The moron strikes again. A WARNING YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW!

[CARTEEUSMC]

You know somedays I am thought of, for solving other peoples problems, as brilliant, smart, intelligent....."gets it done type of guy".

However when it comes to fixing my rr, the moron always strikes. So a nice ride, short one, yesterday comes with a rattling noise in the front. I knew where it was coming from, it was coming from those little chrome covers for the clock, the sames ones exist for the tach and the speedo. So naturally, you take you little tool kit and you tightening it up....did that. Rode again, and still there, so naturally tighten again right? Enter the moron, lets really put some torque on it and it will be ok, and so thought my alter ego......the thing sprung right off, and for a minute, glistening in the sunset, it was beautiful, landed right on the drive way and was completely broken. The shaft, (the thread part) was still in the clock female end.

So after due process, towels to cover the chrome, pushing the clock out of the instrument panel and with a lot of luck.....I got the thread portion out. Replacement part will be here in 2 days and I guess all is not lost.

So the warning part of this letter.....Never, ever put any amount of force on the chrome washers. Snug will do.

As for the rattling......O rings, can not tell you what size.....(I have a jar full), in the cavity between chrome washers and instrument stopped the rattling.....I took one of the other washers and put it in the clock position to see if it would work. Hooray for me.

The information might come useful if you ever have to change the light bulb in any of the instrumentation.

The chrome washers are beautiful, if you take them out, look at what they are adhered too, that process should be revisited by BMW. Simply not enough there to accomplish the task set for it. And by the way, anyone with a torx wrench can take the instrumentation of your bike. Literally, the chrome washers are the only thing holding the tach, clock, and speedo in..... Someone once said the clock was like 300.00, so I would hate to see what a speedo costs.

God Bless

Safe Riding

The moron, I mean....

[iowabeakster]

thanks for the warning.

the moron thing happens. i have felt that way all day. i replaced an exhaust blower motor on the roof today. i had so many tools and bolts roll off the roof.

it took a bearing puller and an impact hammer drill (borrowed from my auto mechanic across the street, yay dave!) to get the fan off the old motor.

then, i mounted the new motor and fan upside down!

oh well, live and learn

[TicTac50]

CARTEEUSMC.
Don't blame your self too much.
Last summer, while at the Rally, I put my bike on the central stand without realizing that the bike is in the first gear and not completely up on the central stand. Bunch of us just came back from a nice ride and my bike was the beer carrier, since I had the biggest top case. While I was sitting in my chair, in front of at least 6 riders, all are waiting for the beer. I reached over my shoulder to open the top case to get the beer…
My bike goes off the central stand and finds the biggest tree on the campground.
Touring screen’s hardware got knocked off and the tachometer’s glass is cracked, but no broken beer bottles.
I don't know about the speedometer price, but the tachometer is only $150.00
You will put the new parts in and the bike will run much faster. Trust me.
After all, it is just a bike.

[CycleRob]

Put Blue Loctite on the threads and there'll be no problems. Womens clear or red nail polish, affectionately referred to as "Polish Loctite", works almost as good too.

* I can say that because my name ends in S-K-I.

[riceburner]

oooh it happens to us all, but in my youth I was visited more often than I care to remember.

including a memorable time when I was changing a cylinder base gasket on a Guzzi. The piston was right in the way (near TDC) with the barrel off so I wanted to turn the crank to get it to BDC and out of the way.

couldn't turn it by putting it in gear and spinning the rear wheel so "the moron" thought "I know, I'll use the starter motor!"




lost a chunk of flesh out of my left middle finger because I was holding the piston when I thumbed the starter and the piston ring caught it as the piston shot down into the crankcases.

Luckily that was all the damage to me or the bike and the chunk of flesh didn't even fall into the crank.

[Rog(UK) - Yorkshire Dales]

Yes. Don't beat yourself up about this. We all have our own 'moron' stories - and no doubt everyone on this board will be vieing for the worst (best) moron story. It will make hilarious reading.

I was actually not involved in the following tale, but I am reminded of the time I worked for an engineering firm and the v-twin air compressor was having its annual overhaul. Heads and blocks were off and con-rods nicely protected by old rags between the crankcase mouths. Unfortunately, the electric motor had not been isolated and at some point during the night, the compressor was turned on by some unknown culprit. The following morning the police were called because they thought that some drunken vandal had attacked the compressor with a sledge hammer The truth soon came to light, but the culprit was never named.....

Now, as to my own morons... that's another story altogether and I fear that if I went into them in detail, I would very soon exceed the bandwith of this site

Ride safely,

Rog

[ruddy]

What a timely post! I just discovered an increasing rattle on my bike, and sure enough, it was the clock screw/plate.

I tried snugging it up a bit, but that--as in your case--didn't help at all. I tried a garden hose washer, and voila, success.

CycleRob's suggestion about using Loctite is a good one. I'll try that, too.

[m49512]

okay...one more moron story. I was 18, and working at an injection molding factory as the night shift set-up man. Lots of lovely ladies pulling parts from the machines. I fashioned myself as a "fix it all" mechanic - especially all things electrical. A water heater/pump went out on a molding machine, and so I got my ohm meter (huge, expensive Simpson model) and strolled up to the machine, opened the front doors, put the probes in the meter, set it to max ohm setting, and started to "check" things. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. However, when my little probes touched the 220 power coming in (should have at least had a clue from the 1/2 inch wires bolted to the rail), I learned a little about rapid battery charging. After about 3 seconds of nothing, the batteries in the meter exploded in a huge cloud of smoke...the meter housing went about 10 meters one way, and the batteries the other (we never did find them, I think they vaporized). I was left sitting on the floor (knocked me on my axx), in a cloud of smoke, holding two leads in my pathetic little hands. Didn't impress any girls that night!