NGC - BMW content but could apply to any bike

[ohiorider]

I've hung onto my BMW R100GS since the day I brought this bike home in March of 1991.  I love this old gal!

These old airheads aren't exactly trouble-free, but over 155,000 miles, problems didn't begin surfacing until the bike hit approx 120,000 miles.  Yes, a clutch plate and a few seals had been replaced at 60,000 miles, but we'd been on several rides out West since then.

Jamie, one of the best BMW wrenches, period, had done the top end in 2012 (valves, guides, springs) and more recently had pulled the tranny and replaced the bearings on the input, intermediate, and output shafts, as well as replacing wear items in the shift mechanism.  Also clutch plate and diaphragm spring.  And seals.

She was running just fine until the other day, when I went out to the garage after a ride to find more than a drop or two of oil on the floor.  it was a stream!  Running toward the floor drain.  I checked the dipstick, and it didn't appear to be engine oil.  So that leaves either the tranny or final drive.

I've talked with Jamie, my one and only BMW wrench, and he's expecting the bike at his independent shop this Saturday.  We're taking it via trailer, one of the few times over nearly 28 years this bike hasn't made it in on its own.

I'm hoping the huge leak is from the final drive, which is about the only thing he hasn't touched over the past several years.  He's one hell of a good Beemer wrench!  And loves airheads!

Regardless, he'll make it right.  He's just that type of person.

Bob

[wrbix]

I’m betting on gearbox rear seal leak into housing of driveshaft...can put a good deal of lube there until the rubber bellows decides to puke .
Since this was noted just after a ride, one would think a final drive seal would’ve announced itself as “no rear braking” during the ride. Doesn’t take much gear lube to kill drum brake

[Kiwi_Roy]

Fork seals can also let go for no apparent reason while parked.

[ohiorider]

Fork seals can also let go for no apparent reason while parked.

Roy, I'm inclined to think it is something in the powertrain, not the forks, though I know where you're coming from on that.  All the leakage is coming from the rear of the bike.

All I know is I want to get the old gal working dependably.  The GS has taken me out West (western USA) 3 times, and over Ohio's roads that border the Appalachian Mountains for more years than I care to count!  I think I want to do one more ride out West on this sweetheart of a bike.

Bob

[SmithSwede]

Keep us posted.   And get your buddy back on the road !

[yogidozer]

Can't you tell if the engine or trans. is low on oil? 

[ohiorider]

Can't you tell if the engine or trans. is low on oil? 

The engine oil level is fine.  Since I'd just spent a bagful of cash on tranny work, I didn't want to get in the middle of determining what had caused the problem.  i'm asking my tech to determine the problem, since the bike had only 500 miles since a bunch of shop work.

Long story short .... it's either the tranny or final drive. 

As I get older, my curiosity is more easily contained.  I can wait to find out where the oil is coming from.

Coming soon.

Bob

[Roebling3]

I've had a few airheads in the distant past. I'm guessing the final drive, too.
Nothing last forever. If it were an oil head or K bike, of the last 10 - 15 years
you wouldn't be at all nostalgic.  R3~

[MadMike]

quick thoughts- Long term owner of 1991 R100GS/PD, 93k on mine. When I removed the solenoids and the fresh air system that fed the exhaust tract, I forgot to cap the top oil port underneath the  air cleaner. This resulted in a massive oil leak. Fast forward twenty plus years and I see the vacuum cap beginning to crack and could possibly let go. Perhaps this has happened to yours. This is one area to check, provided your emissions components "fell off" sometime in the past.

[ohiorider]

quick thoughts- Long term owner of 1991 R100GS/PD, 93k on mine. When I removed the solenoids and the fresh air system that fed the exhaust tract, I forgot to cap the top oil port underneath the  air cleaner. This resulted in a massive oil leak. Fast forward twenty plus years and I see the vacuum cap beginning to crack and could possibly let go. Perhaps this has happened to yours. This is one area to check, provided your emissions components "fell off" sometime in the past.

Yep.  Fell off sometime around .... let me think ..... 1991.  That system was an accident waiting for a place to happen!  If it is the final drive that failed (seal, etc) I hope I only ran for a short distance low on lube.  Believe I will head to the garage when it's a bit warmer this afternoon and pull the fill plug on the final drive.  OK, maybe I can't contain my curiosity until we get to Jamie's shop on Saturday 

Bob

[JJ]

A buddy of mine who moved to northern AZ from VA, bought this beauty last year, R1150GS!  Good bike and he loves it!

[ohiorider]

Love my R80GS!

On my CX I run the red line in the trans, and moly in the rear and dino castorol in the engine.

If there is a spot on the floor it will be "pinkish" from the tranny, black as tar from the rear drive and amber (dark) from the engine.

Nothing like a little color coding....no?

Kirby, I'd love to own a stock R80GS/PD.  Unfortunately,nice examples are demanding more than I want to pay. I like your idea about 'color coding' the three separate lubes.

NOTE:  I did check the fluid levels in
Final Drive:  Could see 80/90 through fill hole.  Bike on center stand.  When wheel rotated forward by hand, lube came close to top of fill hole.
Engine oil level:  At the Full mark, cold engine, on center stand.
What's left?  Tranny. 

Bob





Wish nice examples weren't so expensive!

[guzziart]

The H-D crowd has been putting up with oil leaks & trailers for decades, ain't they??!!

[ohiorider]

Keep us posted.   And get your buddy back on the road !

SmithSwede, my sentiments exactly!

Bob

[ohiorider]

A buddy of mine who moved to northern AZ from VA, bought this beauty last year, R1150GS!  Good bike and he loves it!

They are good bikes!  Thinking back, I owned two Oilheads myself:
- 1995 R1100RS
- 2004 R1150R Rockster
Rode the RS for approx 35,000 miles, and the Rockster for about 17,000 miles.  Didn't regret trading the '95RS, but I should have kept the Rockster for many more years.  It was the first of the twin spark plug Oilheads, and in my opinion, was worlds ahead of the RS.  It was a strong runner, and seemed to develop higher torque at much lower rpm than earlier Oilheads.

Bob

[ohiorider]

After all my thoughts about it either being the tranny or final drive!  And after Tom renting a U Haul trailer, and both of us loading it up and taking it to Jamie's shop today.

It wasn't the rear main seal. either of the tranny seals, or the final drive.

So, what else in the rear of the bike contains fluid?

The shock!

I've ridden bikes for over 500,000 miles, and yes, I've had shocks that were worn out (my 1200 Sport for example,) but none that ever blew seals to the point where the shock created a major fluid leak on the floor.  Not a drop, but a virtual stream of oil.

It wasn't evident in my garage.  The bike had been sitting on the side stand for several weeks.  The shock had no fluid dripping down it.  Apparently, loading the bike on the trailer, pulling it down with tie downs, Tom sitting on it to back it off the trailer, and me riding it up Jamie's rather bumpy road, pumped the shock enough that it had oil running down it in profusion!

Embarrassing to tell this story.  I really have to learn to trust Jamie's work, even when things happen shortly after he works on the bike.
-  The engine firing on one cylinder on the way home from his shop was a failed coil, nothing he'd caused.
-  And now this, not the rear main he'd replaced nor the tranny seals.

She's just an old bike fighting my efforts to keep her on the road!

Bob

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Maybe you have a neighbor who poured a puddle of oil under the bike to see your reaction.