Just thought I would post a couple of shots of my mess… uh repair. This is the front of the engine centered on the rotor. I pulled off the rectifier bridge assembly also referred to as the "diode board". It still had the stock rubber mounts which commonly fail when they deteriorate with heat.There are multiple, exposed plates on the diode board that are "hot" so any contact with the engine case wouldn't be good. The contacts were so corroded that some of the spade lugs pulled right off when the connectors were removed.
The mess in front of the bike where most of the work is being done. I pulled off the stator, the stationary part of the alternator, but removing the rotor requires a hardened steel tool which has been shipped with the alternator. All of the plastic insulation on the wiring in this area seems brittle. Probably from numerous heat/cool cycles over the last 31 years. All of the wiring has been removed with the exception of the ignition wiring. The new alternator has only two wires that will be run to the regulator/rectifier. The oil on the floor is from a few too many screws being removed.
Since I had dug this far into the bike, I went ahead and removed the starter. It made it easier to access the back of the diode board. It turns out that I have the less desirable, sluggish Bosch starter instead of the newer Valeo model with gear reduction in it's drive train. The change was made in 1983, the year that my bike was manufactured. The starter seemed clean, i.e. no oil or grease in the nose and the nose bushing isn't worn excessively. The sluggish starter behavior is just the way it is with the Bosch unit and it will be upgraded at some point either with the Valeo or the aftermarket Nippon Denso model. The wiring to the starter was corroded and will be replaced with some of the O AWG arc welding cable that I have been using for battery cables.
To get to the starter, the battery and airbox need to be removed and this would be a good opportunity to dress out the wiring. Since I have the battery, airbox and mufflers removed, it will be trivial to pull the transmission enough to renew the grease on the input shaft of the transmission. Just a couple of bolts between the transmission and engine, the clutch cable and the rear swingarm pivots. I think that this is also a bi-annual maintenance item but since it's easy enough to do now, I may as well.
Just a few more of the removed parts and pieces from the bike. The scratches on the side of the tank are from the magnetic mount tank bag. Dirt collects between the flaps with the magnets and the tank.
There is a lot of dirt and grime caked onto everything and I've been toying with a way to clean some of it out. One of the disadvantages of a fairing as it hides all of those areas.
The new alternator is supposed to be delivered today. It's a long weekend so I'm expecting the rig to be back on the road next week! Probably sans cleaning…
Posted with Blogsy
Richard:
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot to be said for doing your own repairs and maintenance. It also helps to have a nice area to do the work
Your bike has actually performed quite nicely all these years and after all your efforts should last a lifetime . . .
wished we had a long weekend down here. Must be Alaska specific. We have a Holiday coming up on February 10th
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
I still enjoy working on things such as the bike as long as parts are readily available. I think that this bike was maintained well and I recognize the stamp of the person doing most of the maintenance before I bought it.
DeleteMonday is Martin Luther King day and it is one of the university wide holidays. I just heard about it yesterday at a meeting. I expect the alternator to be a quick install based on the installation instructions that are available on their web site.
The Uralisti think that dirt/grime is what holds some components together or prevents further leaking....just a thought. :)
ReplyDeleteMan, you've really gone deep on this teardown....
In this case, the dirt/grime makes it more difficult to work on the wiring. Most of it is hidden by all of the fairing and other pieces so it's pretty buried.
DeleteThe only new tear down location is under the timing cover. I've never had a reason to venture there.
Richard, this is like a trip to middle earth. It also reminds me of an old British comedy album my Dad had: Flanders & Swann and a tune titled "the gas man cometh". It was a long tale of home repair gone wrong starting, and ending, with someone painting over the tap for the gas.
ReplyDeleteYou are clearly a competent BMW mechanic, so I feel no sense of dread that this might be a nver-ending one-way trek into the abyss.
Please carry on.
I hope there aren't any trolls lurking in the bottom of the engine!
DeleteI guess I'm feeling little to no dread either just want to get on the road again. It's been ten days!
I found the same caked on dirt and grime when I removed my fairing. I'm cleaning as much as I can just because it feels right to do it. I really would rather just bolt on the shiny new bits and be done, but somehow that just seems wrong.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that a little soap and water may be in order before buttoning things back up. I see my mistake now, I used the flash on the camera. Without it, you can hardly see any of it!
DeleteGood thing you know what you are doing Richard.
ReplyDeleteAnother assumption. This is 30 year old technology and back then, change came slowly. I'm still stuck in that era...
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