Just joined the forum as an attempt to get some input/advice from others!
Background: purchased this 1993 R100GS last year in October. Not sure how many miles as it looks like the speedo was replaced. My wife also has a 93 R100GS. We recently got married , we're from Texas, and are on our honeymoon. For said honeymoon we shipped both GS up to Montana and are riding to Alaska.
This morning we rode from Jasper in Alberta Canada and made it to Grand prairie, and after coming to a light I heard a loud squeal coming from the transmission. I'll try and attach a video for you all to hear. But we're stranded in GP until we can figure it out.
Here's what we've noted so far:
-the bike can idle with the clutch disengaged with no noise.
-the bike can be in neutral with the clutch engaged and no noise.
- I got the bike up to maybe 25mph and shifted through all 5 gears, the noise got progressively quieter once I got to 5th gear (at a very low speed)
-my clutch cable snapped shortly after I pulled over when attempting to ride it to a guy's house that was willing to help
-i popped it in neutral with the engine off and pushed it to his house, and with the engine off in neutral, pushing the bike it made the noise just as loud.
Any ideas?? At this point we're trying to decide whether we should go into it, or just try and get it back home
Link to video: https://youtu.be/Fqp3nrWtRI4
Welcome Aboard !
Sorry, but first time posters have to wait for their post to be cleared. Your thread is now posted.
In the last years of production, BMW decided to leave out a circlip in the transmission. On some bikes the unprotected gear then walks off the shaft. One of the gearbox experts will be by shortly to diagnose and give options.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Thanks Wobbly and 8166!
We did some additional troubleshooting as suggested. There is definitely an issue with the gearbox, noises cannot be isolated to one shaft within the box so there may be multiple issues. The oil looks like a metallic paint job in the sun though no hard chunks on the magnetic drain plug or in the oil that we saw. The glitter looks like it may be bronzy...
We touched base with Bob of Bob's Motorwerks. He is available and willing to help us out with a rebuild. We met a guy willing to let us use his garage to do some trouble shooting. We pulled the tranny out this morning, rented a car and are driving the transmission down to Bob in Montana now.
Just an update, we got to Bobs Monday morning to begin tear down. What an amazing experience working with Bob. He is passionate about what he does but more importantly he is a genuinely nice guy. We're very grateful to be able to spend the day with him and soak up all the Airhead knowledge that he was pouring out.
After tear down we were all surprised that the tranny actually didn't look that bad. None of the bearings sounded/felt horrible, and all of the gears looked to be in great shape. It was evident someone had been in it before and had some assembly errors, Like forgetting to install a cover gasket (which means it probably wasnt shimmed correctly). So we machined the output shaft for the circlip, and replaced all bearing and seals. Then we properly shimmed each shaft, and were done in time for dinner. We're heading back to Canada now to find out if this was the culprit.
Hey, that's great news !
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
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