There's been a post recently about not being able to open a petrol tank cap.

So here's a reminder from 2015 of how to do it: it's also a good idea to to drill the hole BEFORE you get into an awkward position at a petrol station.

https://www.k100-forum.com/t9469-open-a-petrol-tank-cap-which-has-a-broken-lock

One reason for this sort of failure is that the plastic opening cam wears away so that there is nothing for the two pins on the lock barrel to grip the cam.

Here's a way to repair (improve?) the plastic cam.











Both my K's have had this mod and have the holes drilled in the caps; better safe than sorry.

Paul.

Thanks for that, Paul.       Any chance you would be willing to produce these for sale?

fantastic solve yet again Paul 
ill be needing one before too long , poor old Gerty has been a bit dodgy on the fuel cap opening for quite a few years , but with some lubrication has done the job .

issue is that the dowels out of the key mechanism is missing one side , i really should pin the missing one ...

great reminder to get on with the job before it all falls in a big heap

Charlie I had to replace one of my pins on the back of the tumblers. It worked well except that in doing so I drilled through the detent wafer that has to be pushed in when removing the lock. I've got too many projects on at the moment but I might have a crack at the Guild in making Pauls brass modification when time eases up. 
Regards Martin.

Great! Is this something else I have to worry about? My 1985 k100 RS has 55,000 miles and the fuel cap seems to work just fine should I go ahead and drill holes in it?

DeanG wrote:Great! Is this something else I have to worry about? My 1985 k100 RS has 55,000 miles and the fuel cap seems to work just fine should I go ahead and drill holes in it?

Its one 3.2mm hole, do it and put a grub screw or grommet in it. That's assuming your K does not have the early push down to open fuel cap.

I guess that distance covered has some relevance to the amount of operations of the fuel cap lock. My K1100 and I had travelled 180,000km (a bit over 110,000 miles) together when I sold it and I had not had any problems with the fuel cap, which I am sure is the same cap as the K100 & K75 except for the very early ones which I believe had a push button.

I did however have the cap apart to fit a new gasket set in it somewhere on the high side of 100,000km. This exercise of course included thoroughly cleaning and lubing the mechanism.

It is likely that here in Australia we don't have the same amount of inclement weather that northern hemisphere members may experience and I am lucky that my bikes are always garaged when not out on the road. We are more often concerned with dust getting into every nook and cranny than corrosion causing issues.

The hole drilled for emergency unlocking is a great safeguard but if you're not inclined to go that way why not pull it apart for a service every few years. Here in Oz we can buy the overhaul kits here.

Cheers

Thanks! I note that upon fill up the oder of gas can be pretty intense. This may be how I can deal with it. It also looks like something that I can do myself!

I'm doing this every two years on my bikes.  Caps work fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwpt9IumBCc

I'd like to find a spring that isn't quite as strong as the one from the factory.  I don't think it needs to push that hard on the latch.