Beemer Boneyard windshield upper swing arms

[jackronner]

I had bought a pair of these milled aluminum arms from this company some years ago and they fit and functioned perfectly. I just had to send back a pair because the hole for the pin that attaches them to the windshield was way too big, causing significant rattling over bumps, etc. . I checked the old pair on my other bike, and the pin fit perfectly. I informed them of the problem, so hopefully it will be rectified, but if you are going to buy a pair from them, ask them for the diameter of the hole. I called my BMW dealership and they were unable to find any sleeve on their original part that might remedy the problem, although the old pair seems to have sleeves and I've no memory of having fitted them myself. The parts manager agreed that they are made of notoriously weak pot metal, with its very narrow neck where the piece attaches to the windshield and usually breaks, was expressly made to break rather than allowing the entire apparatus to be snapped off. I don't know, I don't like the idea of the upper windshield flapping around at 80 miles an hour and possibly coming off to hit me in the face!

[bruce2000ltc]

Here's something else I found that may contribute to those windshield arms breaking. I change my windshield from the oem (summer) to my larger CeeBailey"s (winter) in the Fall. Every other year or so I remove the pins that hold the windshield brackets and lube them. The last time I did this one of the upper arms (the arms with the spring) would hardly move up and down. The upper arms are supposed to move freely and follow the motor driven lower arms. The upper arms pivot point is kind of hard to get to so I sprayed it with WD-40 and got it loose again. I wonder if that binding contributes to an already weak part. Anyway, it's a good idea to lube the windshield bracket pins and check the movement of those upper arms and lube them.