Just picked up a 1985 K100 RT. Story goes that he pulled it out of winter storage last year, started it up, came back and it had overheated. He checked fluids and started it again. It overheated and dumped the oil out the valve cover. He bought a head gasket kit and was going to replace it and ended up getting an oilhead.

I'm I really stupid? I paid $2k even and the bike looks pretty good.

help ??

Hey Sojourner,

$2k for the bike is a good deal if the rest is in very good shape.

Replacing a head gasket is easy if you have a minimum of mechanical ablilities.
The first thing that you have to find is why the bike overheated. Here is a hint:
If you wash the bike and hose the cooling fan, unless you wait for days for the fan motor to dry up, the support for the brushes will overheat and melt.
As a result, the fan won't work anymore.
One easy way to check it is to turn the fan by hand. It should be free (Please turn off the ignition before you do that. I don't have a good site for cheap replacement fingers)
If not, .....you have to test it.
A fan is very expensive at a BMW dealer, but here is a good address to get a cheaper one: After market Fan Motor

Please let us know what you find, and if you have the opportunity to take pictures during the repair, share them with us.

Good luck

Bert

Well... go figure... seriously I just prayed this thing wasn't as bad as it was thought to be. I charged up the battery, put some Sea Foam in the gas and went for a ride today. The more I road it the cleaner it ran. The only thing I find now is the shifter display gets it wrong. But after going to the license plate dept, I find that the bike was 33 months out of plates and since the guy bought it 4 years ago, he either never tagged it and drove it, or parked it a few years ago. So I am going to change the fluids (any suggestions) then use it to commute. I don't have any big trips planned this year and thought maybe this winter tearing it down and going through it more or less.

One thing I do need though is some way to understand how the lower fairing goes together. He had the head side off and there are so many parts and not many fasteners, that I am not sure where to start and what fasteners to buy. I also have a few black pull plug fasteners and don't know where they go, plus some short red plastic strips that seem to be slide locks for something. Just noticed too that the trip meter moves but only to clear it, not to count. I found an owners manual on Ebay so I hope to at least know what the parts are and how to use them

Thanks for the suggestion and it's good to know to check the fan and even more not to get it wet.

Bob

BTW, as far as a good price, it seems to have wintered outside a few years, but in general it's a cleanable bike. I will have to paint the fairing this winter for a few scratches.

Pulled the radiator off and behold the brush holders were melted in a odd shape and since both of them were that way, I thought they were supposed to be.... NOT !!!!! but I didn't see euromoto showing the fan motor. I hope they have one.

I think I am going to sell the bike cause it's too tall for me. I have fallen over a couple times just getting it off the kick stand. You can see it on ebay now for this week. I am replacing the fan motor, touching up the fairing, changing the oil and putting in a new battery. So that ought to be fair. I think I am looking to go older, like 70's boxer with no electronics etc... or real new like something in the 2000's. At those two extremes I am more likely to ride. I really like the look of my K100RT though... it turns heads and really moves !! BUt at 5 mph I tend to fall over...

any thoughts on the fan motor anywhere else? If I had a dozen bad ones, I could make contact with my Chinese workers and have them rebuilt. That's an easy thing in China and I could probably sell them at the $70 range too.

Oh well...

thanks guys