A friend, Rohn, talked me into doing a 72,000 mile service on his 2004 R1150RS. I too have an R1150, but mine is the RS model but I have not done much work on it.

In researching the work required for this service and the history of work done on Rohn’s bike, I noted that his fuel pump is original. Mine died at about 75,000 miles in Des Moines, IA at the intersection of I-35 and I-80 in a construction zone on my way to Michigan. It was not a happy experience. Unlike an airhead, there wasn’t a thing I could do to coax it back to life.

So I told Rohn he might want to consider replacing his fuel pump and the internal hoses  as a “preventative maintenance” item and he agreed to have me replace them.

In looking around for information on the internet, and YouTube, to prepare me for this work, I wasn’t able to find good instructions for replacing the fuel pump. There are several resources that show how to replace the filter, but the fuel pump seemed to be left out.

So, I put this material together to fill that gap.

Parts

I decided to use the fuel pump replacement kit from Euro Motoelectrics. This bike uses Part# FPK-231R kit. Here is what’s inside.

The BMW part numbers included in the kit are:

• 16 14 1 341 231, 16 14 1 341 696 (superseded) – Fuel Pump (in box)
• 16 14 2 325 859 – Fuel Filter
• 16 14 1 341 232 – Vibration Damper
• 16 12 1 180 040 – High Pressure Fuel Hose
• 16 14 2 325 808 – U-shaped Fuel Hose
• 13 31 1 460 928 (x6) – Reusable High Pressure Stainless Steel Clamps
• 16 14 1 341 233 – Particulate Filter Screen (Green)

NOTE:
EME has updated this kit since I bought it. It now includes two reusable hose clamps, (EME Part# SClamp8-10), that fit the two vent lines attached to the inside of the pump plate (see procedure and YouTube video below). I installed the use once clamp, (EME Part# CClamp11). I’m pleased they upgraded the kit to add the two reusable clamps.

EME has kits for other BMW fuel injected models as well so be sure you get the correct kit for your bike. The kit has all the parts needed to replace the fuel pump, filter, high pressure hoses and reusable clamps for the internal connections inside the tank.

The pump comes with a protective cover over the inlet and a protective plastic nipple over the outlet. These are removed when you install the pump.

There are electrical terminals for power the pump on the outlet side.

The particulate filter screen fits on the inlet side of the pump.

The fuel filter has the inlet side marked on the end “IN”. It has to be installed in the correct orientation.

Other parts include a special U-shape hose the fits on the outlet side of the filter connecting to a steel pipe on the pump plate, There is a straight section of high pressure fuel hose you cut sections out of for attaching the inlet side of the filter and the outlet side of the pump. There is  a round rubber vibration damper that fits over the inlet of the pump with an oval bushing goes over the pump inlet that orients the pump in the bracket. Included are (6) stainless steel reusable clamps designed for high pressure fuel connections.

WARNING:
DO NOT USE RADIATOR HOSE CLAMPS. These are the kind that have a worm gear. They will cut the hose. And, you need stainless steel clamps that won’t rust since they live in gasoline which does get water in it, particularly with Ethanol in the fuel.

I also picked up some “use once” hose clamps (BMW Part# 16 13 1 379 229) from EME that are not in the kit, (EME Part# CClamp11) to replace the use once clamps on the vent lines that go inside the tank and attach to the pump plate.

I used a new o-ring that fits between the pump plate and the gas tank, (BMW Part# 16 14 1 341 008) from EME (EME Part# FLF-Oring008). This is not in the fuel pump kit since some folks try to reuse this o-ring. I understand it swells in the presence of gasoline, of if you reuse yours, you need to let it dry out and shrink before installing.

Tools

I picked up the special crimping pliers for tightening the BMW “use once” high pressure fuel hose clamps from EME, (EME Part #: CClampTool).

The rest of the tools are standard shop tools:

• 3/8 inch socket ratchet
• Torx bits
• Allan bits
• Metric Sockets
• Screw Driver (flat blade)
• Diagonal Cutters

My YouTube Video of Doing The Work

I shot a video of how to do the work and posted it to my YouTube channel.

The Illustrated Procedure

The work starts with removing the gas tank from the bike and draining it enough so fuel won’t spill out when you remove the fuel pump plate on the right side of the tank.

I removed the two quick disconnects on the fuel hoses, the electrical connector with the fuel pump and fuel level sender wires, separated the two vent hoses leaving the nipple in one so they don’t get connected backwards when I put tank back on and then the bolt at the right rear using a magnet to keep the free nut on the back from dropping into the frame when the bolt is free.

I put a big blanket on my bench to protect the tank and some rags on the top of the tank so it wouldn’t get scrapped up while resting against the window sill and wall.

DANGER:
There will be fuel vapors from the fuel in the tank. Wear rubber gloves to keep the fuel off your skin and have plenty of ventilation while working with the tank inside. I put the tank outside after I got the pump plate out to minimize exposure to fuel vapors and any chance of igniting them in the shop. That would be a very bad day for me if that should happen. 🙁

Remove Pump Plate From Gas Tank

The fuel pump and filter attach to a large plate bolted to the right side of the gas tank on the interior surface of the tank that faces the spine tube.

Mark External Vent Lines

There are two internal vent lines attached to the inside of the plate that go to the two external lines that I disconnected when I removed the tank. I left the nipple in one line but not the other so I would not confuse them. Also, on this bike, one external vent line had yellow paint applied that matched a yellow bushing at the other end of the line where it attached to the pump plate.

The other was all black with the nipple in it. You don’t want to confuse these vent lines should you decide to remove them.

There are six nylock nuts that secure the pump plate to the tank. After they are removed I can pull the plate up off the studs to expose the two internal vent lines that connect to the two external lines. I have to remove the two internal vent lines to get the pump plate out of the tank. The fuel pump and filter attach to the inside of the pump plate.

Mark Internal Vent Lines and Remove From Pump Plate

After I got the pump plate out a little bit, I can see the two internal vent lines. I mark one with some white paint and put a dot of white paint on the under side of the plate next to the tube it connects to. I don’t want to confuse which vent line connects to which pump plate tube.

I used a pair of side cutters to break the loop on the use once hose clamps so I can slide the rubber vent lines off the metal tubes.

The loop broke pretty easily. However, as you will see later, the use once hose clamps on the high pressure hose connecting to the filter and pump are harder and I wasn’t able to cut them with the side cutters.

Before I slide the vent hoses off the metal tubes, I wrapped them with some green garden wire that I secured to the tank mount. Should the hoses fall back into the tank it will be much easier to get them back out.

Extract Pump Plate and Inspect Components

The fuel level sensor has a float on an arm so be careful when removing the plate not to bend the arm on the side of the hole in the gas tank.

Once I get the plate out of the tank, I move the fuel tank out of the shop and put the plate on my workbench so I can see the filter, pump and high pressure fuel hoses.

The fuel filter is at the top with the arrow on the outside pointing in the direction of fuel flow through the filter and the pump is below it with the black particle screen attached to the pump intake opening.

The fuel filter inlet and outlet hoses have a reusable clamp next to the filer and an original use once clamp on the metal pipe. I know the filter has been changed multiple times from the service record and the last shop opted to use the reusable hose clamps rather than crimp the use once connectors.

The clamps on the outlet of the pump are original use once clamps which agrees with the service records; there is no record of the pump being replaced.

There is a brown ground wire and green power wire attached to the pump terminals. I wanted to remove these before I removed the pump, but I could only get to the green terminal nut with the pump installed in its holder in the plate.

NOTE:
The Brown wire terminal uses takes an 8 mm wrench while the Green terminal has a 7 mm nut. The ring terminals are sized to prevent connecting them to the wrong terminals; the green terminal will only fit on the 7 mm (+) terminal. 

The fuel level sender uses a potentiometer which is a variable resistance to indicate how high the float is in the tank. You can see dark black on part of the windings (toward the full reading) which is carbon build up. I clean that off using metal cleaner but a soft pencil eraser will work as well. Just be sure to get all the eraser crumbs cleaned up so none are lodged in the windings.

Remove and Replace Fuel Filter, Hoses and Clamps

I remove the reusable hose clamps from the fuel filter with a socket wrench.

I found a small flat blade screw driver slides inside the loop of the clamp and then twisting it opened up the clamp enough to slide the hose off the metal pipe.

Here are the old and new hoses that connect the fuel filter to the metal pipes on the pump plate.

I installed the new hoses and fuel filter onto the metal pipes on the pump plate. The U-shaped hose fits onto the outlet side of the filter.

NOTE:
If all you are doing is replacing the fuel filter, you can skip to the section about installing the pump plate into the tank.

Remove and Replace Fuel Pump, Hoses, Particle Screen and Clamps

I want to remove the wires that power the pump from the terminals. But I could only get to the Green wire on the (+) terminal with a 7 mm wrench. I couldn’t get a wrench on the nut securing the Brown (-) terminal which is the ground wire. By the way, the nut on that terminal uses an 8 mm wrench.

Getting the pump off the bracket wasn’t straight forward. After I removed the use once hose clamps with the small screw driver, I removed the black particle filter from the pump inlet. This is a tight fit so I had to use a larger screw driver to pry it off the vibration damper.

But the pump would not move forward or backward so I could not get it to come off the metal tube at the on the pump plate the outlet was attached to. I finally pushed the hose connected to the pump outlet toward the metal tube and around the elbow far enough to get the hose completely off the plastic outlet tube of the pump.

Then I can swing the pump out of the bracket to get it free so I can remove the nut on the terminal with the Brown wire.

After I pulled the old hose off the metal pipe on the pump outlet side, I saw why it was hard to remove the pump. The plastic outlet on the pump fits right up against the metal pipe in the pump plate when the vibration damper on the inlet side is mounted into the fuel pump bracket. To install the pump, I will have to push the new piece of high pressure hose far enough down the metal pipe to line up with edge of the pipe so I can swing the new pump in place.

However the new hose is stiffer than the old and I can’t really get it far enough down the pipe to let me swing the pump in place. The old hose is 40 mm long, so I shortened the new hose by 5 mm to 35 mm. Then I can push it down the pipe until the other end of the hose lines up with the end of the steel pipe.

The new vibration damper has a hole that fits over the inlet to the pump and an oval edge that fits into the oval in the metal pump bracket. This ensures the pump is installed in the proper orientation. The other end of the vibration damper slides over the inlet end of the pump.

I put two new reusable hose clamps on the metal pipe. Then I slip the new shorter section of high pressure hose down the elbow of the the metal pipe, push the inlet end of the pump with the vibration damper attached into the bracket and push on the metal pipe a bit so I have a small clearance to swing the pump into place with the plastic pump outlet lining up with the opening of the metal pipe.

 

Then I slide the new hose so it is centered across the metal pipe and the plastic pump outlet. I push the reusable hose clamps over the hose, get them in place and tighten the screws with a socket wrench. I get the clamps tight, but I don’t over do it because I don’t want to crack the plastic outlet of the pump. I leave a small gap between the ends of the clamp.

The last to go on is the new green particle screen. Be sure you orient the screen so it points toward the float and is straight across the bottom of the pump as shown in the picture below. If it’s not installed this way, you won’t be able to get the pump plate back into the gas tank and it can interfere with free movement of the float which will cause the fuel gauge readings to be wrong.

It’s a tight fit between the inlet of the pump and the outer edge of the rubber vibration damper. This makes it hard to get the metal sleeve of the particle screen to slide into place. I use a small screw driver to push the outer edge of the vibration damper to open up the gap a bit and push very hard on the metal back side of the screen against the metal sleeve until it is all the way on the pump inlet. I had to push pretty hard so I made sure I held firmly onto the pump so I won’t inadvertently put any pressure on the float or its arm in the process of seating the particle screen on the pump inlet.

Insert the Pump Plate Back Into the Tank

I bring the gas tank back into the shop, put on my rubber gloves and open all the windows and turn off the heater.

DANGER:
Protect your skin from the gasoline and make sure you have plenty of ventilation, no open flames nor electrical sparks while the tank is inside your shop.

Before I insert the pump plate into the gas tank, I install a new o-ring that seals the pump plate to the tank and prevents fuel leaks. I decided to use three tiny drops of super glue in the groove of the tank the o-ring fits into to keep it in place so it won’t move and get pinched as I install the pump plate into the tank.

I carefully slide the pump plate into the hole in the gas tank and orient it so I can install the two vent lines I removed. I am using new use once hose clamps and the crimping tool to secure them to the metal vent pipes in the pump plate.

I put a hose clamp on each vent hose, slide it over it’s corresponding metal vent pipe, push the clamp so it sits over the indentation in the hose from the old clamp and crimp it. Then I remove the green garden wire.

I rotate the pump plate carefully so the mark on the plate lines up with the mark on the tank and push it down so the six studs go through the holes in the pump plate. It takes four or five tries to get the pump plate to rotate to the correct orientation and I am very careful not to put pressure on float arm so I don’t bend it.

Then I tighten up the six lock nuts until they are snug and use a socket to tighten them down. Don’t over do it as these are small studs and you don’t want to strip a thread on a stud. I could find no torque settings for the nuts so I used my stubby ratchet handle and got them snug.

I took the tank outside and poured the almost 2 gallons of fuel I siphoned out back inside. Then I let it sit for 30 mins to see if there was a leak around the pump plate. There wasn’t any, so I installed the tank on the bike.

Revisions

2018-12-03  Note about different pump terminal sizes; picture and text edits.