I was riding with my girlfriend on the back last night in heavy traffic coming home from a day trip to the lake. I suddenly felt a 'pop' and lost drive. Loud grinding then squealing noise coming from the clutch area. I knew right away... splines gone. We were stranded for quite sometime in the worst area of the city on the busiest road in the city. Luckily an awesome stranger on an RS stopped to help and went and got his trailer. If it wasn't for his generosity, it would have been a terrible night.
I've always heard about this issue but tried to not be paranoid. I just tried to enjoy the bike. Now this...
I can't afford the repair right now. Anyone wanna bike for cheap? Come pick it up. I'm in Canada... It would be great for parts. The rest of the bike is solid.
I'm truly gutted as I had some trips planned with my girlfriend and it's the middle of a very short riding season here.
If you have basic reading skills and ability the follow simple instruction, job will cost you about $300us. no doom and gloom. But if you just want to have people feel sorry for you..... I feel for you, so sad.
Your choice.
vwdoctor wrote:If you have basic reading skills and ability the follow simple instruction, job will cost you about $300us. no doom and gloom. But if you just want to have people feel sorry for you..... I feel for you, so sad.
Your choice.
Doc--
I've got 60,000+ miles on my '04 and have often thought I'd venture into pulling it apart for inspection and possible repair if necessary. And I have more time than money but I thought the cost of needed parts was far more than $300.00, possibly I've missed some posts from you on repair. Please enlighten me!
The Older I Get, The Less I know. (in honor of MikeCam
'05 RT
'04 R
'03 R
CB750
KZ750
HD 350 Sprint
My (unproven) theory is that even with worn input shaft, installing clutch hub spacer with the new clutch plate (about $300) will yield as long of a life as the original. I would not change anything else, no spring plates, no pressure plates, no flywheel, no seals. Put it together and ride on. I see no need to get "into" transmission if there are no additional issues.
Additional area gained, coupled with the fact that the clutch plate is stabilized on both ends, should yield better results than the original setup.
No real world tests so far, (that I know off).
People have bought 100 spacers so far, but it is not easy to get feedback.
vwdoctor wrote:If you have basic reading skills and ability the follow simple instruction, job will cost you about $300us. no doom and gloom. But if you just want to have people feel sorry for you..... I feel for you, so sad.
Your choice.
Thanks for the advice. $300 sounds much better, but I neither have the time, nor the place to work on the bike.
I would also be a little leery on sending $300+ for parts to perform an "unproven" theory. I don't mean that out of disrespect in any way.
Get it fixed - it's what credit is for... you'll regret not having the bike soon, a biker without a bike is just an 'er'.
Thanks riceburner! I would love to just bite the bullet and fix it. But they quoted me $2500+ for it to get fixed. The dealer actually denied the spline issue completely. Said in the 20+ years he's been there, he never once saw a spline failure. They actually mocked me!
With the high rate of insurance I pay per year up here on this particular bike, I'm thinking of getting something different. At one point they wanted to charge me $2800 per year just to insure it. And that's with a clean driving record!!!
I MORE than love BMW and WILL own one again someday, but other bikes are looking very appealing right now...
vwdoctor wrote:If you have basic reading skills and ability the follow simple instruction, job will cost you about $300us. no doom and gloom. But if you just want to have people feel sorry for you..... I feel for you, so sad.
Your choice.
Thanks for the advice. $300 sounds much better, but I neither have the time, nor the place to work on the bike.
I would also be a little leery on sending $300+ for parts to perform an "unproven" theory. I don't mean that out of disrespect in any way.
Maybe, I was a little harsh, my apologies.
I just wanted to motivate you.
"Anger is more useful than despair" (I watched Terminator 3 couple of nights ago)
vwdoctor wrote:If you have basic reading skills and ability the follow simple instruction, job will cost you about $300us. no doom and gloom. But if you just want to have people feel sorry for you..... I feel for you, so sad.
Your choice.
Thanks for the advice. $300 sounds much better, but I neither have the time, nor the place to work on the bike.
I would also be a little leery on sending $300+ for parts to perform an "unproven" theory. I don't mean that out of disrespect in any way.
Maybe, I was a little harsh, my apologies.
I just wanted to motivate you.
"Anger is more useful than despair" (I watched Terminator 3 couple of nights ago)
No worries, bro! Thanks for the encouragement. I've been up and down on what to do.
I have a bike that run's great, but will go nowhere. It's so frustrating. That, and my new girlfriend just got to go on a couple of rides with me and she's in love with bikes now! She's so disappointed that my bike broke down so suddenly. Even she is confused and stated that she thought BMW's were 'unstoppable'...
Once AGAIN (!!!) another transmission input shaft spline failure. This occasional failure on a premium German bike that should have a 100 percent reliable powertrain for 150,000+ miles just like any BMW AirHead or Moto Guzzi V-Twin with the same car type dry clutch. Shame SHAME on BMW for not addressing this failure with REDESIGNED replacement parts installed for free. Looks like denial and surprised expressions is a lot cheaper than the actual manufacturer solution needed.
When my 2002 R1150R's 8+ year trade in time came I changed over to the BMW bike with an Austrian made Rotax engine . . . . the F800ST. It just passed the 6 year mark June 9th and it's great to have a high performance, virtually trouble free water cooled DOHC engine with a cable operated wet clutch and a toothed rubber belt FD. The New WaterHead DOHC Boxer's front mounted wet clutch it demonstrates BMW has finally modernized and abandoned the troubled OilHead design. Too bad they are also incrementally abandoning the superior TeleLever front suspension and bulletproof car type excited field alternator.
I found myself in a similar situation a little over a year ago. My girlfriend and I were ~350 miles from home in an area with no cell phone service when the splines failed. Sucks. Had to rent a Uhaul truck and trailer to get it home.
I also was quoted a ridiculous repair estimate from my local BMW dealer. I chose instead to purchase the clutch hub spacer (from vwdoctor) and new clutch plate (from BMW). I installed the hub spacer on the new clutch plate and popped it in (that's the short version). It actually takes a little time but I was able to install it alone. The clutch hub spacer install required only minor help from a local machine shop. Oh, I also used new hex bolts ($7) when I reassembled the clutch assembly.
Since the install, I've done two multi-day trips totaling about 3000 miles. No problems. I will eventually open it back up to inspect it, but I've not had the motivation to do so yet.
