1150 GS, no clutch lever pressure
 

Hi,

just in the last 50 miles I have gone from a clutch I didn´t think about, to no pressure at the lever. the reservoir has plenty of fluid in it, and there are no signs of a leak. If I pump the lever I do get enough pressure in the system to change gear, but that´s about it.

So, I´m sort of stuck in Almeria now. Can´t believe it, rode back from Bamako without a front brake, only to now get stuck without a clutch!

any advice greatfully received.

thanks,
Doug

Doug, its easy to ride with no clutch. Start it in gear and select neutral before stopping. You will soon get the knack of it. I once rode about for over a week with no clutch cable while waiting for a new one.

John

Sounds like the seals on the master cylinder have failed. I have no clue as to whether BMW have an overhaul kit with new seals and a piston available, or its just a straight swap.

To get to BMW shop you might just have to read the road a bit more. Look for places to stop on down grades so that you can roll start into second gear. Have your finger hovering over the stop button in traffic.

You can up and down change without a clutch, its just a slightly slower action and you need to accurately match engine and road speeds more carefully than when you use a clutch.

It can be hard on the clutch plate centre until you get it perfected, so try and get it fixed asap.

Your in a place with internet acess .. they must have some brake fluid around .. buy it ..
Determine if it is the master cyclinder of slave that is at fault (sounds like the master) then take it apart - clean - new fluid and try it .. you might have some dirt in there .. some new seals would not hurt .. but if you can get it working so you can ride on while the new parts travel towards you so much the better...

I managed to get up to Barcelona, and to a BMW dealer. They want 771 euros to replace the clutch lever/master cylinder, and some other part in the gearbox. No seal kits seem to be available, and they are pretty much refusing to try and bleed any air out of it.

This bike seems almost impossible to get into neutral without the clutch. Up and down shifting are fine though, and I did 500 kms yesterday. I'm not sure starting the bike in first is good, as I may well bugger something else.

cheers,
Doug

You might want to check in ADVRider on this as well, I think I've seen there that this could be caused by air in the hydraulic line, so you might want to check before spending $$$.

There is a maintenance-set for the master-cylinder (part# 32727665445).
I can’t find any maintenance-set for the slave-cylinder, the cylinder should be less then 100€. It’s a 24mm cylinder and it should be possible to find a fitting seal.


From what you describe it sounds like there is air in the hydraulic-system, I would have bled it before I did anything else. Top up the fluid to max and keep an eye on it.
The master-cylinder should be easy to open and clean, not sure about the slave-cylinder.

yeah, I think there's air in there too. At the very least it's a quick job for the dealer to check, before replacing every part.

this trip has been an eye-opener with regards to travelling by BM, and BM dealers.

cheers the the suggestions. stupid question, where does one find the bleed valve?

thanks

I have never bled the clutch on a R1150GS.

There is a description here: Clutch Bleed it’s based on that you have a “SpeedBleeder” but I’m sure it can be done with ordinary tools.

For some reason BMW changed the bleed-mechanism in 2003.
I seem to remember that someone else had the same symptoms and changed the slave-cylinder. It should be easy to spot, if you ca get it out…

hi,

thanks. I have been reading and there seems to be a grub screw type of thing, that most people replace with a standard bleed nipple. this bike has that grub screw still, which makes bleeding either very difficult or impossible with just the standard toolkit.

I tried moving the bike last night, closer to my hostel. And poked around for the bleeding options. It was while I was doing this that a pool of brake fluid fell out of the bottom of the bike. This seems a good thing, as it confirms the slave cylinder is the problem. I guess it started as a very small leak (no fluid seemed to be leaking initially), and has now gone completely. The BMW dealer has said they must order the part from Germany, taking a week.

thanks for your help. It seems if your bike has this grub screw, it is a very good idea to change it to a standard bleed nipple, so as not to leave yourself stranded and in need of special tools to bleed the clutch system.

cheers,
Doug

The leaking fluid would suggest slave cylinder or flexible hose, it's common for them to rust out at the "banjo" fixing on the slave.

Re- Grub srew.
Is the grub screw you refere to set in the end of a hose tied to the frame?

If it is, you don't need any special tools in an emergency, all it does is cover a spring loaded ball bearing that your supposed to open by screwing a "special" bleed nipple into.

In fact pressing that ball bearing with anything "pointy" will open it, so you could "in emergency" probably bleed the clutch with nothing more than a ballpoint pen or toothpick!
Though I'd recomend a fine screwdriver, Simple (once the grub srew is out).




(edit- The above tells you how the valve works, I'm assuming you know the rest, i.e how to bleed it, if not find someone who does)
:thumbup1:

ok, cool. the bike is back on its way to the BMW dealer, unfortunately. I´m not too hopeful, as my experience so far is that they only wish to replace as many parts as they can. Rather than try and see which individual part is broken.

If the slave-cylinder is leaking and you are at BMW-workshop I think it’s right to change it.

Even if there had been a maintenance-kit for the cylinder available it takes time to overhaul it (if it’s done properly it’s not just to change the seal). In the western world time is money so this doesn’t make sense as long as the cylinder is less then 100€.

On the other hand the whole system should be cleaned thoroughly to make sure there is no debris in the fluid. Do you change the fluids regularly?

Didn’t you have a problem with your brake? What happened?

You may have been better off with a small garage brake speciallist in Morocco .. they would try to find the cause and fix it using avalible bits they had ... might not have been a 'perfect' fix but at least you'd know what fails, where it is and how to fix it so you can carry on.

The bmw dealer should give you the parts they replace (tell them that before they do the work .. so they don't throw them in teh bin fiull of other old bits!) .. so later you can dissassemble them and find out what did go wrong and see if you can find parts .. at a speciallist 'seal shop' for instance.

The BMW/Honda dealer in Barcelona, called Control 94, are terrible and very unhelpful.

the bike is now at another BMW dealer here, called Cano Catallunya on Calle Numancia. They are quite helpful guys, and at least put the bike on a stand to try and see what was wrong. However, they are still (in my opinion) hugely over-quoting.

The slave cylinder is 110 euro. They are saying that they must split the engine to replace it (???), for 300 euros. They are also insisting that the clutch needs replaced. They want 500 euros more, and it takes 2 days.

I think the bike will need to go home by van. I don't have the tools or knowledge, but I think the BMW dealers here are taking the p*ss. Unless I'm just not used to BMW culture, which seems to be replacing parts before they fail.