WUMPA - my DMC Dauntless R1150GS Adventure rig

Ned, thanks for your followup observations, comments and pictures.

And, Dave and FR thanks for your insight and comments.

Ron,

Ned
Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures.

Thank you Drone for these excellent pictures.

I full agree with Davebig's commentary here . Davidovich is right that one needs to heat BMW's glue to a certain temp to loosen it. Done it before and did it the BMW way-(Hitze > Heat) . Forcing the ball joint off without heating would seriously damage the treads!

As for the elongated crooked ball joint, me thinks that the brute force inflicted on the joint on the way of separation caused the deformity :eek1.



cheers...

When I put my Dauntless reduced tree on. I didn't use the old balljoint I replaced it with a new one. So I knew everything was new. But by the way your look somebody really screwed up...The hardest part I had was touquing right. DiDn't like the way my front end dropped but sure like the way it steered.. When we put it together the way the manual said used the right type of Lock tite, Haven't had a problem... After your accident I checked my front end and everything was tight... In my opinion I'd check with the person who installed it and go after his ass...

Do those things run a bank angle sensor ?

Cause if they don't, my first question would be, how long did the engine run while it was upside down.


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Nope, and your being so kind why don't you explain random vibrations too our neophyte mechanic fellow inmate ! He finds my style overbearing and boorish

I locked up the rear wheel before I went over the bank, so the engine was already stalled when we went ass over teakettles.

Well, that answers that question.

OW!!! That had to hurt ....

Not a bad idea to put a reference point on these things so one can see if any movement may be taking place.
We do not use antiseize on them but rather loctite. The forces on a direct steering machine such as a sidecar are a little different than on a solo bike. We also have steel to steel thread connection.

. I am no expert, but that fail looks like it failed all at once. Maybe way over tightened and then a bad bad bump.

It calls for 170 lb-ft of torque so to over-torque it ya gotta try pretty hard.
But that's a possible theory. I also like the theory that the PO cross threaded it - damaging the threads - then backed it out and re-installed it. But I have touched based with the guy and he said the ball joint was installed "by the book" and there was no drama.

As for the "bad bad bump", I bottomed out that shock any number of times the first season I rode the rig (with no wheel or tire damage), then I replaced the front shock spring with a heavier one and all was well for the next two seasons. I do remember having a pretty bad bump on Day 5 of the trip (actually happened at low speed in a paved parking lot not paying attention) and the wreck happened on Day 9.

Lotsa good theories here. Unfortunately, we will never know for sure . . .

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld
I doubt Don and you where classmates but I'm sure he's familiar with some of your peers and he seems to have captured everyone's problem here !