wow. my ball joint on my telelever ripped out.

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 4:10 pm

anyone ever heard of this?

driving down the road on the highway, the balljoint had unthreaded its self from the fork plate, and the balljoint ripped out of its mount. was very interesting getting it stopped without dieing. so its at the dealer now getting fixed.

me thinks ill be trading it in, or perhaps selling it.
04 rockster w/ 25k on it.

Post by **MattPie** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:10 pm

halogrinder wrote:driving down the road on the highway, the balljoint had unthreaded its self from the fork plate, and the balljoint ripped out of its mount. was very interesting getting it stopped without dieing. so its at the dealer now getting fixed.

I'm pretty sure I've never heard of anyone with this issue on this board. Wow.

What kind of rider are you? Agreesive? Tourer?

Post by **DJ Downunder** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:00 pm

I've never heard of this...ever.

Have you been doing wheelies..

..and slaming the front wheel back down?..

DJ

GTR350cc · Post by **GTR350cc** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:55 am

Prior owner?

Did your own wrenching to that assembly?

Dealer service mis-step?

Or bad part and connectors wearing out prematurely?

riceburner · Post by **riceburner** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:00 am

Happened to me twice.

Mind you - 30mph into an immovable object (eg a Land Rover) will do that....

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:15 pm

im pretty aggresive. this is my daily driver. the ball joint unthreaded its self.... so im thinking it just wasnt tight enough when i got it. wierd.

original owner.
the ball joint had never been serviced or touched in past repairs.

GTR350cc · Post by **GTR350cc** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:24 pm

Well, that's a bad happenstance for sure. Sorry it happened and glad you controlled your 'descent'. Don't blame you for not liking the thing anymore -- it betrayed you.

Post by **NoRRmad** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:35 pm

Hm. I'm just back from looking at a parts diagram of that assembly. Did you get a picture of the damage? From your description, the holddown nut backed off and the telelever popped off the ball assembly. The holddown nut seems to be secured -- or obscured -- by a capnut. Was the capnut still on the bike?

I'd be interested in a description of how the bike felt as you got it to a stop. As you describe the failure, the telelever might have dropped onto the front fender and the bike would have dived. Or the fork bent back, trapping the telelever above it? Maybe the fender failed, letting the telelever hit the tire. Must have been quite a scare. Details? (I've never heard of this failure, either, but a loose or missing holddown nut certainly is something to look out for.)

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:00 pm

no pic of the damage, sorry.

the large nut (the body of the ball joint) that goes into the fork plate, unthreaded. it must have been unthreading for some time now. funny, i rub the bike down by hand with a towl to clean it, and normally am in "inspection" mode looking for problems, but i guess it was over looked. it then pulled the last 3 sets of threads out when i hit the brakes, due to the car in front of me. the ball joint then rocked back and forth in the threaded (or lack of threads) socket, from balljoint lock to lock.

basically when i hit the brakes, the front forks went back and the wheel touched the exhaust, while the balljoint, which was completely unthreaded rocked back and forth in the threaded hole. so i nailed the back brake and it went forward, rocking it the other way, and the forks went forward a good bit. so then in a panic i nailed the front brakes again, the tire REALLY came into the exhaust picking up the back end of the bike. ABS started freaking out cause it saw the front tire locking up, ABS lets go of the front brakes, slamming the back end down. im doing the gas tank rodeo while my legs are over my head.... now that the back end is down again, the forks go forward, ABS sees the front brake rolling again, it applies brakes again, and the whole cycle happend again. it was "interesting" to say the least at 80

riceburner · Post by **riceburner** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:42 am

blimey!!

glad you came out of it ok.

any more news from the dealership??

Beancounter · Post by **Beancounter** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:36 pm

riceburner wrote:Happened to me twice.

Mind you - 30mph into an immovable object (eg a Land Rover) will do that....

And the other time? Or was the second one the ball joint in your hip?

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:17 pm

gonna call them tomorrow. i dropped it off on thursday

riceburner · Post by **riceburner** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:06 am

Beancounter wrote:
riceburner wrote:Happened to me twice.

Mind you - 30mph into an immovable object (eg a Land Rover) will do that....
And the other time? Or was the second one the ball joint in your hip?

25-30mph into an Astra.

(Rock 1)

DYNAMICS · Post by **DYNAMICS** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:52 pm

Hi.
are you refering to the big nut (14) on top of the bottom yoke under the black plastic cover?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=31&fg=15

Riceburner

I suppose the mileage you cover in a year that you are bound to have a few "nasty moments" any long term problems or are you all sorted?

Brian.

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:40 pm

no im talking about 13. the actual ball joint. it acts as a nut into 11. it unthreaded and walked back and forth in the threaded bore of 11

DYNAMICS · Post by **DYNAMICS** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:58 am

Thank you.

Something to check every now and again for sure.

It looks as though you would have to strip the joint to properly test the torque of that big nut.

Probably best to get someone to feel the joint whilst I push the bike forward and jab the brake lever a few times. Or get someone to sit on the bike (To stop it falling off the centre stand) whilst I push/pull the front fork and feel for play.

Brian.

DYNAMICS · Post by **DYNAMICS** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 8:05 am

After looking at a few high res' images and my Haynes manual, you should be able to test the tightness of that lower nut, as the lower part (Cup) should spin around the top part (Ball).

If you have a big spanner that is!

My Haynes manual gives a torque of 230Nm for the "Ball joint in lower fork bridge"

riceburner · Post by **riceburner** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:12 am

DYNAMICS wrote:Hi.
are you refering to the big nut (14) on top of the bottom yoke under the black plastic cover?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=31&fg=15

Riceburner

I suppose the mileage you cover in a year that you are bound to have a few "nasty moments" any long term problems or are you all sorted?

Brian.

Aye - that's the way I look at it.

I'm about 99% at present i think. get an infrequent issue with my right knee from an accident about 8/9 years ago - but that's pretty much it.

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:51 pm

so another week passes, and i might get it next week....

at least they are very nice

halogrinder · Post by **halogrinder** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:17 pm

jesus. i got it back today. its been almost *exactly* a month.

question for you all, and please comment about this.

i work in a VERY professional dealership, (carmaker, 3 letter word

) and i didnt realize the huge effort of customer service that was put outwards, compared to my service visit with my bike.

this is the most major repair i have ever had on the bike, and the first time i left it overnight (well, how about over a month). i wanted to know the experiance that you all get at the dealers when you service the bike.

do they wash the bike? mine wasnt washed. in fact it was dirtier than when i dropped it off.

do they give you paper work about the warranty repair? no paper work given.

do they go over the complaints with you, and tell you what was fixed? i had to get them to explain what they did (and didnt do)

i had to ask why these things wernt taken care of, and ill i got were, "we couldnt see anything wrong with it" responses, even though i SHOWED them every complaint i had.

things i complained about.

the telelever (obviously)
heated hand grips get stickey when hot
ABS light flashes at me once and a while.
the starter drags when starting almost once a week or so

the only thing that was repaired was the telelever ball joint.

then when i did get the bike a few things were scratched. am i supposed to accept this? i know this wouldnt fly with the dealership i work at. the cheapest car i work on is 36,000, and goes well past 100k. i want to post some pics, but cant seem to upload them here.

the fork bridge that holds the telelever balljoint in, that clamps to the forks is scratched.
the forks themselfs have oil all over them, looks like they took the shocks apart?
the rear splash fender of the front wheel has scratches all over it from the ball joint hitting it.
bike is filthy (that week had been raining, and i didnt have the time to clean it. normally i keep it very very clean)

overall im not too impressed or happy. although they are ordering a starter, and the grips, so that means more time in the shop

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wow. my ball joint on my telelever ripped out.

wow. my ball joint on my telelever ripped out.

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