Installing LED Upgrade Bulbs on Stock BMW Angel Eyes

Last month I saw a Light defect warning on the dashboard of my BMW318d E90. The left hand angel eye bulb was not working any longer. I decided to replace the bulb myself and use leds instead of classic light bulbs. On youtube I found a couple of informative video’s on how to do this. The bimmian.com video was particularly well done: search on youtube for ‘Installing LED Upgrade Bulbs on Stock BMW Angel Eyes’.

I ordered led bulbs from xenonlight.be: E90 20W led angel eyes for 99 euro. There are cheaper ones, but with lesser wattage and more expensive ones. I wanted a little more brightness, so I went for the medium priced 20 watt version. The set arrived 2 days later.

My garage is small, so I had to do the installation with my son’s help outside. I did not take of the front wheels. Lift the front of the car with a jack, but with the wheel slightly touching the ground, turn the wheel completely outwards. By jackin the car up you and turning the wheel have enough room to take of all the nuts and remove the plastic inner panel (as shown in the video). The LED lamp did not fit inside the waterproof cover. I had to saw of the outer edge with a small irons saw. See the image with the LED lamp after (left) and before (right) sawing off the outer edge.

The LED buld now fits into the waterproof cover.

The set comes with screws that are used in place of the old screws (because the spacing is different between the old and new lamp. There is no polarity difference, there are 2 connectors on the old lamp and you can connect the wires to either of the connectors of the new lamp. Test if the light is working with the new lamp screwed in the fitting and the wires connected, but before the cover and inside panel are put back.

The new light looks a lot better as you can see in the picture of the car with the light at the driver’s left replaced.

Only after everything has been fitted in again and after another test, I began on the right hand side.

I have been driving my car around for a week since the installation and I am quite pleased.

How to fix a GPS RAM mount to the Moto Guzzi Norge 8V GT

The Garmin Zümo 220 GPS is sold with a RAM mount that can be mounted on different types of motorbike handle bars. In the case of the Norge the RAM mount wil fit the mount of the hydraulic fluid reservoir.

The handlebar on the left with hydraulic fluid reservoir mount. The RAM mount has just enough space to fit alongside the button with the white arrow to raise the windshield.

The 2 screws that hold the reservoir (and the cluch lever and rearview mirror) are hex socket keys fo 5 mm.

Clockwise: plastic bag with U-shaped holder that cannot not be used on the Norge handlebar. 2 spacers, 2 bolts, 2 washers, 2 shorter bolts with different threading. Hex key socket bits of 4 and 5 mm. Socket wrench.

Step 1 – Remove the original bottom screw. Leave the top screw fixed.

Step 2 – Use this screw to hold against the RAM mount screws.

Match the RAM screws tind if the threading fits with the original screw, by holding them together. In this case it is the screw with the finer thread.

Step 3 – Put the RAM screw through the washer, RAM mount and spacer. Compare the length of the what comes out of the screw to the length of the original screw. The spacer needs to be shortened a little bit. It is made of plastic and can be cut with a cutter knife.

Attention: the screw in the picture above is passed through the top hole of the RAM mount, in the next step the screw needs to go through the bottom hole.

Step 4 -  fix the bottom of the RAM mount sideways and tighten it a little to keep the hydraulic fluid reservoir in place, before removing the original top screw.

Step 5 – Remove the top screw.

Step 6 – Move the RAM mount vertically and insert the screw with washer and spacer. Fix the screw

Step 7 – Thighten both screws and the job is done.

Replacing the air filter without petrol tank removal

From time to time I read articles about how difficult it was to replace the air filter on a Breva 750. I think the same is true for the newer V7.

Anyhow at first I tried following the suggestions made by other owners as to remove the petrol tank and how they dreaded to disconnect the fuel tank from the fuel supply tube. I went as far as to remove the tuel tank and lift it high enough without disconnection. But during the removal of the air filter I realized that it should be possible to get the job done without fuel tank removal.

First let us look at the diagram of the air filter inside the Breva.

• 1. drain tube
• 2 .connector clip
• 3. phillips screw
• 4. air intake
• 5. metal raster
• 8. Air filter
• 9. Filter frame
• 17. front wall
• 18 philips screw M5x20

There are 3 screws on each side, 6 in total, 4 x nr 3, 2 x nr 18.

The trick is to unscrew the 4 screws that hold the air intake (4) to the front wall (17). Do not remove the front wall until the air intake is removed out of the body and out of the way.

Tools

Hex key M5

Very long Philips screwdriver (or a very short one).

Step 1

Remove the front raster (7). It has 7 TBEI screws (with flange M5x9). Umbraco key M5.

Step 2

On the left side (seen from front of bike), unscrew the 2 screws that hold the air intake.

Unscrew the screw bottom left.

Unscrew the screw top right. Leave the 3rd screw, it will be removed in a later step.

Front brake pad inspection

Check wear of front wheel brake pads.

This article was written as a practice to figure out how to replace the brake pads. This time I only wanted to find out if the front brakes where worn out and clean the brake caliper. This could be done without dremoving the brak ecaliper, but I had never done it before, so I wanted to have a better understanding of how it is done.

Secure brake lever

I have put a piece of electric cable insulation between the the grip and the lever so that you cannot pull it in while the brakes are dismantled with brake pads taken out.

 

 

 

tie a piece of wire or string To hold up the brake element

A piece of electric cable copper core 1,5mm is strong enough to hold up the brake caliper. This is better than leaving the brake caliper hang on the brake line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tool to dismount

Ratchet socket wrench to remove the bolts. I have fastened the bolts with a torque wrench, set to 25Nm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dismount the brake caliper

Remove the bolts and set them aside

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hang the caliper on the piece of wire

Make sure the wire supports the weight of the brake calliper so that the brake line does not get stressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspect the brakepads

The brake pads need no replacement yet. On each side the 3 wear indicators show there is enough brake material left. Although some material come of at the left side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clean the brake calliper

I have cleaned the caliper while it was disconnected with brake cleaning spray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brake after cleaning with brake cleaner fluid

 

Figuring out how to remove the brake pads from the saddle

Other side of the brake caliper. On this side, rotate the retaining pins until the retaining clips can be seen.

Carefully remove the clips with needle-nose pliers. The retaining pins also keep the dust shield in place, so it will come free when the pins slide out.

After this exercise I understood how to remove the brake pads.

How I load a Honda Dax on a trailer

The trailer is a simple model suited to load motorbikes. When I needed to transport a Honda Dax a problem an inherent problem of this type of cheap trailer showed up. The wheel diameter of a Dax is a lot smaller than that of a motorbike. When the wheel is driven up to the end of the sledge into the stop, the steering is over the edge of the trailer. When you fasten straps and belts over the steering fork and connect them to the edge of the trailer bottom, then the dax is pulled out of the sledge stop.

So I needed a way to fix the straps on the steering head lead them to the sledge stop and lead them back to the fixing points at the edge of the trailer. This way the connection from the steering head is pulled forward to the sledge stop and this force keeps the wheel inside the sledge stop.

I am using straps without ratchets:

For each side there are 2 hooks, the shortest one has a ratchet. For the motorbike you need 4 sets of 2 hooks.

The 1st image shows the connection if 1 set of 2 hooks on the left front side of the bike. The shortest one is connected closest to the bike, the long one will go through the ratchet and you can sit on the Honda Dax to pull its shocks down and simultaneously tighten the strap.

The hook of the longest strap is fixed to the connection furthest from the sledge at the edge of the trailer. The strap is led to the sledge stop, twisted 360° around it and then led over the steering fork down to the the ratchet. The strap is led through the ratchet. The other hook is connected to the fixation point closest to the sledge. Pull the strap lightly, to keep it from falling over.. You need to do the other side now.

Picture from the right hand side.

Picture from right hand side steering head, see the strap simply go over it and down to the ratchet. This picture was taken after sitting on the bike and pulling up both straps.

Picture from right hand side, rear

Picture from left hand side, rear

At the rear the straps go over the fixing point of the shock absorbers, rear left, viewing from front to rear:

At the rear left seen from rear to front

At the rear right

Repair Breva rear footrest

One of the rear footrests did not collapse any longer when I bought the machine. After cleaning the mufflers I decided it was time to fix this. After dismantling I found that the ball and spring mechanism was rusty. A thorough cleaning and reassembling fixed the problem. Now the footrest clips in and out without any problems.

Front footrest - right hand side

Rear footrest left hand side

• 1 Notch bolt
• 2 Blocking ring
• 9 Fixing plate
• 12 Spring rear foot rest
• 13 Ball for rear foot rest 6,35
• 14 Footrest

Disassembled rear footrest from my bike

From left to right: 2 – 9 – 13 – 12 – 14 – 9 - 1

The right hand rear holder on the bike frame

this picture was taken while the muffler holder was removed.

Removing and cleaning the REAR footrest

1. With a plier remove the blocking ring (2) from the notch bolt (1) and put it aside.
2. While holding your hand under and around the footrest to hold any pieces from falling on the ground, remove the notch bolt.
3. Carefully slide the footrest (14) out of the bike frame, keep the fixing plates (9) together, because the spring (12) might push the little ball (13) out and you don’t want this to disappear on the floor.
4. I have cleaned the rusty ball and spring with a little WD-40 spray. The footrest was cleaned with aluminium cleaner.

Reassembly

1. Put the spring in the footrest
2. Place the ball on top of the spring and push it so that it sits in the footrest.
3. Now slide on of the fixing plates over the ball, try to keep the ball in the hole of the footrest. The 2 fixing plates are symmetrical and can be on either side of the footrest. The fixing plates have one rounded corner, this matches the rounded corner of the holder on the bike frame and not the rounded corner of the footrest.
4. Place the other fixing plate on the other side of the footrest.
5. Keep the notch bolt ready.
6. Slide everything in the holder, while keeping the ball and spring inside the footrest.
7. Insert the notch bolt from the top (on the picture of the rear holder it is on the top right hand side) and slide it downwards(on the picture to the bottom left side), through the fixing plate and footrest until it comes out at the lower side.
8. Keep the bolt in place with one hand and test the footrest a few times if it clicks in the up and down position easily.
9. Put the retaining ring back over the bolt.

Dismantle, clean and mount a Lafranconi muffler, part 2

Here is a follow up on Part 1 with some pictures from the right hand muffler.

 

Moto Guzzi Breva muffler cleaning Diavoorstelling weergeven Alles downloaden