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Impact wrench or Breaker bar

Was it blue locktite? Red is usually the toughest one.

To me, Blue Locktite is #242. Its for non permanant lcoking. Put it on the idle screw of a carburator that is vibrating out. It will keep it in place unless you keep messing with the screw.

Red or 272 is more permanent. It cures with out the presence of air. Dries a hard plastic. 200*F will break it loose. I use a propane or butane torch. Keep the flame on the bolt and off the paint. Give it time.

For the paralever bearings, the small ones, I cleaned all the locktite off, torqued the bolts. After a week I re adjusted them and marked them with a paint pen. They have not moved in a year+.

Still tight.




Glad you got your bike apart.
 
Was it blue locktite? Red is usually the toughest one.

I think the stuff BMW uses comes off looking grey. To me anyway. Maybe it was blue when applied but the stuff trapped in the threads when I clean it out appears grey. But I'm told it is the equivalent of what we call blue loctite.
 
I think the stuff BMW uses comes off looking grey. To me anyway. Maybe it was blue when applied but the stuff trapped in the threads when I clean it out appears grey. But I'm told it is the equivalent of what we call blue loctite.

Yeah, the blue looks greyish on Japanese bikes too. I never had to heat it up to break it free though -- not so with the red. It take a four foot pipe on the end of the breaker bar to free that stuff up if you don't use heat.
 
Like I said at the beginning, I haven't really touched a wrench since I was in my twenties and that was quite a while ago. :)

There were blue paint like marks on the end of the bolts when I originally took off the plastic caps. I had no idea what that meant. I now assume that was a factory indicator that it had the German 2701 blue type Loctite. When I finally removed the bolts all I noticed was grayish junk on the bolts.

I realize that those are bolts that you would never want to come loose on their own, but what I dealt with was way overkill IMHO.
 
Loctite makes 20 or so formulations available in the U.S. As noted, the common ones are 242 blue and 272 red but those are just the tip of the iceberg.

Generally thread locker makers, including both Loctite and Permatex have adopted the following general schemes:

Purple = Low strength
Blue = Medium stenght - requires hand tools
Red= in various formulas either high strength or permanent. (Permanent means permanent - don't even try, so read the label)
Green = Wicking applied after the fastener is tight - may be medium or high strength.

You can get liquid, paste, instant drying liquid, and tape with varying numbers and strengths but mostly following the color scheme.

With some types, tape for instance, you can take it apart and tell what color it was. Generally with liquid types unless you use way too much it dries to a gray and comes out looking gray.

As referenced in a post above it appears BMW uses 2701 (used to be 270 in the U.S. but no longer available) on these nuts. I understand from Tom Cutter that 270 is Red, high strength, and both locks and fills the minute gaps in threads with what Tom described as a "glass like" substance when cured. Unless melted this stuff just brings the threads with it if enough force is applied, or the fastener breaks.
 
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I realize that those are bolts that you would never want to come loose on their own, but what I dealt with was way overkill IMHO.

BMW has been known to do that. My favorite is the two, shallow flat headed bolts that secure the rear brake disk to the final drive hubs on several models including K75s and R1100RSs. BMW uses high strength locker here. Now of course if a brake disk came loose it could be a problem, but in this case the four wheel bolts all go through the disk tightly clamping the wheel to the disk and the disk to the hub. And with the wheel in place the little disk bolts can't back out. All they do is keep the disk from falling off when the wheel is off. Certainly low or medium strength locker would have been more than sufficient.
 
Interesting discussion of the various forms of "locking" sealers. BMW has lawyers that don't want your bike to just come apart on its own. They don't really care if you ever get it apart.
 
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