F800GT Valve Check/Adjust

2013 F800GT, 44xxx miles. Does the radiator have to be drained & removed to check valve clearance? I’m attempting to do a valve check but I can’t move the radiator out of the way. According to the Haynes manual I’ve removed the necessary fasteners, not the hoses because I don’t want to change the coolant at this point, but the radiator doesn’t budge to allow removal of the radiator heat shield.

I just got this bike and there’s no record that the valves have been checked so I wanted to take advantage of the Winter to get it ready for Spring. Service access is not a strong point of this bike.

Assuming the GT is the same as my wife's ST, then yes, the rad needs to come out. It's not really a big deal to remove it. Good time to also replace the spark plugs. The coolant change, while not in your plans is your choice since its drained, it only holds a couple liters so not a major expense.

Now if you want a really service challenging bike, come work on my K1200GT, you'll love the simplicity of your GT by comparison.

Thanks Ed. You were right, there isn’t a lot of coolant to replace. My attempt to just loosen the radiator was to avoid adding to the pile of parts.

mcmxcivrs said:

. The coolant change, while not in your plans is your choice since its drained, it only holds a couple liters so not a major expense.

.

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Do the F bikes need to use vacuum when refilling the coolant?

Lee said:

Do the F bikes need to use vacuum when refilling the coolant?

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I know it's recommended for the GS's, but you can get away without the vacuum it if you're careful. I followed the procedure here, but rocked the bike back and forth 4 or 5 time before I even started it up as I know it doesn't take a lot of air to cause problems. I squeezed on the hoses a bit too. Each time I would get another little burp when I opened the bleed bolt by the pump. Also, after I rode the bike a couple times, I again opened up the bleeder bolt.

Lee said:

Do the F bikes need to use vacuum when refilling the coolant?

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No, there is a bolt you remove for an air bleed at the water pump area to allow the engine case to refill.

The vacuum method is used on some bikes because the rad cap is lower than the top of the engine and its the only way to fully fill it.

Using a vacuum tool makes the job really easy. It was a good investment.

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RadioFlyer said:

Using a vacuum tool makes the job really easy. It was a good investment.

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

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Which make/model of vacuum did you go with?

drneo66 said:

Which make/model of vacuum told did you go with?

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I bought an Airlift after watching this video (similar but not identical procedure for the F800s).

https://youtu.be/Sb3PDFVvnY4

If you have the BMW service manual you can follow its instructions just substituting the Airlift for the BMW tool.