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Well, that made me feel like a newbie

88bmwjeff

SF Bay Area
It's been a few years since I've been able to work on the bike (it was in storage for a while). I changed the engine oil and transmission oil and it seemed to take me forever and filling the tranny was troublesome. I got it after a while, but it seemed much more difficult than I remember. Anyway, bike has some fresh oil and I feel better now. Time for a ride tomorrow.
 
Maintenance by mileage or months or memory?

These airheads were made to be maintained by anyone. Me for instance! But if one only gets to do certain procedures once a year (or so) it is difficult if not impossible to remember the most subtle techniques involved. When I began my career/hobby as an airhead wrench I had some very knowledgeable mentors but, only performing a complete service once a year exposed gaps in my competence only repetition could close. That was 50 years ago. Owning more than one or two airheads (or in my case dozens) at a time produced a knowledge base covering as you might expect nearly all aspects of general maintenance and repair. Fortunately there are some extremely talented and knowledgeable people cranking out videos-for-fun that make up for lapses in time and memory and the limited number of machines at your disposal. And there is this forum. I was not lucky enough to be able to switch on a computer in 1973 and watch someone replace wheel bearings. There were few talented people in my area to call on for help. How many times in a year will you perform a valve adjustment on your bike? Even once a year is not sufficient to learn and repeat this process year to year. So don’t feel bad. Have quality tools and parts to do the job at hand - and watch the videos. I do. Ask for help and try not to break **** :)
 
Going through the same process myself....been 50 years since I did anything to a /5. Learning anything brings a sense of accomplishment, learning it all over again is giving me that same feeling of accomplishment. Good luck, enjoy the process, and have fun.
 
Lately

Lately I have been getting a lot of practice on removing final drives. Both of my bikes have had the seal fail in the final drive. Practice makes perfect? LOL it makes for less blue air in the garage and bad name calling of BMW design people.

One thing I will comment on here is the sad state of the newest Clymer manual. During the winter and rebuilding my RT, I referred to it a couple of times for help and found it to be useless and confusing. Thank God for Brook Reams and Will at Boxer Two Valve as well as Anton Largidare, and my friend at the local airhead shop. Without them, the bike would still be on the bench.

All of us guys who wrench on airheads part time have to support each other now as corporate BMW does not care about us. Oh I will admit BMW parts are far more available for our bikes than any other brand but how much of this is due to BMW corporate's doing?

I for one am willing to help out either by having someone stop by my place and use my lift and tools or to go to their place if need be and they are not too far away. I am also lucky to have an airhead only shop near by and while the owner is semi retired he will work on most anything from 95 and older.

Enjoy the ride despite the crazy things we do when wrenching. St.
 
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