Hi all, yesterday I noticed I couldn't adjust all the slack out of the throttle cable (or so I thought) so I have spent today fitting a new cable. This is of course no bad thing, but I have found that the reason why it felt so odd and still had some play at the grip is because the cam is quite seriously worn, as you can hopefully see here nearest the chain (sorry for the quality!):



The grip isn't nearly as worn, I would guess it is a replacement. The whole lot was packed with grease but maybe this wasn't always the case? Are these known to wear? Anyone know of a special place I can get one for less than the £16.80 plus post that James Sherlock demand, being the cheapest of the big three here in the UK? Part number 32721457036 if it helps.

It's easy enough to replace of course, I'm just a bit bemused as to why it should have this kind of wear at 60K miles. 

You'd have to do a heluva lot to wear out this gear as it's relatively non-stressed. Likely you've not seated it properly. 

Twist round the throttle grip while holding the gear in place; you'll feel it when its seated on the notch which will take up the most slack. The whole assembly will jump out without the cover plate secured, so be ready for that.

Oh, and make sure the teeth on the roller are clean and free of buildup (grease/gunk etc) so that the gears are interfacing as deeply/securely as they can.

This machine is new to me, first time I've been in here. Not my fault, honest guv!

What notch is this? I'm not really following 

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Ah rightio. I notice there is also a line on the grip, probably halfway through the travel - does that mean anything?

Is it better not to have these gears covered in grease? Or is this just so that I can check them out more closely?

The 'line' is the no-teeth spot, if I'm tracking with what you're describing. You can feel it when pressing the wheel down while (whilst?) rotating the throttle grip. The first notches past this is where you want to seat the gear wheel.

Yes, you'll want lube in there but it does not take a lot. Lithium grease or moly paste, just a judicious smearing. You don't want it migrating into the cable itself, as the cable has a nylon sleeve that does not agree with lubes. It'll create sticktion.

Snod Blatter wrote:I notice there is also a line on the grip, probably halfway through the travel - does that mean anything?

The line on the grip....should line up....with the line on the gear.
If it's the one on the picture you have in mind.

It's not quite like that but close, it is a line on the round machined part to the right of the teeth on the grip (obviously, there is no left). I'll try and get a decent picture tomorrow but there's a good chance I have missed something, there's still quite a lot of silvery (molybdenum?) grease in there. Also the cam gear looks a little different and there is no O ring in the centre that I am aware of but it might all be interchangeable. You can see a bit of what it looks like here, I took the picture to show a friend the weirdness that lies within but as I say I'll try and take a better picture of this. Maybe the line does indeed line up with something on the gear.

The line at the gear is at the same positions on both gears (relative to the chain), so you I'm quite shure you gonna find a corresponding one at the grip.

The one in my picture is a older Version, no o-ring present..just a lookalike.

Meant to do this earlier but I've been distracted trying to find some replacement pipe to replace my cracking originals.. Anyway, the lines on the cam gear and the throttle grip do indeed line up, it made perfect sense as soon as I tried to put it back together and realised it'd be really difficult to know how to line the two up without any marks. It looks like this, sorry for yet more bad pictures but my phone is against taking things in focus..



Funnily enough the cam gear is also polished/scratched up on the top where these badly worn teeth are, so my guess is that some gorilla didn't line the teeth up properly and then simply tightened the top down, crushing it all together. There is still some play now that it's all cleaned up too, so I think a replacement is in order. If they don't wear though perhaps it is worth my time finding a used item, surely they're not very sought after?

Also, totally off topic but do people normally fit 8mm or 7mm fuel injection hose? The fittings on the tank are 7mm and the inside of the original pipe is 7mm, but the writing on the outside says 8mm (and week 20 of 1987!). Motorworks also sell 8mm ID pipe, I'm a little confused. Maybe the original bit has shrunk inside a little..?

5/16 or 8mm is the size that you need, usually it's the same hose with different numbers painted on.

In the end I found a local shop with some 7.6mm hose which is a fantastically tight fit, though of course not having the proper bends in it made installation rather more difficult than it should have been. I'm not paying what BMW demand though..

To give some closure to this thread I received a new cam gear today after being told by a bloke at James Sherlock that these actually do wear and all their used ones are worn. It wasn't until after I had paid for a new one did I wonder why then do they list used items.. Anyway it arrived today (excellent service there) and it has significantly reduced the amount of slack in the mechanism. I can now feel the teeth as they engage because the gears are not matched, but it's not bad. Overall quite happy, though strange that some people reckon they don't wear (I wouldn't expect it) and others reckon they do. Good job they don't cost the Earth though either way.

 Per your last photo--looks as if the gear is wrong or perhaps upside-down? I don't think it will seat properly and the cap won't screw down enough to secure the twist grip. Refer to the factory photo again.  If it doesn't look the same then the gear probably came from another bike, perhaps an R model.

The new one I got looks just the same, as do the ones available from the major retailers and seems to fit/work just fine. If by factory photo you mean the one Inge K posted then it's an older version, though it's a pretty serious redesign!