- Joined
- Apr 11, 2016
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Bike
- BMW F800GS
Hi
I've got an F800GS with a story. This bike has seen it all.
I'm planning a move overseas and thought it would be cool to do an interesting mechanical project with my father before I go. Because I'd always thought F800's looked cool (never having ridden one) decided to buy one with a damaged engine in the knowledge that if everything were to go wrong, by the end of the repair I could have bought a second hand bike in perfect nick. The upside of the project was the point.
The bike had originally been bought by a doctor who crashed it with around 35k on the clock. The bike was written off on cosmetic grounds and repaired by a panel shop owner. He had no idea the engine was left to run on its side with the oil pump in the air. This incident had cooked the engine but there was no sign of the damage for a while after the initial cosmetic damage was repaired. The panel shop owner finally heard a little knock and realized there was engine damage. He had to sell at a massive loss to get rid of the project as he had no intention of getting into the engine. What terrible luck for him!
So we got it back to PMB from Bloem on a trailer and began carefully disassembling it in various phases checking for damage as we went. We found the timing chain was a little stretched, but only by the length of a link out of 130 odd and put that on the parts list. The head came off and the pistons looked a bit blackened but the sleeves were in great shape for a 35k old bike. The factory cross hatching from honing hadn't even been scuffed. We thought then that the problem might just be piston slap because the pistons were actually quite loose. We measured and found them to be spec. The pistons are relatively squat so they have a lot of side to side play. As we got into the crankcase the next obvious fault was the complete failure of the bearing between the crankshaft to the rocker/balancing arm which counterbalances the piston movement. The oil sieve and filter did their job getting the floating bearing debris out the oil. There was no damage apart from a tiny scuff on the oil pump rotor so that went onto the list. The crank looked to be in awesome condition but on closer inspection it had a hairline crank right in the central load bearing area which had caused the bearing failure. So new crank as well. Eihna!!
This is what a dirty oily F800 engine looks like completely disassembled (apart from gearbox in this pic)
Engine building went smoothly and nothing broke under torquing which was great! Hours of wrenching later, all bolted up, the engine turned over and we cranked it a bit with a wrench to work oil into the bearings. After the rebuild the bike went perfectly. Changed the oil & filter after 250km and found no contamination of the run in oil at all. We also had to rebuild the left fork with a new tube and seals. This rebuild didn't happen overnight and it was extremely rewarding to ride her home from the workshop at my dads.
About 30 mins after I got home I heard a strange noise from the kitchen and went to investigate. I could hear the the roar of fire and could smell the smoke before I saw the flames coming under and over the door. So I ran out around the front and came across the scene of a BMW f800GS parked on the grass burning from the faux petrol tank. A line of fire in the grass led to the back door and the whole door was on fire. I got the fire hose and had the fire out quickly but the damage was done.
We have no idea who attacked us or why and we are not the sort of folks to have enemies so the fire is an absolute mystery. The arson got away and the police outright admitted they didn't know what to investigate but they opened a case anyway. I don't blame them, we have no leads.
The bike wasn't insured yet but the damage wasn't THAT catastrophic. We priced retail-priced spares but it wasn't feasible so we decided to try salvage the bike on the cheap. I ordered in a second hand wiring loom and air box from the Netherlands, got new battery, cables and sundries locally and put the bike back together but it doesn't start. The instrument display shows the EWS code. Here is what I know and this is what I've tried to no avail:
the instruments do their normal check.
the gear indicator is working and so are the temp and fuel gauges
new battery
new ring antennae
traced the wires from the ring antennae
checked the solenoid works. If I activate it with a battery the starter cranks the engine perfectly (no spark or fuel)
new ring antennae just because there is talk of the occasional failure of new units
I don't have two keys near the antennae
I've tried both keys
I've tried bolting the battery terminals together to try force a reset of the computer (says someone on the net)
Is there anything to be done? Am I missing some other possible reason for the EWS code?
I've got an F800GS with a story. This bike has seen it all.
I'm planning a move overseas and thought it would be cool to do an interesting mechanical project with my father before I go. Because I'd always thought F800's looked cool (never having ridden one) decided to buy one with a damaged engine in the knowledge that if everything were to go wrong, by the end of the repair I could have bought a second hand bike in perfect nick. The upside of the project was the point.
The bike had originally been bought by a doctor who crashed it with around 35k on the clock. The bike was written off on cosmetic grounds and repaired by a panel shop owner. He had no idea the engine was left to run on its side with the oil pump in the air. This incident had cooked the engine but there was no sign of the damage for a while after the initial cosmetic damage was repaired. The panel shop owner finally heard a little knock and realized there was engine damage. He had to sell at a massive loss to get rid of the project as he had no intention of getting into the engine. What terrible luck for him!
So we got it back to PMB from Bloem on a trailer and began carefully disassembling it in various phases checking for damage as we went. We found the timing chain was a little stretched, but only by the length of a link out of 130 odd and put that on the parts list. The head came off and the pistons looked a bit blackened but the sleeves were in great shape for a 35k old bike. The factory cross hatching from honing hadn't even been scuffed. We thought then that the problem might just be piston slap because the pistons were actually quite loose. We measured and found them to be spec. The pistons are relatively squat so they have a lot of side to side play. As we got into the crankcase the next obvious fault was the complete failure of the bearing between the crankshaft to the rocker/balancing arm which counterbalances the piston movement. The oil sieve and filter did their job getting the floating bearing debris out the oil. There was no damage apart from a tiny scuff on the oil pump rotor so that went onto the list. The crank looked to be in awesome condition but on closer inspection it had a hairline crank right in the central load bearing area which had caused the bearing failure. So new crank as well. Eihna!!
This is what a dirty oily F800 engine looks like completely disassembled (apart from gearbox in this pic)
Engine building went smoothly and nothing broke under torquing which was great! Hours of wrenching later, all bolted up, the engine turned over and we cranked it a bit with a wrench to work oil into the bearings. After the rebuild the bike went perfectly. Changed the oil & filter after 250km and found no contamination of the run in oil at all. We also had to rebuild the left fork with a new tube and seals. This rebuild didn't happen overnight and it was extremely rewarding to ride her home from the workshop at my dads.
About 30 mins after I got home I heard a strange noise from the kitchen and went to investigate. I could hear the the roar of fire and could smell the smoke before I saw the flames coming under and over the door. So I ran out around the front and came across the scene of a BMW f800GS parked on the grass burning from the faux petrol tank. A line of fire in the grass led to the back door and the whole door was on fire. I got the fire hose and had the fire out quickly but the damage was done.
We have no idea who attacked us or why and we are not the sort of folks to have enemies so the fire is an absolute mystery. The arson got away and the police outright admitted they didn't know what to investigate but they opened a case anyway. I don't blame them, we have no leads.
The bike wasn't insured yet but the damage wasn't THAT catastrophic. We priced retail-priced spares but it wasn't feasible so we decided to try salvage the bike on the cheap. I ordered in a second hand wiring loom and air box from the Netherlands, got new battery, cables and sundries locally and put the bike back together but it doesn't start. The instrument display shows the EWS code. Here is what I know and this is what I've tried to no avail:
the instruments do their normal check.
the gear indicator is working and so are the temp and fuel gauges
new battery
new ring antennae
traced the wires from the ring antennae
checked the solenoid works. If I activate it with a battery the starter cranks the engine perfectly (no spark or fuel)
new ring antennae just because there is talk of the occasional failure of new units
I don't have two keys near the antennae
I've tried both keys
I've tried bolting the battery terminals together to try force a reset of the computer (says someone on the net)
Is there anything to be done? Am I missing some other possible reason for the EWS code?
