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My bike's shifting had deteriorated; I noticed it last week when Rad and I switched bikes, and I felt how smooth his changed gears compared to mine. A few days ago, a post on the Internet BMW Riders mailing list (from Tom Cutter, a lifelong professional BMW mechanic and racer) addressed the need for regular maintenance of the external linkage which connects the shift lever to the gearbox. I got my '07 in 2010; at least since I'd had the bike, I think this had never been addressed.

This morning, I pulled the linkage off. The two ball joints were extremely sticky inside. I cleaned and lubed and reinstalled them. The difference is amazing: the bike now shifts effortlessly again.

It's not a complex job. Remove the shift lever pinch bolt, and (after marking its orientation!) remove the shift lever from its splined shaft. At the gearbox case, disconnect the top ball joint. Before pulling the joint apart, you must remove a small, external spring clip, the end of which is parallel to the linkage rod and fits in a hole in the socket side of the joint to prevent withdrawing the ball from the socket. Remove the spring clip by rotating the clip around the linkage rod, then pulling the spring clip down the rod away from the joint. The spring clip is small and can be obscured by dirt; the parts picture on http://www.realoem.com of the gearbox external shift linkage may be helpful. With the spring clip removed, the ball joint can be pried apart.

With the upper joint open, the splined shaft and linkage can be removed from the bike by sliding the shaft towards the bike's centerline. Note the presence of bushings and washers. On the bench, open the other ball joint (same method), clean everything, relube, and reassemble the lower joint and its spring clip. Fit the linkage and shaft (and washer and bushings) back in place on the bike, close the upper ball joint, and replace the upper joint's spring clip. Replace the shift lever and pinch bolt. All done.

Thank you. Good stuff

Indeed!

One additional note - there is a foam gasket on each ball joint.

These tend to go away with time (the foam gets old and rots off..) These are pricey little devils ($1.33/each) from BMW, but they do keep dirt out of the ball joint, and wick oil to the ball joint. I usually try to dribble a bit of motor oil (using a screwdriver dipped in the oil) on the linkage/balls/foam each time I change the rear drive fluid. This seems to keep them moving nicely.

If the foam has gone away - the ball will dry out and collect dirt as it's doing it..

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=23&fg=41 - Part #10, $1.33/each. The linkage requires two of them.

And while you're about it.. it's worth lubricating the shaft for the external linkage.. parts #8 in the diagram are the bushings the shaft rides in. If you have a bit of endplay on the external shaft (mine has about 1/16"), just dribble motor oil down in the gap caused by the endplay - again I do this at every rear-drive oil change (easy to remember to do it..)

Doing the oil dribbling at a regular interval will avoid the need to disassemble stuff, of course when the foam gaskets go away, you have to disassemble anyway, so that's a good time to clean and lube things.

Thanks, Don. Cleaning and lubing the splined shaft should be done as well; I did it, but neglected to say so in my first post.

Helpful stuff.

An informative post !! Thanks dbrick and Don, too. On my short list next fluid change.

thanks for the info.
would spraying some dupon teflon lube around the pivots be effective at all?

Robert_California wrote:thanks for the info.
would spraying some dupon teflon lube around the pivots be effective at all?

I don't think so. The ball joints have to be clean and lubricated inside; otherwise, they'll be sticky and shifting will suffer. I don't think applying lube from the outside (without disassembly of the joints) would clean the interior of the joints, nor get lube inside where it's needed.

Dbrick,
I vill do the same.

Did it. Ten minute job. And they needed it.

Is this the order you do things?
First, you remove the shift lever. Easy enough.
Then, you remove the shift lever #1 at the gear box...?
Next, you remove the safety clips?
Thx.

You don't have to remove #1.

Remove pinch bolt #5 in shift lever (I had to pry the black swingarm plastic pivot cover off first)
Remove shift lever #4
Remove both spring clips #11
Pry intermediate shaft #2 off its two ball joints
Remove shift lever shaft #3

Keep track of the foam shields (#10) and the metal ring (#9). On my bike, the two bushings #8 remained in place.

Clean, lube, reassemble in reverse order.

My "foam shields" (part #10) were long gone. I replaced them when I had the linkage apart.

That was my next question Kristall. Guess I'll order a few before I start. Shipping will likely cost most than the parts, but I'll enjoy the M&Ms.

Also might mention that it would be a good idea to mark the orientation of the shift lever (4) to the shaft (3) before it's taken apart.

dbrick wrote:Remove pinch bolt #5 (I had to pry the black swingarm plastic pivot cover off first)
Remove shift lever #4
Remove both spring clips #11
Pry intermediate shaft #2 off its two ball joints
Remove shift lever shaft #3

Keep track of the foam shields (#10) and the metal ring (#9). On my bike, the two bushings #8 remained in place.

Clean, lube, reassemble in reverse order.

Thanks for dumbing it down. This is very helpful. I'll give it another shot.

Hi, I'm just about to do this maintenance this weekend. One of you above mentioned simply using motor oil -- any idea whether what you lube it with matters? Why not a light synthetic grease or something?

Mark

I did the linkage lube with "Kupferpaste" from Weicon,copper and Graphite micro particles,efficiently separating sliding parts,resistent to water,splashes,salt etc.temperature stability -20C to1,100C.BTW excellent for Splin lube as well.You can buy at Volvo dealerships.Satisfaction-period.Once try it and will stick with it.Wery good stuff(made in E.C.)precisely in Germany.It is NOT for bearings.Works perfect on sliding surfaces,and as an antisease.Ball joints-OK.

It works for me.
Steve H.

griffi wrote:Hi, I'm just about to do this maintenance this weekend. One of you above mentioned simply using motor oil -- any idea whether what you lube it with matters? Why not a light synthetic grease or something?

Mark

Hi Mark,

That was me - if you re-read what I posted - the motor oil is used if you don't want to take it apart. Grease won't wick into a gap, motor oil will. If the linkage is being disassembled - then grease would be fine. If you want to do it quickly - like when you're changing the oil - then a drop of motor oil on the shaft, and on each pivot point will work just fine.