New Project for me.

[asphalt]

Hey guys, my name is Tom, and I live in the north GA mountains, USA. I've owned several R1150s in the past, and cant get enough of this wonderful bike. I finally have decided this is the bike I want to keep for a long time. I've sold my last sport tour bike (Duc ST2) and bought a project.

I picked up this 04 R1150r for a song at a salvage sale. It was listed as damage type "other". Usually there is some amount of accident damage, but she had none when I went to pick her up. I've since got her home, and looked her over. My job with google keeps me really busy lately so I haven't had any time to fool with it, other than put a charger on the post to bring the battery back to life. Its shot. It will keep a charge for about 10 minutes, then flat dead again. I did get the motor to turn over, so I know its not seized, but I did notice the oil glass is white. Not good. I opened up the oil filler, and smelled the residue, and its pretty tart. Next on the list is a full oil change and see how bad it is. If she turns over with new oil and runs without and hard noises, I'll know shes ok, BUT I am prepared for a full tear down if needed. Just wondering at this point if it will be easier to swap the motor out, or do a complete rebuild. Anyone ever had bottom end bearing issues here? With only 11k miles on it, I would hope the bearings went, and the crank journals were not scored. I'd like to keep that, and just replace bearings, and be good to go. Cross your fingers for me, we'll see what happens.

Tom.

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[Sunbeemer]

Welcome Tom, and good luck with your project...actually the bike doesn't sound too bad so far. Let us know how it oges.

[asphalt]

I had to move her out of the way to get 2 other bikes out of the garage, so I decided to use my sloped driveway to test a few things. I put her in 5th, and rolled down, dumped the clutch, and it rotated the motor once then locked. Repeated this 3 times. Not sure if the compression is really just that high, or bearings are preventing her from turning over. Thinking back to the battery charge, it did the same thing. Never more than one revolution before having to try again. hhhhmmmm.... we shall see.

Oh, and in peaking up under the tank, there is a plastic grocery bag up there???!!!! Will have to pull the tank later and see what that's about. I still have a gs500f motor rebuild to complete for my neighbor, then I can crawl into her again.

[gregor]

Could 'other' mean flood damage? The white may be an oil water emulsion in the sump causing a hydraulic lock. I'd empty and refill (if water is not evident) the sump and replace the oil filter for all that costs. If there is water in the sump then a complete rebuild may be in order. Not one of those BMWs that were "saved" from a beached ship a few years back?

[asphalt]

If there was a flood damage, they by law have to list it as such. She was just listed other. I did have a little time today, so I went out with the jumper cables to my car. Car not running of course, I didn't want to surge the system. Jumper cables applied. Full power to the bike, and ....... wait for it........ she runs! Oddly enough on only 1 cyl. So maybe that's what the "other" damage was for the mechanical. Oil level cannot be seen, but light went out after 3 revolutions, and she ran. I only went up to about 3k on cold oil and unknown condition, but no knocking, no slapping, bottom and top end sound nice and smooth. Right cylinder is cold as ice, so who knows what its not getting. Either fuel or spark, so at least I have direction to pursue now. I'll check for both, and if there are both, I'll run a compression check.

She wasn't one of the beach bikes, just a salvage from PA, USA. Not from the hurricane either, it was 3 weeks before all that ran through, and it was stored inside at the auction, protected.

[asphalt]

I spent a little time in the garage today, pulled all 4 plugs. The center two came out in bad shape. The tips were fouled, and the gaps were visibly off. The bottom 2 were newer, I'd say within a few thousand miles. I also drained the oil, since I can't see condition or level through the white out sight glass. Oil was new. Like brand new. Still smelled very bad, so the overheat must have been recently. I will through a few quarts of oil in her when I replace the sightglass, and then throw in all new plugs, and see if the right cylinder comes back to life. Also, since its common I guess for the right side throttle cable to come out when someone goes under the tank, I checked, and its in place.

[towerworker]

The stick coils were a common failure on the early dual sparks. The secondaries were fired off a conventional ignition coil and rarely failed. But if you find one stick coil bad it's a good chance the other side may not be far behind.

[Boxer]

Sounds like you're having fun with that bike. Where are you in north Georgia? I'm in Woodstock and I'd love to see the bike. PM me some details and I can give you some info on local mechanical help also.

[asphalt]

The stick coils were a common failure on the early dual sparks. The secondaries were fired off a conventional ignition coil and rarely failed. But if you find one stick coil bad it's a good chance the other side may not be far behind.

Yep, that's what I've heard. Also, someone has suspected these stick coils before, since they were chewed up on the edges, where someone had removed them with pliers. I'll get some plugs here eventually, and see if I have spark. I'll go ahead and order new coils too, add it to the list of things that need replacement before I head out on the road for any long ride.

[asphalt]

Sounds like you're having fun with that bike. Where are you in north Georgia? I'm in Woodstock and I'd love to see the bike. PM me some details and I can give you some info on local mechanical help also.

I'm in Cumming, off exit 16. There's not much to look at right now, but you're welcome to come over and see it. Mechanical help? I would like to know who is good with boxers here, but even if I have to rebuild this motor, I'm more apt to tackle it myself. When I'm not working, I'm usually turning wrenches on several ducati's. I crew for a ccs race team. I'm pretty sure whatever this bike throws at me, I can handle it.

[asphalt]

I started a new job that has left me with no time to work in the garage, but I have 2 days now, and plan on digging in. I'm going to pull the tank off, and peak underneath. There is some sort of grocery bag under there. I'm curious to see what it contains, or what its covering. I'll also pull the oil sight glass window. Not going to get everything done, but at least I can dig and find out what is what.

[asphalt]

Well, that was quicker than I thought. These things are just so damned easy to work on. I took the tank off, removed the bag. It had just blown in there from riding it looks like. It was jammed in there pretty well, but didn't contain anything. I removed a push to talk wire for some old comm system, and put it all back together. Nothing is out of place, nothing burnt from overheating. Looks like my next step is to replace the glass, oil, then check for spark and fuel on the right cylinder. If it has both, then I'll check compression. I'm happy!

Oh, as I was getting the tank off, I see the previous owner has already updated the fuel clips.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 8587_n.jpg

[sweatmark]

Oh, as I was getting the tank off, I see the previous owner has already updated the fuel clips.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 8587_n.jpg

Nice, those look like Jiffy-Tites fittings.

[asphalt]

Well, I have confirmed some not so good news. I replaced the oil sight glass window. The old one was very hard to remove. Since the plastic had melted in place, it had filled ring where you would normally pull the thing out with a seal puller. I had to basically bash the metal part away from the seal. I managed to get it all out, and replaced. Put new oil in, and fresh plugs.

Left cylinder is still dead. I checked the plugs, I smell fuel, and ran it with them out, and saw spark. So I'm guessing I have a compression issue.

Since this bike crashed and ran on its left side for about 30 minutes, I'm guessing the right cylinder ran dry. So its probably screwed the cam, or all the valve train. Time to take the head off.

[Sunbeemer]

Sorry to hear that...did you do a compression test yet to see if that is a problem for either cylinder?

[asphalt]

Sorry to hear that...did you do a compression test yet to see if that is a problem for either cylinder?

Not yet, but I am picking one up today to be sure. What is normal psi? I thought I read somewhere in the 130s was acceptable?

[asphalt]

Great News!!

After running a compression test this morning, and finding full and identical compression on both cylinders of 140 psi, I thought, what the hell could this be? I smell fuel, I have compression, and spark... hhmmmm...

More research lead me to CycleRob's post about the throttle cable being out of the ferrel. Sure enough!! The cable was actually dirty, and once in place, clean cable as exposed, showing me it had been like this for some time. Immediately its back to 2 cylinders, and begging daddy for a ride. hehehehehhe. I'm over the moon right now. Time to get a new battery, and go ride!!

Tom.

[Sunbeemer]

Ride on!

[Ol' Jeffers]

Good news indeed!! You may well have snagged yourself a real bargain!
You're going to love the way these bikes ride once they're set up right.
The melted oil level glass would have given me grave cause for concern.
But if she's running well then.....go and get some miles under your belt!!

[riceburner]

Good stuff!

These bikes are pretty solidly built and will probably take a lot more abuse than most think.

Hope you enjoy the Telelever!