Need help! Problem with Big GS. Mexico

[Veter]

Originally Posted by Mudcat

It sounds to me like they are asking you, what do you want to do.

yeah they want my approval to order and change the clutch/clutch parts which will be given as soon as I understand what exactly they want to change and the final bill

[Shango]

Hey Vetter, thoses splines look über dry. That may have caused your clutch to not engage/disengage properly which explains the hard feel of the clutch and the grabbing you felt at idle. Obviously that will cause the clutch to glaze, overheat and ruin the whole shebang. Do you have a pic of the input shaft on the gearbox?

[MikeMike]

If Motorrad have opened a file, then you should stay in contact with them and see how far they are going to go for you.
It appears that the dealer in Mexico City was amiss with the clutch.
Where were you riding in the mountains here?

[gsweave]

Veter,

Sorry to see it's turned into a big deal...


How's the beach



Weave

[Veter]

Mike,

I did ~200 mls of Baja 1000 route on this GS with more than 100kgs of luggage. At some point I met a really challenging narrow mountain pass with huge holes, rocks and washouts and there it happened, the clutch incident - the bike told me that it should not be treated that way :)

Here is my bike in baja but with smth like one third of the usual load



Weave,

Today I moved to a really nice tiny stretch of beach 30 km to the north of Cancun. It is a kitesurfing spot and there is almost noone here, just the ocean, the wind and myself :) Internet connection is not good of course - I need to stay closer to the roof of the house to get telcel's 3g work =) Looks like soon I will have an opportunity to test my BGAN

Shango,

Here are the new pics, please tell me what you think

[Shango]

Man Vetter I feel for you... The splines look to be in good shape, the output side of the gearbox is fine and driveshaft looks to be good but all that red on the friction disc and the input shaft just looks like dry surface rust. That needs to be able to slide freely... I had a pressure plate and clutch housing that was almost that glazed and I was able to resurface it. The friction plate looks like it didn't handle the heat as well so I'd be weary reusing that for fear of future failure but at least it's not oiled up. Those splines and even the diaphragm should show some kind of sign of being lubed at one point with moly but I see no sign of that.
If it were me, I would first try to get them to do the entire job under warranty stating this was a assembly issue. (Assuming this is the original clutch). If they say no, I would have them check the flatness of the clutch parts, resurface the housing and plate, moly up the friction disc the way it should be as well as the contact on the diaphragm, grease the driveshaft and bone out! Let the cluch cool after the technical skills portion of your rides and know what it's limits are now. You at least get the 6 bolts and washers to put it back with the right torque/tension and a new clutch cover. Check to make sure the rod didn't get bent while the disc was stuck too.
Again, this is all I can tell from the pics and what you said. If you can afford to get the new stuff, it won't hurt! I feel your a victim in this one, you may have had to ride the cluch and heated it up but that doesn't change the fact that there was no lube on the splines to keep,it from binding.
BMW, if that's red moly on the splines, my apologies...
Good luck Vetter

[mark883]

Based on that pic of the GS in the sand, you cooked the clutch.

If in doubt, replace the part, replace any marginal seals back there while they've got the bike split in half. Its much easier and cheaper to do it now. I would be very doubtful of reusing any part of that clutch. Who knows how it warped? I looks like you're missing about a quarter of the friction material.

Yes clean & lube the splines of course, but also remember / learn how to treat a dry clutch. Roasting the clutch assembly probably only exasperated the spline lube issue. That orange dust in the pics may be the metallic remnants of the spline lube, not rust.

[KMC1]

Step one: tear old t-shirt into strips.
Step two: rolls strips into a sort of "rope".....
Step three: place one end in gas tank.
Step four: light end not in gas tank with a match.
Step five: turn and walk away
Step six: call your insurance agent.
Step seven: spend all the money you just saved on Latinas, cerveza and a plane ticket home in a couple months when winter is over.......
Step eight: buy a new bike when the insurance check comes in.


Simple.

[Veter]

Thanks for advice everyone :)

I received the offiial answer from Motorrad MX. To cut it short, they gently told me to &$@ off. I will try to raise the lubes issue - thanks Shango - but I don't feel it can change anything

Here is the reply by Elena

Estimado Sr. :

Muchas gracias por contactar BMW Group México. Le pedimos una sincera disculpa con su experiencia actual con su Moto 1200 2011.

Se proporciono el diagnostico por parte de la agencia de Alecka Motors, quienes nos indican que el diagnostico es: cambio de embrague o clutch. Lo cual es debido al uso de la motocicleta y no esta relacionado con el servicio proporcionado por la agencia Munchen Motors.

Lamentamos su sentir, le confirmamos que se llevo a cabo una investigación con respecto a su caso con los Departamentos adecuados y con los Gerentes de las agencias antes mencionadas . Basada a esta investigación le informo que desafortunadamente no se podran cubrir los costos por el cambio de embrague, por parte de la agencia de Munchen Motors.

Le ofrecemos una sincera disculpa por las inconveniencias que se le causo, le confirmo que su caso fue documentado y sus comentarios nos ayudan a mejorar nuestro nivel de servicio. Si llega a tener alguna pregunta o comentario adicional, por favor no dude en comunicarse con nosotros.

Sin más por el momento, quedo a sus órdenes.

Cordialmente,
Elena Hatfield

[Shango]

I don't even know what to say... What are you considering as to how far to go with the repairs there?...

[Shango]

Hey Veter,
Here are some pics of my reworked clutch plates. Dealer would have thrown them in the trash. I can tell you this worked great and I've had NO issues at all. They may not be willing to do the work though.
I'll shoot a pic of my old friction disc to show you what my splines looked like at 51k miles...



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[Shango]

Don't mind the oil but you can still see the globs of moly/grease on the splines at 50K. I didn't even see evidence of lube on yours but it might have been the pic, or grease, or they cleaned it when they took it off?...

[IMG][/IMG]

[mwood7800]

The clutch burned because the bike is to damn heavy to be off road and its geared to high. He'll it's a street bike with window dressing. But it looks cool. Get a damn 650 k

[SocalRob]

Originally Posted by mwood7800

The clutch burned because the bike is to damn heavy to be off road and its geared to high. He'll it's a street bike with window dressing. But it looks cool. Get a damn 650 k

Not being helpful today are we?

[SocalRob]

Originally Posted by Veter

Thanks for advice everyone :)

I received the offiial answer from Motorrad MX. To cut it short, they gently told me to &$@ off. I will try to raise the lubes issue - thanks Shango - but I don't feel it can change anything

Here is the reply by Elena

Estimado Sr. :

Muchas gracias por contactar BMW Group México. Le pedimos una sincera disculpa con su experiencia actual con su Moto 1200 2011.

Se proporciono el diagnostico por parte de la agencia de Alecka Motors, quienes nos indican que el diagnostico es: cambio de embrague o clutch. Lo cual es debido al uso de la motocicleta y no esta relacionado con el servicio proporcionado por la agencia Munchen Motors.

Lamentamos su sentir, le confirmamos que se llevo a cabo una investigación con respecto a su caso con los Departamentos adecuados y con los Gerentes de las agencias antes mencionadas . Basada a esta investigación le informo que desafortunadamente no se podran cubrir los costos por el cambio de embrague, por parte de la agencia de Munchen Motors.

Le ofrecemos una sincera disculpa por las inconveniencias que se le causo, le confirmo que su caso fue documentado y sus comentarios nos ayudan a mejorar nuestro nivel de servicio. Si llega a tener alguna pregunta o comentario adicional, por favor no dude en comunicarse con nosotros.

Sin más por el momento, quedo a sus órdenes.

Cordialmente,
Elena Hatfield

Well, hope you get your bike back on the road soon. Note that it would help on your current trip, but two mods I really like on my bike are the ceramic slipper clutch from San Jose BMW (pricey at about $1100) I had installed after my OEM clutch was contaminated by a bad oil seal, and a steering damper. The steering damper very much improves stability in sand and the ceramic clutch stands up better to abuse.

In any case, hope you can get back to enjoying your trip.