Hello all -
I started the bike and began moving, and heard a horrible rattling clatter coming from the rear of the engine, and the alternator light came on. 
Upon removing the alternator, I found that I could spin the engine side of the alternator cush drive. One should not be able to do this! While turning it, I could hear a quiet grinding of what is left of whatever gear that is either driven or does the driving of the splined shaft onto which the male side of the cush drive slides. The splines are fine. 
   Has anyone had such a thing happen? I was conferring with the Great Frankenduck, and he says that he cannot recall of ever having heard of such an occurrence. 
  Obviously the intermediate or ‘bell’ housing is going to have to come off to see what the hell is going on under there. Oh the joy...

I've seen forum threads where the vanes in the cush drive have sheared off. Take off the alternator to inspect the drive. I doubt very much that the actual driven gears in the intermediate housing are toasted, so your fix should be straight forward.

Once the rubber Cush drive rubbers disintegrate the vanes in the cup go metal to metal and destroy themselves.
Regards Martin.

I believe you misunderstood my explanation - the cush drive and rubber bits are fine. Whatever gears that are stripped are Beneath the “Intermediate Housing” and are an element of the “Starter one way clutch/reduction gear shaft”. This assembly can be found on BMW parts fiche diagram #11_4686.

I've never heard of the gearing within the intermediate housing going bad as you describe.  If you believe that to be the cause of your trouble,it's time to disassemble the intermediate housing.  Quite a job. The whole rear end of the bike has to come off along with the transmission.

The sooner you start the sooner you finish. Possibly removing the crank cover might give you a peek at the gears but that's a maybe.

Yep, it is a fairly Gigantic Job, I know. Basically have to disassemble the ENTIRE Ass End of the motorcycle. My shop has everything needed for this enterprise, all the tools including the star drive necessary to remove the housing, the saw horses and 2x4 to support the rear of the frame, the floor jack, blocks to support the engine .... All of it, 1600 miles away.

TaosBrick wrote:All of it, 1600 miles away.

You've got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive 
E-liminate the negative 
Latch on to the affirmative 
Don't mess with Mister In-Between—Johnny Mercer

Many of us have had one of these. 

Mine was 49 years ago removing the engine from a Microbus near a payphone in a parking lot 1000 miles from home to determine why the clutch wasn't engaging then finding a failed throwout bearing, with $5.00 and somebody else's credit card in my wallet on a Sunday during my first experience of falling snow, 50 miles from the nearest VW dealer. My angel was a kid who was walking by and saw my dilemma. He gave me the name and phone number of another angel who eventually showed up with a bunch of whooping kids and a VW transmission in his truck bed. He looked at me and said, "If you can remove the bearing, you can have it." So I removed it and as he and his tribe went whooping back to the hills, I installed it, and it worked.

You'll be amazed at the confluence of folks and circumstances that might help to extract you from this.

Post where you are and there may be someone who can help.

Good point, Rick G.
I am at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in upstate NY, about 10 miles SW of Oswego. I believe I will be able to roll ol’ Chile Red into a corner of the maintenance barn here so as to have a sheltered place in which to disembowel her. A leathersmith here on site says she may have a set of star drives. And Frankenduck said he has all the cog-ey gear-ey bits.
But yeah, if any other K partisans are nearby and have tools, experience or simply wish to commiserate with beer in hand whilst I toil, gimme a shout.

Just saw this post this morning where your located is about six hours away from me. PM me your phone # I may be able to help you out.

Caveman -
Buddy, that’s wicked far! Honestly, I think I should be fine. The Renaissance Faire Community is very supportive, I’ll have rides for groceries etc. and should be able to borrow whatever tools

Ahhh six hours isn't that far, you did say something about beer didn't you!

Hey, I'm just outside of Buffalo and have tools and other stuff.  I've been in my K75 that far so it's familiar territory, sort of. I could load up my stuff and get there tomorrow if that works for you. Do you have a place to stay? How about getting the parts from Duck?

PM me with your phone number.

Does the starter spin the engine?  I ask because the gear that drives the alternator is also the one that the starter turns the engine with.  That may give us a clue as to the failed part.

Are you absolutely sure the alternator drive dog splines aren't stripped?  I ask because mine did that.  If so, you are in luck because I have a spare one here.

Wow .75, that is extraordinarily kind of you, and I believe I’ll take you up on your offer. Starter turns over fine and starts bike. Everything that you can take apart and see on this side of the housing is perfect. Will PM you my # stat.

Wow. 
All I can say is Wow. 

Point-Seven-Five really literally went the extra mile to bail me out of bike-down-jail. 
He drove 141 miles from the Buffalo area to where I am near Sterling NY, with a pile of parts and tools. 
  The best part? He had me give that driving dog a closer look, and - stripped splines were the culprit. It had fooled me, as when looking at it in situ, the splines looked fine from that side, but upon turning it over and looking inside, it was quite a different story. (I tried to upload pics from iFone just now, but my geek-fu is apparently not up to the task)
  And of course, Point-Seven-Five had a driving dog in pristine condition - and some brannew BMW OEM monkey nuts still in the package. Oh, and we noticed the infamous crankcase breather hose was cracked and he had one of those too. 
  Put the alternator back in, hit the button. No more glaring red alternator light
And with new monkey nuts, bike sounds as smooth as the day it came outta the crate. 
  Talked with .75 for awhile about everything and nothing, like ya do after the relief of a whip runnin’ good as new, then he went on his way homeward after I gratefully paid him for th’ parts. 
 And back on the road am I...

Having your bike break 3-4 days from home out in the middle of nowhere can suck and it's good that there's some help out there.

It's always nice to meet someone from the forums who we know from their posts. Was pretty glad the dog fixed your problem and we didn't have to go into the intermediate section. It was a nice way to spend the day and I actually made it home in time for supper. The cd you gave me had some pretty good music on it. Gentlemen, Charlie is a pretty good musician besides being handy with tools. I hope to see you again sometime when I am out in your part of the world.

Again, I'm glad that I was able to help you out.

All ends well with the help of friends.

Great job guys.

Good news, Its feels good to know there're good folks out in the real world!

Kudos to the forum here. 

I have been helped too by other members, its a great thing to see. 

Maybe some of you guys make it over this direction.....so one can force Guinness and other such lubricants into you. 

Glad for a happy ending to this saga.  Kudus to you, Point Seven Five!!

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:I have been helped too by other members, its a great thing to see. 

+1

+2 Good job.