Posted by Mark Kovalevsky
on 9/11/2002, 5:29 pm
My 1988 R80 BMW has a recurring clutch problem. When the clutch gets very hot (such as after a 45 minute ride up Sukhumvit from Thonglor to Ploenchit in dense traffic) the clutch starts to feel "sticky" at the lever, and then if it gets hot enough it will pack it in altogether -- the lever comes all the way to the bar and the clutch cannot be used until it cools down. Now, when this first happened a few years ago, I phoned a BMW dealership in Australia and their answer was that the piston in the clutch actuating mechanism distorts under severe heat and ceases to function properly. So I bought a new one the next time I was down there (for such a small part it's actually quite expensive), and when installed the problem went away ... for a while. Now, a couple of years later, it's doing it again, and the bike hasn't done many miles since the part was replaced. Has anybody else with a two-valve twin had the same problem, and if so what's the fix? Any advice would be appreciated, apart from that the bike is mint and the engine runs extremely well (the bike has only done 8,000 kilometres since new!).
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