94 R1100RS Rear Pivot Bearing Replacement Questions

Hi Guys,

I'm replacing a rear pivot bearing on my RS. I seem to remember doing it before, but I can't remember exactly what I did. I have the bearing in the freezer until tomorrow. Do I need to heat the final drive before I install it? Should I put a little lube on it to help it slide in? Anything else I should do? (I'm only replacing one bearing because it fell apart in my hand when I pulled the pin out. The other one looks OK, AND I happen to have a spare bearing in the garage.)

Hi Guys,

 

I'm replacing a rear pivot bearing on my RS. I seem to remember doing it before, but I can't remember exactly what I did. I have the bearing in the freezer until tomorrow. Do I need to heat the final drive before I install it? Should I put a little lube on it to help it slide in? Anything else I should do? (I'm only replacing one bearing because it fell apart in my hand when I pulled the pin out. The other one looks OK, AND I happen to have a spare bearing in the garage.)

Morning Jim

Yes, you should use some heat before removing or installing. Not a lot, just enough to slightly expand the alloy around the bearing.

I'm away from my shop for a few days so don't have access to my old notes but I believe that you need to heat to just under 200°f (hot enough to expand but not so hot as to damage the paint).

Jim,

The Chris Harris vid of this pivot bearing install (and more) is at:

It starts about minute 21:00. He says many manuals have the WRONG torque for the inside (L) bearing, that it should be 10-12 NM.

Lowndes

Thanks guys. I managed to get it seated with several pretty substantial whacks. It was a little more difficult than I thought it gonna be.

As a note, I also finished my transmission R&R today. I had never lifted the tail before. It turned out to be pretty easy, so I'm glad I did it. was Hopefully that's the end of my transmission problems, but if not, I can tolerate $350 and a day or two in the garage every other year.

I am getting ready to replace my paralever bearings with the Emerald Isle bushings from Ted Porter.Ted told me to use normal installation procedures as per the factory bearings.

I am getting ready to replace my paralever bearings with the Emerald Isle bushings from Ted Porter.Ted told me to use normal installation procedures as per the factory bearings.

I installed these from Ted about 30k miles ago and I would only add that when installing the adjustable pin on the left to go until it just bottoms out (no side to side movement) and lock it down. These bushings work great and you never have to re-adjust. The wear has been negligible.

Trobinson: thanks for the info. That is one of the questions I had. Did you use any loctite? I was thinking if it is truly needed the blue medium set ought to work.I would be very grateful for any other suggestions. Again many thanks!

ks kurmudgeon,

If you do nothing else "CHECK THE U JOINTS OUT" yes on both ends. I had just done the pivot bearings this past winter and low and behold while on a 2700 mile trip last week I had a u joint fail.

We were 2300 miles into the trip and were in the mountains of Virginia and "snap, crack, pop" and I was sitting on the side of the rode in the middle of nowhere, call a tow truck who took me to the U Haul dealer only to finish my last 475 miles of this trip home in the back of a U Haul truck. Spend the extra time to check out both ends of the drive shaft. BMW intend these U Joints to last forever I guess, as there is no way to grease them, so spend the 10 extra minutes and go over them and make sure they move freely, so you don't end up broke down on the side of the road.

Will do. Thanks for the tip!

Trobinson: thanks for the info. That is one of the questions I had. Did you use any loctite? I was thinking if it is truly needed the blue medium set ought to work.I would be very grateful for any other suggestions. Again many thanks!

Kurmuegeon, I did use blue loctite on both pins.

Well I just finished installing my Beemershop bushings. Pretty straight forward minimum hassle. Went for a short ride everything seems to be okay.

I will add that I went on a 2 day 1000 mile trip to Colorado. Checked the bearings(bushings?) when I got home everything tight and normal.