charge. Not ideal but probably not a deal breaker either. I have had a Westco in my 1100GS since I got it and although I rarely, if ever, bother with a battery tender, my old Schumacher trickle charger/maintainer will top up the battery if necessary but will not fully charge it.

I won't sweat it then. It's just weird that the tender blinks red as if it isn't even plugged in if the battery is connected to the leads on the bike. If I isolate the battery from the bike, the tender blinks green (charging), and in a couple hours goes solid green (monitoring).

So, here is how my "Project GS" is looking now. Still got well less than $3K into it.

Next up, brakes and tires.

Its not a choke but merely a fast idle lever. Cold start enrichment comes from the Motronic engine management computer without your intervention. Read Roger04RT's posts for a complete explaination of how the Motronic works to manage the boxer fueling.

If you haven't already, I would ride it carefully (brakes could be iffy) to operating temperature not exceeding 3000RPM. Then, check the oil on the center stand after the oil cooler drains back into the sump (~2-3 minutes).

Your UTUBE vid sounds OK if not a bit clakety but, as mentioned, the boxer engine can be noisy at cold start.

TB sync might help a bit.

Techron fuel additive is in order.

Watch for engine oil leaks. Sitting for long periods can cause seals to harden and leak a bit. Fresh oil of good quality has seal conditioners so, small leaks may subside if present.

Put some heat cycles into the engine to get it back to normal again (ride it to temperature 10-20 miles, park it and do it again).

I cannot tell from the photo is the brake lines are braided. If they are OE rubber, they will fail soon. Replace them to insure you don't have a catastrophic brake failure.

Thanks def, yup I'm all over the above.

Braided lines. Gonna bleed them this weekend and take it from there.

Here's a question for y'all. One of the hinges on the OEM side cases broke. Thinking it was all sun-exposed and brittle. When I opened it and let the lid all the way over, a little chunk of plastic fell off and now it wants to come off. I'm thinking, I can rig a piece of fishing line or something as a tether to keep it from flopping all the way over. The hinge stays put if the lid isn't opened all the way.

Anyone know if I can get a replacement hinge or other way to fix better than a fishing line tether (haha)?

Replace panneris with plastic parts with no less than a hand-made jewel.

The bike, by the way, is the same model and type as yours.
But this one has more than 100.000 miles on it.

[TaSK]

Nice!

I got a long way to go then. I got this one with 21.5K miles on it

Good to hear that you are enjoying it.

Rusting up of the plugs exterior is common.

Ride on! see you out there somewhere

Yup!

Hope to meet some of the good folks here in May over in TN. It'll be my birthday ride to myself. 4 days on a new (to me) bike. Can't wait to put some names to faces

Hey TurkeyRun, welcome to the Assylum! I've read the whole thread and man, you got a deal on that bike! You sent me an e-mail on an old account that's mostly spam, so I wasn't sure if it was real so checked in on ADVRider and found this. Good on ya!

Same with the air filter...mice love them.

Good advice. We have a farm and store the bikes in the garage near the dog chow, so....



It was warm yesterday afternoon so I thought I'd start our old International tractor just to get things moving and such, hit the starter and a damned flurry of mice and birds came tearing out from under the hood!

Anyway, in your e-mail you asked about Shinko tires on the GS - I've run two sets so far and have really liked them. I've run a lot of other tires in the past but got tired of paying $$$ for tires that got only 5 or 6000 miles, so thought I'd try the Shinkos. Same mileage, softer rubber and bigger tread blocks, so they grip great in rain, dirt, and cold weather. I did a thread some time ago on tire changes for the GS, might interest you:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148614

I did one recently on the brake lines, you REALLY need to check those out ASAP - that vintage had some issues:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=825120

And I suspect your crown seal will crap the bed someday, so here's a thread on replacing that (easiest maintenance I've ever done on the Beemer):

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=806193

Once you get over the initial fear of tearing into the BMWs you find they are really pretty easy to work on.

Good luck with your project, it's looking great and you got a steal on it!

Doug

Oh, I meant to throw on a couple of photos of what your fuel pump and filter look like inside the tank. This is from my 1100RT but is identical to my 2001 1150GS (same part numbers and everything):

Tank emptied and removed (the RT tank is plastic), mark corresponding lines with tape or something so you put them back together correctly:



Coming out, be careful things don't get hung up:



The Gizmo. The little internal lines can degrade, check them carefully or better yet, just get new ones and replace them. The "U"-shaped one comes pre-bent from BMW, you can't make a bend like that with hose from the auto parts store.



I've also had to replace the fork seals on my GS, just a wear item from all the dirt roads I guess, and that was not very difficult either. All the suspension is done by the telelever front end, so the fork tubes don't even have springs or anything in them, just oil and damping valves, very easy to clean and service. If you do remove the seals, remember that they have a top and bottom, don't get them in upside down or they'll leak. Don't ask how I know this . I've got photos if you're interested. I was amazed at the amount of dirt, water/oil emulsion, and bug parts in the fork oil, so I put some rubber fork boots on when I did the job and haven't had any seal issues since.

Doug

Hey thanks Doug!

Looks like we're state-neighbors so maybe we'll cross paths someday.

Good news on the Shinko's, I might pull the trigger on a pair next month in preparation for TN in May. I'll check the crown seal while I'm at it.

As far as the brake lines, the bike has braided lines all around. The guy I got the bike from says it came that way. When I bled the brake lines and clutch last weekend, the brake fluid was a darkish brown, but didn't look like it was blowing chunks of rubber brake line interior. Same with the clutch line which is all rubber - more grey than brown there. So, I guess my question is, am I still at risk for catastrophic brake failure with what I believe are 11 year old braided lines? And, what about the rubber clutch line,

BTW - I got all the service records sans a couple oil changes, from the original dealer too!

Yes, I would like to see some photos of this!

Been thinking about for boots - to keep the junk out, plus there is an "old school cool" factor to be had there too!

Yeah, once you get the Big Pig up and running we should see if we could meet out on the BRP or someplace this Spring. The GS is the perfect bike for this area where the back roads go from good pavement to ratty asphalt to dirt and back as they traverse the mountains. I love it; I've owned 44 bikes in my life and this GS is hands down the best and most versatile.

Fork pictures - really easy to work on since there's literally nothing but oil inside:

WTF is this drip??





Oh oh....



Put the bike on the center stand (ain't got one of those on your Harley, have you ?), weight the rear, remove the front wheel (careful of the ABS sensor!), take the fender off, unclamp the forks, pull down and that's it:



When you remove the seal retainer they just pull apart, IIRC, no trick at all. Dump the old oil out, flush and clean with fresh oil (I used a long-handled bottle brush from my beer brewing kit), fill with prescribed amount of fork oil, reassemble with seal in correct orientation. I didn't take any photos of the actual operation because it was so easy, but here's the parts collection. I think the seals were like $50 for the pair and have lasted 7 years without issue since replaced.



I couldn't find any black boots at the local bike store, so I used blue which matches the roundel . Whatever, it's done and they've performed well to protect the seals and forks.





When I put my Clearwater Lights driving lights on I carried the color theme to them as well :



Pretty spicey, huh? It's a real chick magnet with that combo.

I'm supposed to be doing my taxes but ADVrider sucked me in. Again.

Doug

After all this yakking about GS riding I got the itch and got mine out as a break from working on my taxes and rode to town and back. I haven't ridden it for about two weeks and when I started it up it was clacking like crazy which reminded me of your question about your engine noise. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 2002 is like my 2001 motor in that it has an oil pressure driven tensioner on the cam chains. So, when you start the bike cold there's no oil pressure and therefore the tensioner is slack, so it rattles until the pressure builds and puts the proper tension to it.

When the throttle bodies are nicely balanced the engine is pretty quiet and you can hear the fuel injectors snapping away too, so I'm sure that's some of what you're hearing.

You also asked if your braided SS brake lines would be suspect like the OEM rubber lines - I don't think so, and I don't think your SS lines are stock.

I had a nice run into town, about 30 miles round trip, just got a little chilly by the time I got home. The big hazard, though, is all the sand and salt VDOT has put down over the winter - it's absolutely treacherous out there now at every corner and stop! Ride safe!

Doug

Hey thanks Doug!

If I get 'round to doing the forks (looks easy) I'm absolutely doing boots too - looks great!

No, for my Harleys I have a jack. I was thinking it is so cool to be able to service a bike without one. Friggin' awesome. I'm a little scared, the more I fiddle with this GS, the more l like some of the nice touches like that. Even with having to get adapters, the power-port things are another nice thing to have.

Yea, I didn't think the braided lines were stock, but the PO insisted it came that way. Hmmmm....

So, the guy I work with that turned me on to this bike has one just like it, but silver, aftermarket cases, and more miles (I'm thinking 50K+). This one has 21K miles on it. Anyway, I had my work-buddy come take a listen to it when I rode it in one day. He said that it sounded better than his, that I had done the TB balance correctly, and that the noisy injector I was hearing was "probably normal". This guy is pretty meticulous, so I'm gonna go with that .

Oh, I also had a problem with the BMW side cases. Seems in sitting out in the sun for so long, the hinges got real brittle and cracked pretty bad. I found a lot of 7 Southco C6 hinges on eBay for $35. They arrived Friday, but didn't get a chance to do anything with the GS at all this weekend so that will have to wait until one night this week maybe.

I too took a ride today. Needed to go see a guy who lives down in SC, so we met in Laurinburg. About 180 miles round-trip. Beautiful weather! But, since I hadn't ridden my '03 Road King in a while, it got to stretch it's legs a bit.

BTW - name here is Brian

Hey Brian. Glad you got out for a ride yesterday; I don't care what kind of bike a person rides, it's great to just be out riding. I saw one other bike in my ride and it was a big Harley with a grinning rider . It was warmish here, about 52*F, but VERY gusty winds. I was clearing brush and fooling around outside when I decided I needed to run to town for some stuff, so took the GS rather than a car. I lived in Wyoming for 34 years and you simply don't ride year-round there, the bikes would stay covered in the garage with a battery tender for about five months straight. Sometimes I'd get stir crazy and load one up in the truck and head south until it got warm and dry enough that I could ride.

Yeah, you'll love all the power the BMW alternator puts out. I don't think my Chevy truck puts out as much and you can run all manner of electrics off it.

Take care, hope to see you out there on the road sometime!

Doug

A few Saturdays, couple hundred bucks in parts and fluids - all paid off!

(Still feel better when I get some new tires on there.....)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the guidance you folks have given me here. Truly a very cool place this is.