We took our bikes into an oil change place yesterday and carefully
supervised while they changed the oil. This was essential with
the BMW because they pretty much refused to believe that you had to
let the oil out in 2 different places. Once this was made clear
we actually got about 2 qts out. Replaced the filter.
In the morning I had replaced the spark plugs. They washed the
bikes too, total cost was less than $3 each. When I got it back
to the hostal I oiled the chain and thought to myself ¨there,
that´s all I should have to do for the rest of the trip aside
from keep the chain lubed and tight.¨
Leaving for dinner a couple hours later I saw some kind of fluid running
out from under the bike. It felt a bit oily, they must not have
tightened both the bolts enough. Got out my little LED light
and saw that the fluid was thin and green, and not flowing from the
bolts. After looking for a while I found it coming out a small
round hole in the engine case cover just below the water pump.
Doh.
This morning I got onto the f650.com web site and found that my water
pump needs to be rebuilt. The design is stupid and they wear
themselves out rather quickly, quite often before the 20K miles
that I have on my bike. Though this seemed rather dour at first,
given the nearest BMW shops are in La Paz, about a 2 days ride, and
not likely to have the parts, or Lima, a 3 day ride over several 4000M
passes, I hopefully have a good plan. I called Bob's BMW in
Maryland, which is a great stocking distributor of BMW parts, and
they had everything I needed, and promised to ship them this afternoon
via DHL to my hostal here in Cuzco. If I'm lucky I'll get them
on Friday. This is probably hoping for too much though, I am
guessing they will show up next Monday or Tuesday. There are
certainly worse places to get stuck than Cuzco. We bought train
tickets this afternoon to go to Machu Picchu tomorrow afternoon via
the firstclass Vistadome train from Ollanta, and are returning Thursday
evening. If I get the parts on Friday maybe I can get the work
going. There's an American motorcyclist that owns the nearby
Norton Rat´s Pub that might be able to recomend a mechanic or
a garage where I can do the work myself with Dick's help. It's
a pretty big job but reasonably straightforward. The worse part
is the left hand side crankcase cover needs to be removed, and I'd
hate to screw any of that up.
More later....
Tuesday January 24, 2006 - 12:54pm (PST) |
