Let me start by thanking the members here for helping me over the years. The wealth of knowledge shared has been a deciding factor in keeping me interested in the K Bikes. Thank you guys, truly priceless.
Having lost my storage, I'm in the process of getting my K1100RS with 75K miles ready for the road, and possibly offering for sale after it's done. It's a long story, I'll try to keep it somewhat brief.
A little history on it: Purchased back in 2009. She needed a battery, fuel pump, cooling fan and tires, but was beautiful to me. She ran great once I installed a Ford fuel pump, aftermarket cooling fan and Michelin tires. Move on to the dreaded driveshaft failure and that's how I linked up with Duncans Beemers in Maynard Ma. They provided me with a low mile shaft that has performed flawlessly. Somewhere in the 30K miles I put on her, the key was lost. A locksmith worked on it for 5 hours and could get into the tank, under seat lock, but not the ignition. At that time, the bike was my only mode of transportation and I needed it running ASAP so I allowed him to drill it out. The bike ran great until a green wire decided to no longer be soldered to the ignition wire harness. At that point I had to store it in my grandmother's shed.
She has since passed away and the bike had been there for 6 years, now I'm left with a decision to make. I can't bring myself to dismantle this beautiful bike, but it does need some work and I don't have permanent storage.
Here's a list of what I know it needs:
Battery
Fork seals leak
Final drive needle bearings/ very little play, but not worth neglecting
Cooling fan bearing stuck
Fuel cap replace gasket
Corbin seat worn/torn needs recovering
My primary focus now is to get her running before diving into the forks, fan, seat and needle bearings. I know I tend to have tunnel vision and can't afford a couple thousand dollars of parts, so I'm trying to keep costs down.
Progress so far:
I'm almost done with removing the top triple clamp/soldering the green wire, head bearings feel good. The tank is full of old gas. I'll pull the fuel and look to see how bad it is in there soon. Hopefully there won't be too much gunk from the ethanol sitting? Wishful thinking. I'm 99.9% confident it'll start with a new battery and decent fuel.
I'll keep posting the progress made good or bad.