1997 BMW F650 ST Bluebird - Repair, maintain, ride.

Fortunately you have a plastic tank. In all honesty, you could probably go with just the tank filter. Personally, I like the clear filters as much for a sight as a filter.
 
irk miller said:
Fortunately you have a plastic tank. In all honesty, you could probably go with just the tank filter. Personally, I like the clear filters as much for a sight as a filter.

Yeah. I'm planning to clean the screen in the tank. And then there is the screen in the fuel line T at the carbs, so really there should be no need for the external filter. That being said a little extra filtration isn't a bad thing.
 
Until one restricts flow and you bog down on the freeway. I don't like multiple inline fuel filters. If one isn't doing the job, change it. I had a brand new 5/16 line filter on my zrx. It wouldn't flow well enough for highway speeds and would bog down. I know, not even close to the same motor as yours but I've had some annoying fuel filter moments.
 
Here's the housing/bezel/whatever I designed to fit the VM/USB charger into the clock spot on the dash. The void on the base is where I will add an M5 machine screw and epoxy it in place. The recess is there to keep the epoxy in, and holes will give it something to grip to. It gets an O-ring just below the bezel, in the recessed channel.
 

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Filled some annoying holes in the plastics where the PO installed a dinky little mud flap and some mesh over the openings.

Last night I also replaced the breather hose to get rid of the joint and 2 hose clamps underneath the tank. Sure it worked just fine but I hated seeing the big bulky mess under the tank.

Pulled the air filter to replace the media but I had a lot less filter material than I thought, so I had to Prime some and it should be here Saturday in time for the test ride.

Put some JB on the leaking crankcase cover. I couldn't see the crack from teh inside but I did clean it off really well and grind some of the cracked metal out to get better penetration and adhesion. We shall see.
 

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Got the new clutch actuator installed, and while I was there I pulled off the crusty old clutch cable boot. I dug through my box of old cables and found a boot from an old front brake cable. Didn’t figure I could fit it over the ferrule so I sliced it down the center and glued it back together with yamabond. Seems pretty strong and it’s flexible so it should last a while anyways. It’s better than what was there!

It’s hard to see, but the old actuator was over tightened and cracked around the threads. I’ll hang on to that one just in case.


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I pulled off the luggage racks to modify them for the ammo can panniers...and then decided against it. The whole setup is too heavy, and I don’t trust the POs crappy mounting brackets, nor do I have the time to make new ones from scratch.

I ran out of filament for the printer so I ordered a KG roll of black and sent the final print for the voltmeter bezel. Only took 6 iterations to get it right LOL.

Seeing how much I can fit in this case. The answer is: a lot. I want to figure out a way to get some mesh over the lid on the inside. There’s lots of potential storage up there. Any ideas?




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I suggest putting the lightweight stuff in that tail pack. Put the heaviest items lower in the side bags. It'll make a difference in wind and handling.
 
canyoncarver said:
I suggest putting the lightweight stuff in that tail pack. Put the heaviest items lower in the side bags. It'll make a difference in wind and handling.

I decided against running the panniers for this trip. The steel ammo cans and steel racks are just too heavy for my liking and I don't trust the welds on the PO's racks as far as I could throw them.

With all my camping gear and the box it currently weighs 23.6 lbs. which is pretty much at the recommended weight limit of 11kg for the rack.
 
The weight of some of the metal side boxes (panniers) I've seen bother me too. I run something like these when Patty and I take road trips. Soft throw over saddle bags are awesome and a great alternative to hard bags. Way faster and easier to put on and take off the bike. Cheaper too and one set will fit all your bikes.

http://www.joerocket.com/rapidtransit/te0t1fc61py6pk3erdgswqj940flaz
 

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I run those type too. Cheap, light and stuff well. I put anything I want to stay dry in ziplock bags.
 
Voltmeter/USB charger installed. The way I have it wired it reads about 1v low. I’ll probably change the wiring later but for now I’ll just know it reads low.

I printed it with support material so the overhanging faces didn't sag. Basically just prints a lattice for support that you chip away once the print is done. I G/Flexed in a 5mm machine screw to fasten it to the dash.
 

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What else happened over the weekend. I helicoiled the stripped starter hold down bolt. Cut oiled and installed a new filter with some UNI foam. Replaced the chain rollers and slider. The rollers were literally non existent. I don’t know if they were taken off and never replaced or what, but all that was left was the one little chunk of slider and the bushings that the rollers slide on.


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Fixed some crappy wiring on the alternator harness, replaced with a vintage connections part that I had left over from another project. New fuel lines and filter.

Put everything mostly back together and took her out for a 20 mile shakedown. I went to the back of the neighborhood and tested the brakes. They locked up no problem when I gave them everything so I’d say they are good to go. No issues on the shakedown at all, but it feels like a whole new bike.


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1997 BMW F650 ST Bluebird - Repair, maintain, ride.

Thanks guys. So good news and bad news. Bad news first: I found another cracked boss on the stator cover, so that thing is junk and will definitely need replaced. Good thing is I caught it before I filled the bike up with oil so I was able to prep and put a JB weld bandaid on it. No leaks so far! Parts aren't exactly plentiful for these bikes so I'll keep my ebay notifications on and grab a cover eventually.

Windscreen is busted so I'm going to have to epoxy it back together and I'll use some 5oz fiberglass mesh to reinforce the mounting holes.

I started wrapping the front fender and my technique needs a little work. I didn't want to rush it before the trip so I'm going to put a hold on that part of the project for right now.

The only thing I'm left worrying about with the bike is the exhaust gaskets. The bike backfires a bit on hard decel, and its very common for the mid pipe gaskets to blow out on these bikes. Now I should have just replaced them when I had the whole damn thing apart but of course I was trying to get off cheap. What I don't want is to lose an exhaust gasket when I'm 400 miles from home. I called up a few local dealers and then finally Max BMW and they were the only ones who had the parts in stock. So they're gonna get them out today and hopefully they will show up Thursday. If I have the time I will install them if not I'll just throw them in the bag of parts and that way I'll have them if I need them.
 

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