Difficulty changing gear

[msut01]

Riding to work this morning I had trouble changing gear, mainly changing down. I parked up and had a very worrying 4 hours thinking all sorts of disasters had occurred. I gave it a good check over in my lunch break and found the Gear lever was very stiff. I applied silicon spray grease to all the pivot points and now have a gearbox better than ever.
Over winter I have washed the bike so many times to keep the corrosion away I must have dried out the pivots. I found the gear lever would press down once but was slow to rise to its rest position, the same applied to a lesser degree on up shifts.
Thinking back this problem has been creeping up on me all winter, with rapid down shifts during spirited riding becoming quite difficult. The return spring must be quite week ( or I do have a problem) so If you are having poor gear changing check the free movement of the lever first.

[boxermania]

msut01

The shift lever, at the back, attaches to the gear selector shaft coming out of the gearcase in the horizontal plane. The shift lever has two plastic bushings, one on the outside and one on the inside, these will eventually wear out and will allow the shift lever to "wooble" on the gear selector shaft, increasing the dificulty of selecting the correct gears.

FYI....there are two bushings required and the part numbers are 23 41 1 341 344. Good luck.......

[zooomart]

Look out for a clutch slave cylinder that is on its way out or gone already! Once the seal between the tranny and the clutch cylinder leaks, down shifting gets difficult. My slave cylinder failed just two months after changing the clutch fluid.
Cycle Rob wrote up a procedure for tipping the bike and flicking the clutch lever to get any air out of the clutch line. Would be worth trying that first Good luck

[boxermania]

zooomart +1.....good catch, as I had forgotten the clutch slave cylinder.

[msut01]

Now I'm worried again, if the clutch slave seal fails do you notice a rapid drop in the clutch fluid level. So far mine seems OK, I'm keeping my eye on it. If I have to change the fluid will I need to buy a bleed nipple to fit in the adapter, its sounds rather a complicated procedure for what should be a simple job.

[zooomart]

No the tranny fluid contaminates the clutch fluid as I recall. which means the fluid as well as the slave cylinder will need to be replaced.
Do a search on clutch slave cylinder and the threads will bring you up to speed, including my experience with the local dealer on this issue.

[Beemer1150]

Just an amatuer here... but my changes were getting rough and first was getting a bit clunky from nuetral, but nothing you could pin down. Then the clutch started feeling 'strange'... and then at about 15,000 miles the slave cylinder let go!
Replaced, and everything is back to normal now (except the bank balance). Suspect that slave cylinder - and enquire about a bank loan first!

[msut01]

Ho dear, at first I was happy thinking it was only a bit of lube needed on the shift lever. I decided to look at the fluid first. I located a suitable bleed nipple and got all the fluids ready only to round off the bleed blanking plug. I removed it from the hose so I could work it on the bench. Larger keys could not be driven in, warmed it up and tried driving in a small chisel and turning it without a result. Finally I set to with a series of drills. Total failure, I ended up removing some of the adapter thread.
Can I buy the bleed end and plug?
Why is there a spring loaded ball in there? its never going to provide a seal.
Why do BMW insist a blanking plug is fitted and not a nipple?

The good news is the fluid I drained out is clean looking.

[msut01]

I set all my parts out on the bench to try figure out why the Bleed adapter is fitted. I came to the following conclusions.
1) The adapter is on a hose allowing bleeding remotely from the inaccessible slave cylinder (well thought out BMW)
2) The adapter is only there to allow a vacuum extraction system to be used at fluid changes.
3) The spring loaded ball is only there to seal while the vacuum extract nipple is removed.
4) The plug is the real seal
5) If a standard nipple is fitted in the adapter the point will push this ball in before it seals.

Now the good news. I have removed the adapter and found the Brembo bleed nipple fits into the hose end. I have bled the system normally and now have a working clutch. Next job is to fit a speed bleeder to ensure a good seal round the threads. I think its M10 x 1 thread.

[awagnon]

Why is there a spring loaded ball in there? its never going to provide a seal.
Why do BMW insist a blanking plug is fitted and not a nipple?

I've heard this allows BMW to fill the clutch hydraulic system at the factor from the bleeder end. I just removed the entire valve and replaced it with a standard (non-speed bleeder) bleeder with a cap. I bought it from BMW, but can probably get one anywhere. It now bleeds easily just like a brake line, and the rubber cap keeps it clean. I'm not a fan of speed bleeders.