Keep 'em Flying: Periodic Maintenance By Matthew Parkhouse (March Owners News)

March 5, 2007 Page 1 of 4    1234

Get Your Motor Runnin'

Our Airheads require regular scheduled maintenance. The early Slash Fives call to service at 4,000 miles and 8,000 miles. These intervals are also referred to as "minor" and "major" services. Fairly soon, the time was lengthened to 5,000 and 10,000 miles. We usually refer to the "5K" and "10K" services. The illustration is from a Slash Five service manual and leaves out the attending to of the hydraulic brake fluids as those bikes had cable operated drum brakes. As our Airheads (and their riders) age, they often share the garage with later model bikes, BMW or other brand and see fewer miles as a result. Many maintenance tasks should be done once a year, regardless of the miles covered. My main mount, Strider, a 1972 R75/5, saw perhaps 3,000 miles this last year. The one long trip I took last year involved buying that R60/5 in Chicago and riding it to Vermont and back home. Now I have the electric three-wheeler and have 900+ miles on it that would have mostly been done on the Slash Five. Employment has taken its toll as well. So, that means fewer miles on the bike.

What to do for a minor service?
If you're doing all the tasks at once, start with a cold machine and set the valves. You want to remove the sparkplugs to allow easy rotation of the engine so do that now as well. If you have a pre-1981 BMW, you have points to check so remove the front cover as well. Be sure to undo the battery, either at the terminal end or the attachment point of the ground cable. I am not going to cover the details of each task as I have written about them in previous installments. After torquing the heads, setting the valves and setting the valves, you are free to warm up the engine. If you have a 1981 or later bike, fire up the engine and check the timing of the electronic ignition system with a timing light. Once that is checked and/or reset, take a ride of several miles. Upon returning, dial in the carburetors for idle adjustments and high speed cable balance. That's it for the "tune up" part of the service. Now, while the bike is warm, drain the oil out of the engine and pull out the oil filter. I like to have the bike on the center stand and rock it from side to side. This gets an ounce or two more oil out that is trapped in the valve covers and other crevices in the engine.

The schedule calls for "checking" the levels of the driveline. This is the gearbox, driveshaft and rear drive on most Airheads. The GS models and very late bikes have a drive shaft that runs without oil. If you're working on a bike you are familiar with and know there's no leakage between compartments, you can skip this step if you want. The swing arm bearings need to be greased and adjusted. This task requires a special grease gun (or gun tip). A chain saw nose greaser will work here. You also need a torque wrench that will go up to 75 ft lbs and a 27mm (1 and 1/16 inch) socket that has been "modified" to fit in the tight recesses of the swing arm pivot on the frame.