'85 K100RT Clutch & Drive Spline Lube- Official schedule?

Greetings!

As it's second owner, I've had my 1985 K100RT for about 18 years. It currently has 81,886 miles on it, and with some careful consideration along the way, it still purrs right down the road.

One thing I am having conflict with is a DEFINITIVE answer on the schedule of getting the clutch and drive splines lubed. All along, until now, I've always thought it was 10k miles for both. Recently, I was told at a dealer it is about 20k miles for both.

Does anyone have the answer to what the official BMW reccomendation is on the schedule for this service? I certainly don't want to "wait until it is hard to downshift", and other ideas like that.

Also, there is a small hole under the transmission that over the years, a very little bit of oil has begun to drip out of. I am thinking the culprit is the main seal between the engine and the transmission. If so, couldn't I get this seal replaced at the time of the next clutch spline lube?

Thanks!

Dale Dervin

Been there with an '85 RT. Sometimes, I wish I still had the thing. I've heard of people having vibration problems with some of the K100's but in my experience, "purrs" describes the smoothness of that model perfectly.

I too could never get a solid answer on the spline lube, with answers varying from, "12k," to "only when the clutch begins to feel stiff."

Lacking a definitve answer, I elected to have it done every 18k, which meant it fell as part of another scheduled service. The clutch never got stiff.

I also saw an occasional drip from the weep hole in the case. Usually, after the thing had set up for the winter. But I never lost enough oil in that particular bike that any additional was called for between changes.

And welcome to the Forums!

Thanks for the response!

Yes, the oil drip is just that- about 2 or 3 drops of oil. Of course I remember it would never leak a drop, and my other buddys who had them and I used to joke that we could park OUR bikes in our living rooms unlike OTHER certain American bikes! Of course the idea was always vetoed by our significant others, but one buddy got away with it for awhile! I'd rather sit with the stereo on and stare at my bike than watch TV these days!

Of course I still very urgently need information about the clutch and drive spline lube schedules if anyone has the definitive information. The main reason is I recently obtained an "official" BMW maintenance schedule from a dealer for the K Models, and it seemed very in depth, which I was happy to see- except it completely neglected to mention either the clutch spline or drive spline lubes! AHHHH! How could that be?

Thanks!

D.

ddervin said:

Thanks for the response!

Yes, the oil drip is just that- about 2 or 3 drops of oil. Of course I remember it would never leak a drop, and my other buddys who had them and I used to joke that we could park OUR bikes in our living rooms unlike OTHER certain American bikes! Of course the idea was always vetoed by our significant others, but one buddy got away with it for awhile! I'd rather sit with the stereo on and stare at my bike than watch TV these days!

Of course I still very urgently need information about the clutch and drive spline lube schedules if anyone has the definitive information. The main reason is I recently obtained an "official" BMW maintenance schedule from a dealer for the K Models, and it seemed very in depth, which I was happy to see- except it completely neglected to mention either the clutch spline or drive spline lubes! AHHHH! How could that be?

Thanks!

D.

Click to expand...

According to sources in the know. The spline lube should be done every other tire change, or about 20K. The clutch lube, on bikes newer than 85, should be done every 40K.

If your shifting has become notchy, you may need a clutch lube early, especially when downshifting.

I got my information form several sources that all agree. This site has a lot of great tech info on the K bikes. Click here for the IBMWR Web site K-bike tech articles.

PM or e-mail me if you like,

Jim

Just realized you have an 85. The factory originally called for the clutch and spline lube to be done every 10K. However, I believe that has been revised since then.

Check out this guyTed Verrill he is very sharp and knowledgable.

Jim

Any other opinions?

I'm looking for someone who had some BMW documentation on the subject.

Thanks!

DSD