Need a clutch guru - 94 R1100rs

So I bought a 94 R100rs with bad clutch... (turned out to be worst I've ever seen - no trace of friction material remaining at all on the friction disk). The bike is low mileage, 26K but was all city driving, stoplight to stoplight, lots-o-shifting.

I bought and installed the complete clutch pack kit from beemerboneyard. I have the correct/official alignment tool for reassembly. I tightened it to 18Nm per Chris Harris/youtube, (I know other places say 40Nm + angle but that would make this issue even worse)...

Problem is, there is very little play left in the spring after tightening the cover plate. The tightening seems to flatten the spring and the actuation rod will be all the way forward in the transmission tube when it contacts the spring.
It had the old style rod without felt ring so I bought a new rod, thinking maybe the rod length changed over the years, but new rod was same length as the old one.

Could there be a bad batch of springs out there from Sachs?
The "clutch housing", or what I call flywheel, does not appear to be worn at all so the spring should not be sitting low in that housing.
The thrust piston looks fine, not worn, but it has to be so far forward in the tube before it contacts the rod that the lever cannot reach it.

Anyone offer an aftermarket heavy-duty spring that would stand up better under tightening?
What else could it be? I used to think I was good at fixing clutches, but am now totally stumped.

I have a 94 R1100RS and I had the clutch replaced on my bike by my local BMW dealership. I purchased the bike new. There were issues. I took my bike into the dealership to have the clutch splines lubricated. Since the bike was (at the time) about 26 years old with more than 55k miles on it I decided to have them replace the rear engine oil seal and clutch.

The cost was about $2000. They called to say that the bike was ready for me to pick-up. As I was leaving home I got a call saying that there was an issue with the clutch that was revealed during the final check-out ride. Subsequently it was found that BMW had made some changes with the clutch (don't recall all of the details) and the dealer needed to get some different parts. No additional cost to me, but lots more labor for them. I guess that BMW HQ didn't widely disseminate the information to dealers when the clutch parts were changed.

The 94 R1100RS has operated well since then.

Oh geez that's just great! 2K just for the work you had done and with a special tool yet. My '93 RSL has just 13K miles (every one put on by me) and never sees in town riding and has never seen a BMW dealer for anything but recalls early on. I've lubed the input shaft splines actually before I even put the first mile on it so I'm pretty confident in that regard. I've always assumed a clutch replacement would be not much different from the same on an airhead. Maybe I'm wrong?

I like the RSL and only wish it had been built by someone other than BMW like maybe Honda or Yamaha. Talk about lousy documentation and expensive parts and maintenance. Grrrrrrrr.....

jammess said:

Oh geez that's just great! 2K just for the work you had done and with a special tool yet. My '93 RSL has just 13K miles (every one put on by me) and never sees in town riding and has never seen a BMW dealer for anything but recalls early on. I've lubed the input shaft splines actually before I even put the first mile on it so I'm pretty confident in that regard. I've always assumed a clutch replacement would be not much different from the same on an airhead. Maybe I'm wrong?

I like the RSL and only wish it had been built by someone other than BMW like maybe Honda or Yamaha. Talk about lousy documentation and expensive parts and maintenance. Grrrrrrrr.....

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Voni's 'March '93 build ('94 title) R1100RS has over 400,000 miles. BMW replaced the original transmission. I did the clutch at 90,000 and 283,000 miles. I find the BMW Factory Repair Manual to be completely sufficient.

PGlaves said:

Voni's 'March '93 build ('94 title) R1100RS has over 400,000 miles. BMW replaced the original transmission. I did the clutch at 90,000 and 283,000 miles. I find the BMW Factory Repair Manual to be completely sufficient.

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If you're willing to spend the money, the factory guide pins to help you get the transmission out are really helpful.

I left the final drive and transmission together as a unit and pulled them together. The neutral switch lives behind the swingarm on the back of the trans, so I wound up cutting that lead and splicing in a nice Molex 4 pin connector. I rolled them out from under the bike on a transmission jack.

It's not a bad job. If you don't want to spend the money on the pins, you can use bolts and lop the heads off.

The OG clutch parts got updated, so you'll wind up buying all the bits if you're swapping out the original clutch pack.

It’s been a few years since I replaced mine. Are you sure the clutch disc is not installed backwards?

PGlaves said:

Voni's 'March '93 build ('94 title) R1100RS has over 400,000 miles. BMW replaced the original transmission. I did the clutch at 90,000 and 283,000 miles. I find the BMW Factory Repair Manual to be completely sufficient.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I also have a Haynes manual as well as the FSM and between the two I think I'll be fine if the need ever arises to do a clutch job. Actually, at my stage of life the odds are I'll never have to get into the clutch other than an adjustment which is simple. Transmission removal without driveshaft, final drive and rear wheel removal is the way to go for sure. Took me just a couple hours to lube the splines on my departed 1150RT at 60K miles and the 1100RSL with zero miles at the time. I guess we'll never know why the splines on the 1150 only partially engage the clutch. In fact if I didn't know better I would guess the driveshaft splines on the early R1100 were inherited from the airhead. Other than fretting which can be prevented the 1100 and airhead splines are pretty trouble free. Then we have the latest and greatest from der fatherland with their corrosion prone drive train issues. BMW = One step forward two steps back.