K11 Owners Group

Jim · Last edited by Jim on Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

I rode up to Rich's last Sunday - we were going to do a little work on the bike - and then go riding. The traffic jam on the BW Parkway did not augur well - an omen for what was to come, I guess.

Finally got there and we started pulling parts off the bike while it was cooling down. The radio comes out.

Rich uses shish kebab skewers - they're reusable. I have a very small scratch awl in the tool kit I use to remove the radio.

Rich has this cool little tool for pulling the spark plug boots.

The handle is kind of small - if the boots don't have silicone on them, they can be very difficult to pull off. Make sure there is nothing sharp behind you when you go flying backward.

The first two wires from the front (#1 and #2) have a little slack - helpful when the boot lets loose and sends you rapidly away from the bike. The third wire is shorter.

Ooops... it takes Rich a little while to take the boot apart

and effect a repair. HINT Change plugs one at a time. Remove the plug lead/wire for the plug you are changing from the coil and make sure the cable is free - that way the entire cable goes with you in one piece when you go flying backward!

Got the iridium plugs in - and a new air filter. The NGK iridium plugs I got did not come with the little screw on caps. Had to buy a set of cheap NGK plugs just to get the threaded caps. If you switch to NGK iridium - make sure you have threaded caps available.

Here's the Carbtune connected - synch the butterfly valves first

Initial reading

About halfway through

Done with the butterfly valves

And the throttle bodies

I didn't have one of those cool little tools for pulling the plug boots. A trip to Sears for a 4 pack of pick tools, $9.99 + a trip to the local welding shop, $42.50 = an easy to use boot puller - priceless. If you live in a part of the country that has fabrication and welding shops on every other corner, you could probably get that little job done for $10 or $15 - I'm lucky to even have a welding shop that charges outrageous prices...

To facilitate boot removal in the future, use this

5/16" fuel hose is perfect to slide over the tab on the boot cover

Make sure the piece of hose is short enough to leave the hole in the tab showing

Final result

This gives you a little cushion between the plug boot and the socket - should you have to use the mallet.

Since you've used silicone grease on the boot, you probably won't need the rubber mallet - you should be able to push the boot right on - a 3/8" or metric equivalent socket with an extension bar works well. If you don't feel the boot snap on, a light tap with the rubber mallet will get the job done

I initially wanted to do a comparison between Rich's Carbtune and my Carbmate - but my battery died. I plugged my ChargX in, but it's too slow. We connected Rich's battery charger and got the bike running again.

Rich thought I forgot to put the sidestand down

If the battery hadn't died, we could probably have put the bikes side by side so you could get a better idea of the lean angle on my K. Rich felt sorry for me - and the K - and gave me a sidestand puck he realized he couldn't use. Thank you, Rich Very Happy

. Apparently Rich's bike was lowered by the previous owner - the puck would leave his bike almost vertical. I'm used to the lean angle of the K on the sidestand - haven't ever given it too much thought. I'll definitely try the puck, though. When I park the bike, I have to make sure it's on a fairly level surface - with just a little slope, it leans way, scary over.

Rich's plug wire repair got me home - the plug wire has been replaced. The air filter we took out had about 16,000 miles on it - it was pretty clean. I kept it - I'll blow it out with the air gun and put it back in when this one needs to be replaced.

The new Odyssey PC680 battery will be here tomorrow. They only list it fitting through '95, but the dimensions seem to be the same as the Panasonic batteries I've been using - it should work.

9/01/08 Odyssey update - I don't know if I got the wrong Odyssey battery, or if they simply don't make one that works with our bikes. I had to straighten the end of the positive cable, and use one of the bolts that came with the battery to bolt the + cable and the other stuff I have connected to that terminal down flat to the battery. I also had to straighten one of the ground leads - not the one with the heavy angle piece, and use one of the L brackets that came with the battery for the ground side of everything. I guess I should try to get some pix of that set up for you in case you're interested in switching to an Odyssey. http://www.odysseybattery.com/batteries.html

Even after doing all that, the positive bolt still stuck up a little more than I was comfortable with. I have two layers of epdm roofing material (kind of like a very thick inner tube, but with stranded fiberglass in it) glued to the bottom of the Motronic bracket. To keep the + bolt head from wearing on the epdm, I added two large flat rubber washers that fit over the + bolt head.
_________________
Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - still has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repaired!
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

Mystic Red · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject:

Some nice tips there Jim, thanks. Lots of good pictures but be careful, Duck might move it to pictures forum. Laughing

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Scott Hespelt, '94 K11LT
K11 OG #466

Flying Duck · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject:

Scott_Anderson · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject:

I may have to try an look at it agian later. no pics visible. only the little X's where they are supposed to be.
_________________
Ride safe.

1995 K1100LT 0302044
2017 FLHTK Ultra Limited
Garmin StreetPilot 2820
Garmin Zumo 550
Garmin Zumo XT
"One who does not ask questions is ashamed to learn" Danish proverb
1997 K1100LT 0302488(R.I.P.)
1997 R1100RT ZC62149(sold)

johnpeter · Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 20 Location: Los Alamitos, SoCal

drmalacarne · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject:

I can't see the pics, too!! Mad

Only a X box.
Guilherme.
_________________
1994 K1100LT SE n° 0267
1998 HD Heritage Springer 95th anniversary
Yes, a Hog and a Beemer can live together!

Off the grid · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject:

No pics here either, but they were there at the beginning.

Shame too, was a very informative thread!
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Bane of your existence since July 2006
2007 Triumph Tiger ABS. "Sabertooth"
2009 Husqvarna TE610. "The dirty Italian mistress"

Jim · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:29 pm Post subject: pix fixed

sorry about that - I accidentally deleted the album from the host site.
_________________
Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - still has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repaired!
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

RAL88 · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject:

The plug puller that I use I bought from Pep Boys. It is used for installing the springs on a cars drum brakes.

Rich
_________________
Rich

"If it ain't broke, take it apart and make it work better"
*************
'96' K1100LT-SE
'97' R850GS-R

flatgunphil · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:27 pm Post subject:

Nice use of tools. How do you synch the TB's? I know about using the brass screws, but how to adjust the painted ones?

Phil

owrstrich · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject:

very interesting...

nice post there jimboner...

im gonna have to do all that purty much sooner than later... starting to get the buzz... and the plugs and wires got 18k on them...

j o
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yeeeeeehaaaaaaa...

Jim · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject:

Jim · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:00 am Post subject:

flatgunphil · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:48 am Post subject:

I have the carb stix or whatever they are called. And an assortment of small wrenches and screwdrivers. What do you use for a proceedure? All I know is what I have read--usually it says "do not touch the screws with paint under penalty of death"... Do you do the brass screws first or the painted ones?

Phil

tmarshall57 · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:19 am Post subject:

I believe you are not supposed to touch the painted ones as they control how each throttle "flap" is synchronised with the adjacent ones. The brass ones control the airflow.

I think the above could probably be explained a little better - I just wanted to advise not to touch the painted screws.
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K1100RS Special Edition 1997
Arctic Silver/Black

Jim · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:08 am Post subject:

CheapJapCopy · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject:

For those not willing to fabricate a special tool, I find beefy pliers pull the plug caps on and off nicely.
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1992 K1100RS - Red and gold.

BMGraeme · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

+1 on the pliers. I also use a rubber mallet to "tap" them back on as they need a little persuasion.
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1980 CB900FA
1994 K1100RS
2008 R1200GSA

RAL88 · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:14 pm Post subject:

I have an article off of the IBMWR website written by Rob Lentini on how to do the butterfly sync. This is the article I used to to sync my butterflies when I was putting my bike together. The way it was explained to me by a very knowledgable person in Denver was this.

BMW synced the butterflies using a mechanical guage. This was sloppy but quick and the way to overcome the slopiness was to use the brass vacuum screws. The butterflies are important at the lower RPMS between ide and ~4500-5000 rpm. Once the butterflies are open past this they are so wide open that you would not notice the difference if they are out of sync. By syncing the butterflies themselve it really smooths out the engine and vibration at the lower rpms. Once you have the butterflies synced you you use the brass screws just to fine tune it. I think that my bike and Jim's are good examples that you can do the butterfly sync, and touch those never to be touched painted screws easily without adverse effects and with smoother benefits. This article which I have a hard copy of is no longer on the IBMWR K-tech section and what was told to me is that there were so many people screwing it up that they took it off. It is really easy to do as Jim can verify and I don't know how someone could mess it up.

Rich
_________________
Rich

"If it ain't broke, take it apart and make it work better"
*************
'96' K1100LT-SE
'97' R850GS-R

chopper_harris · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:36 am Post subject:

If you can achieve a balance across the four bodies with the brass bypass screws alone, you have no need to mess with the throttle body interconnects.

If the PO has been 'fettling', and there is a gross imbalance, then yes you may need to do this.
If you can trim out the imbalance from the brass screws alone, that is all you should do.

If it is not broken, do not try to fix it Wink

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