Pete Schuyler's BMW Motorcycles

BIKE SOLD TODAY

2010-04-08T11:20:00.002-05:00

Enough said

Centerstand

2010-04-02T14:22:00.002-05:00

I reinstalled Ron's used centerstand, it has the tab in place, and is in decent condition, this will allow me to go get my original fixed and worked on.

From 1976 BMW R75/6

New Tool

2010-04-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

Today I picked up the most useful tool for my two motorcycles, a Harbor Freight MC Lift. My good friend Ron is moving and parted ways with this beauty at a very fair price. I already installed my centerstand on the rat bike with ease.

From 1976 BMW R75/6

New Seat

2010-02-18T20:50:00.002-06:00

Finally went for a ride on my Ezberg Solo seat, here is a rough picture of it covered up by my butt pad.

TACH Died

2010-02-17T13:38:00.002-06:00

Took a 40 mile ride, the cricket I was hearing before was the tach needle, after lube, re-assembly, the tach needle was whining so bad I disconnected the cable form the tach . I have to get this repaired at this point. The needle was jumping all over the place, and the sound was nails on chalk.

Sticky Needle

2010-01-24T08:23:00.004-06:00

I noticed that my tachometer needle is jumping around frantically. I read online it can be sticky cable, or sticky gears.

I removed the speedo/tach, and bench tested the tach needle using a hand drill going in reverse. I drill could only get it up to 3000 rpm's, but it was jumping around around. The tach is a very simple worm gear mechanism. Two white plastic worm gears drive the main needle. I sprayed some silicone around both gears, then applied silicone grease to one of the white gears. I but it back together, and then retested on the bench, it did operatre much better.

One thing to note, I was bench testing with a spare cable. The tach cable on the bike is of unknown age and might have something to do with the issue. When first bought the bike, the lower end of the tach cable where it plugs into the bike near the cam, was dirty with oil. I did clean up that area, but never removed the cable. If this still has problems after road test I will replace with my spare cable and give it go.

"Light me Up"

2010-01-23T14:28:00.027-06:00

***UPDATE ****

In Feb I replaced the red LED below (position 3 from the top) for the generator bulb with a white incandescent, given the charging warnings, that bulb requires a small amount of current to pass through, which the LED would not always do, there is a bypass available from Motorrad Elektric but I decided since I do not have a voltage meter on the bike while it is running, I would stick with OEM bulb for now, and keep a spare in the tool tray.

http://www.motoelekt.com/genlightacc.htm

Original Article

I have decided to replace the indicator lamps with LEDs, mine are dim and two are burnt out.

SnowBums Article on replacement lights
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/lamps.htm

There are 4 12V/3W Type 194 bulbs that need to be replaced. The Generator light is the one you have to watch since it is tied to a failure.

http://autolumination.com/194.htm

There are four Type 74 or BA7S type wedge bulbs, 12V/1.2W that need to be replaced.

http://autolumination.com/74.htm

Here is what I got, a combination of colors even though the indicators have colored plastic. I thought I would try blue background lighting for the fun it of it, I can always return for white ones if I do not like it.

Description	Unit price	Qty	Amount
T10 Wedge Item# Bobblehead , Color: Blue , Lens: 194	$3.99 USD	2	$7.98 USD
74 Item# Superstar Led , Color: Red , Lens: Forward	$2.99 USD	1	$2.99 USD
74 Item# Superstar Led , Color: Green , Lens: Forward	$2.99 USD	1	$2.99 USD
74 Item# Superstar Led , Color: Amber , Lens: Forward	$2.99 USD	1	$2.99 USD
74 Item# Superstar Led , Color: Blue , Lens: Forward	$2.99 USD	1	$2.99 USD
T10 Wedge Item# 4-Star , Color: Amber , Lens: 194	$3.99 USD	1	$3.99 USD
T10 Wedge Item# 4-Star , Color: Red , Lens: 194	$3.99 USD	1	$3.99 USD


Blue	Super White	Red	Amber	Green	UV

This is the current bulb pattern so I do not forget.

From 1976 BMW R75/6

Valve adjustment

2010-01-03T12:44:00.003-06:00

Took advantage of the super cold weather, and did a valve adjustment. The rockers free play was not enough when examined.

Mileage is 66, 437, it was last done about 500 miles ago, so it did not really need it, but I'm glad I did because the free play was needed to be corrected.

New Old Brake Line

2010-01-02T12:44:00.002-06:00

When I bought the bike last year, the previous owner had rigged up a stainless steel brake line with bango bolts that went from the MC slug directly to the the Caliper bottom input line. This arrangement seemed to always leak, and it was missing the steel down tube. I found online the original assembly from the caliper all the way back up to the MC, original ATE brake line and bracket. Now I do not know the age, but the rubber hose looks ok, and the brake stopping seems solid. I might get a new brake line at some point, but I wanted to put the original lines back on.

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T12:28:00.005-06:00

Over the holiday I ordered some parts from a named Chris Telford off IBMWR.org, he maintains a listing of parts from beemers with nice photos and pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4autobahn/

I got:

Extra set of cables, speedo, brake, tach, and speedo cables.

Got the full brake line assembly, original, steel tube, rubber line, etc.

6 Gallon Touring Tank Red with Knee Pads

Extra set of original coils

Front sport fender

Footpegs (good shape)

2009 Sumamry - 1976 R75/6

2009-12-17T18:22:00.000-06:00

June-July 2009 / Mileage 65, 945 (10K Service)

Spark Plugs replaced (Boxers by Bruce)
Fork Oil Replaces (Boxers by Bruce)
Air Filter Replaced
Brake Fluid Replaced
Transmission Oil Replaced
Final Drive Oil Replaced
Drive Shaft Oil Replaced
Inline Fuel Filters
Lubed Swing arm
Engine Oil/Oil Filter/Oil Pan Gasket/Cleaned Screen and Pan
Adjusted Timing
Checked Valves
Sync Idle and Full Advance
Lubed Advance Mechanism
New Brake Pads, Caliper Dust Cover, Reused Oring-New Fluid
-------------------------------------------------
Oct 2009

New Braided Fuel Line/Filters

Installed new rubber seal around ignition/points area

Nov 2009

Cleaned Exhaust Fin Nuts (New Wrench)

Spline Lube being performed

Dec 2009

Swing arm repacked and put back on bike

Master Cylinder Rebuild Kit seems to fix MC issue, bought a MightyVac to assist in bleeding brakes, and redid E-pin.

Ride and Sync

2009-12-17T13:29:00.007-06:00

I put the rear fender back on, and lights, rewired the brake and turn signals. I decided at 50 degrees I would go for a ride and see how the bike handles after spline lube, and swing arm bearings, etc.

The bike shifts very easy now, and tracks well. The older shocks I put on seem a bit more spongy but ridable.

When the weather turns nice again, I have decided to give the front fender, rear fender and tank another coat of paint. The Black Rustoleam is protective, but I'm thinking of putting a lacquer coat of Dupli-color on the "tins" to make a nicer look, gloss black.

I have not put the new BMW emblems back on yet since I'm not done painting. The bike looks rough, but runs nice.

After the ride I used the carbtune on the bike, to see where the new throttle cables were at. At idle adjusted the screws so they were even, right around 800-1000 rpms.

I also tried to sync the throttle cables at higher RPM, did the best I could do alone, it is very hard to do this quickly alone, need a helper next time to get it right.

Mighty Vac

2009-12-16T12:38:00.004-06:00

Today after failed attempts to get the front brake bleed correctly, I broke down and bought a Mighty Vac. Since I will attempt to bleed the brakes in my RS after the winter I thought this would be a good investment, $39.99 at O Reily's.

After hooking it up I followed the instructions to bleed the brakes. The handling is better, but not quite there yet. I pulled the caliper off to tap any loose bubbles that might be in the piston area. I put everything back together with only slightly better results. I will try again after winter break. Not sure the bike is ready to ride, it stops, but probably not like it should.

Spline Lube

2009-12-03T15:35:00.007-06:00

Gearing up for a spline lube, since the rear frame member is off.

Steps I performed, I knew I was going to remove the transmission

Remove Rear Frame/Seat

Remove Airbox/Tubes

Remove Battery/Battery Box

Remove Swingarm with Wheel/shocks connected (disconnect final drive from tranny)

Remove Clutch Release Mechanism

Remove Transmission

Clean up splines, relube

Clean up Clutch Release and re-grease

I had to order a new clutch throwout bearing, this little item set me back $28.00

After the splines were all put back together, I packed fresh grease in the swingarm bearings area, and put the rear section back together. The swing arm is no to difficult to align up centered. I use some wooden skewers that were just the right size as spacers as I tightened everything back up.

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right

2009-11-29T18:44:00.006-06:00

Took my new exhaust fin wrench out to the garage and tried it out on the left and right nuts. After spraying some deep creep into the groves, the nuts came right off, fresh antisieze paste looked like it had been applied recently.

Buffing up the rear

2009-11-15T13:06:00.010-06:00

ith the tank off, and master cylinder getting repaired, I thought it might be a good idea to good ahead and paint the rear frame member, I have been lightly sanding areas where rust has been starting to show up.

I removed the seat, unbolted everything, and put pull strings through the rear frame tubes for the brake lighting.

It might be a good idea to go ahead and do a spline lube with everything off the rear, that will entail removing the swing arm, etc, which I do not have the right tools to do right now.

Rear Brake Lighting, just in case I forget

New Throttle Cables

2009-11-06T15:36:00.000-06:00

Need to sync carbs, now that new throttle cables are on.

Master Issue

2009-10-26T13:20:00.005-05:00

This weekend, found a pool of brake fluid dripping down the side of the bike, and discovered it was coming from the back of the master cylinder. I pulled the assembly and found some rusting on the outside of the plunger, and decided to pull it apart to inpect.

The inards did not look too bad, pull all the parts, plunger, spring, rubber gaskets, etc. I pulled the top resivour off, and unscrewd the brake switch.

There was some rust on the inside, so I soaked in 100% vinegar for two hours. This cleaned it up nice, and I soaked with thin oil to keep it from rusting again.

Cleaned up all the parts and re-assembled, re-installed, and bam no brake pressure. I will buy a rebuild kit as air seems to be seeping through at this point.

Here is the rebuild kit, $69.00

Picture of ORIGINAL internal plunger for reference

Starting to color her up

2009-09-22T15:41:00.009-05:00

Will publish finished bike, plan on doing fenders and then tank, with new BMW emblems to replace torn ones. Should look half decent, I will put clear coat on as best as I can, no pin strips for now.

Rustroleum Black Enamel, easy to find and half decent for a Rat Bike.

New Fuel Line

2009-09-11T17:22:00.002-05:00

I have had 3 feet of braided fuel line and fuel filters for a while, the older fuel line and the original fuel filters I installed early in the summer will be kept for emergencies, but for now, new line and filters.

Rear Wheel Cleaning and Lube

2009-09-10T09:43:00.002-05:00

Decided to clean the rim on the rear wheel with Mothers aluminum cleaner, and check out the rear brake wear and spline condition. As expected, looks like the lube is hard and dried out.

Give me a BRAKE

2009-08-01T11:29:00.005-05:00

Today's plan, clean the rim on the front wheel. Well it always starts simple they say. Got a piece of 2x12 from a building site in the "hood" and propped the bike up on center side, this lifts it an additional inch or so off the ground, I find much easier to get front tire off.

Proceeded to pull front tire off, was just about to place a shim between the brake pads and I noticed how slim the pad looked. I placed the wheel to the side and took the brakes off for an inspection, OH BOY, the outer pad is almost down to the metal and the piston and dust ring have a crusty layer of grease and brake dust.

Now remember this bike came to be with an unknown history, so I'm glad I stopped to inspect. Part of the 10K service is to inspect the brake for wear, so this was on my list anyway for the summer, this and all the bearings.

I went ahead and pulled the caliper off, let the brake fluid drain, and decided to pull the piston to see if it was pitted and dirty, to my surprise the piston looks great, the inside of the caliper was pretty clean, I felt no grit around the o-ring when I pulled it out.

I cleaned up the caliper, removed brake dust, grease, and cleaned the inside well. I will set this aside until new brake pads and dust cover can be ordered. For now the bike will remain in the garage. I will get to cleaning that wheel at some point, but maybe it would be better to do the bearings while it is off.

Valves and Center Stud

2009-07-31T22:29:00.003-05:00

After reading more on setting the valves, I decided to redo them. I did not take up the vertical slack on the rocker arms the first time, and each rocker arm had slack. I also reviewed the Owners manual which recommends setting the valves:

Intake .15mm
Exhaust .20mm

The BMW MOA July ON magazine Keep them Flying article had a article just on setting valves on airheads, and they do recommend the same valve settings.

I had .10/.20, and had vertical slack, so I felt it was worth redoing them.

I also installed the center stud on the right side head which had come loose. The threads seem ok, but I used blue loctite on the stud, I will hand tighten after 24 hours.

A good Sunday

2009-07-26T19:40:00.002-05:00

As Ron knows I do not give up easily on these BMW bikes. I decided this morning, to go back under Paul's suggestion and take a second look at the timing under full advance.

I pulled the front cover off (after disconnecting the battery), and decided to lube the advance unit, and clean it up. I then went for a 10 mile ride, at this point came back and did realize that under full advance my timing was around 2800 rpm. I rotated the base plate, and got the advance to hit 3000-3100 at full advance. After doing this idle was a bit low, I carefully adjusted the idle stop screws, and put the gauge on the vacuum ports. It is now running at 1K dead on, after full warm up.

I put the bike back together, and went for another ride, WOW, my power is back, takes off like a banshee, not stumbling, no pinging. My needle jets are set to position three. I got the Bing book, and will check jet and needle sizes during next carb sync, but for now, the bike is running good. When I got back I adjusted the throttle cable just a smidgen, under the gauge, and went for a five mile ride, the bike got even smoother.

At this point with old cables, and carbs that probably need work, I think my R75 is tuned as good as I can get it without more help. She is running good, I will see what kind of gas mileage I get under this setup.

I started to sand and prep the side covers I received from Ebay. I will have to get me some bungys My stock air filter is on order along with the missing valve cover stud/special nut.

State of condition

2009-07-25T15:41:00.003-05:00

In summary

I modified carbs, good idle, but poor acceleration (Tech Day at Pauls)
I modified timing, good idle, still poor acceleration (was on OT, now on S with line above)
I modified needle position from 2 to 3, good idle, poor acceleration, and pinging at higher rpm's, speed, loss of power
Check valves, re-adjusted head bolts to 35nm, but valves read .10 and .20, so no modification.

Next Steps
Stock Air Filter
Re-Check timing (operating temperature)
Install new stud bolt and nut/washer

Advance Unit

2009-07-25T15:36:00.003-05:00

After reading about the advance unit more online, I thought it would not hurt to check the lubrication of the advance unit. After what Paul told me in an email about re-check timing, I noticed that the advance unit was full advance around 2900-3000 rpm, and it should be around 3000-3200 rpms. This could be causing the pinging.

Check the valves

2009-07-24T16:40:00.002-05:00

Today I wanted to verify the valves. It is warm outside but the bike has been sitting for a day, and the temp on the heads reads 88 so we should be ok.

Proceeded to to loosen and re-tighten the cylinder head nuts to 35nm of torque, and checked both left and right valves. Believe it or not they were all spot on, intake .10mm and .20mm for the exhaust. I was really surprised to see both side dead on.

Now I will change the air filter and proceed to re-sync the carbs.

Pins and Needles

2009-07-20T17:00:00.001-05:00

Today after thinking more about the carb issue, I decided to check the position of the carb needles. Now the bing book according to Paul suggest setting the needles at position three which is clicking the needle all the way up the diaphragm tube.

I removed the carb tops but left the cable sin tact, diaphragms look ok at a macro level. The needle positions were the same, but they were set to position two in the middle. Given this bike has a K&N filter someone might have set these to "rich", I think.

Anyway I went ahead and put the needles back to position three, and we will see how the bike runs for awhile in that position, will check plugs in a couple of weeks for color, etc.

It is all in the Timing

2009-07-19T15:47:00.005-05:00

After yesterday's carb sync, I realized I should have checked the basics first before doing the final tuning procedure, doing it backwards in my mind only creates undo frustration. I decided today that I would check the timing of the ignition to make sure we were not fighting a timing issue. I proceeded to check timing after a short garage warm up.

The timing mark OT was appearing in the window during idle which indicates it is not in timing. The S mark with the line above it needed to appear in the window for dead on timing. I loosened the base plate of the electronic ignition, and adjusted it back and forth until I got the line to appear right at the middle mark in the timing window.

After I test ride I re checked the setting, and it remained right on mark. The hesitation did not go away but the bike did seem to run a bit better on a 10 mike test ride. The idle is still a little high at stops, around 1100, needs to be adjusted,

Carb Sync

2009-07-18T15:36:00.000-05:00

Today, Ron, Paul, Doug and myself got together for a kinda of a half day Tech Day at Paul's House. I rode my Bike with some breakfast, Doug brought fresh coffee and Ron brought beer which never broke into.

Upon arrival I noticed some brake fluid seeping down the left alternator cover. So before we dove into cars, I pulled the tank to discover the cable connection to the master cylinder has vibrated loose and was dripping every time I squeezed the lever. Paul was gracious to offer DOT3 brake fluid, and Doug and I proceed to tighten the suspect cable, and bleed the brakes given the lose of fluid. After a quick road test front brake working great. I ntoiced now the front wheel is dragging a bit, so the caliper will most likely need looking at.

After this we discovered some loose wiring under the tank and the left coil plug wire was loose. We cleaned and put dielectric grease on most of the wire connections, zipped tied the loose cabling up, and generally inspected all items under the tank.

We proceed to look into the carbs.
Paul demonstrated the shorting method, of plugging spark plug adapters into the top of each spark plug them attached to the coil wires. While bike running, you short each cylinder to see which is one is pulling to indicate where the adjustments needed to be made. This was great learning from me, because I had never seen this done correctly.

Paul's order of operation was to loosen the throttle cables and set idle first by adjusting the idle stop screws first to reach correct idle speed, then he proceed to adjust idle mixture screws one by one u until it was set just after each cylinder would die out. He did all this by ear and watching the RPM's. We got idel running pretty smooth.

After doing this by ear we stuck Paul's carb stick on to make final adjustments. The bike was idling very smooth but we detected a new problem. Right off idle the machine coughs and acts as if it is going to stall, almost like the idle mixture is too lean. Paul suggested it might bu need position of carbs needing a good overhaul. Even though we created a new problem with suspect carbs, the sync procedure was a good learning experience, and I will not hestiate to try this by ear first.

New Rubber

2009-07-17T15:20:00.004-05:00

Today I received my original BMW owners manual, a blank key, and the new rubber sleeves for the carb to head, and carb to airbox tube connection. The old rubber sleeves were hard and cracked and might have been leaking, before a good carb sync I thought I would swap them out, can not hurt. The new ones went on with out a hitch.

Thanks Hans from Hucky's for getting the parts to me so quickly.

Oil Change, Filter, and Pan

2009-06-26T14:33:00.005-05:00

Today I wanted to finish off the fluids in the 10K service, I waited to do the oil filter, and engine oil until I could order a new oil pan gasket. Went to Hucky's and got me a oil pan gasket. I proceeded to drain oil, change filter, dropped oil pan, much black sludge but no real metal in the screen or pan, just thick older oil. I cleaned thoroughly. The older oil pan gasket came right off without any fuss.

The oil filter cover had at least two old paper gasket cover which I managed to clean off the cover and engine case 99% without any damage to each. I changed the filter, screwed in the main bolt and cover, and put a fresh gasket on. The oil filter bolts were replaced at one point with good hex bolts and washers.

The oil pan and screen were cleaned, and reinstalled with new oil pan filter, hand tighten the bolts down lightly, and put a fresh crush washer on the oil drain pan bolt, 30NM torque.

Filled with 2 liters of Castrol Act-Evo 4T, and topped off with my left over Spectro Golden 4, both 20W-50 weight.

I did reuse the oil pan bolts and washers, will watch for leaks, and possibly order new washers for the 14 bolts.

Pictures

Progress

2009-06-18T09:10:00.008-05:00

At this point I wanted to re-assemble the bike to working order in order to get the Texas State Inspection completed, so I can register and tag the bike for riding.

I had removed the rear fender, taillight assembly to get to the battery tray easier.

I started to clean the swing arm on the left side
Misc sections of the frame were sanded
Cleaned out the oil in the points area
Started 10K fluid changes
Put Points cover, start cover, and air box back together
Put Rear fender and tail light back on
Battery re-connected with battery tender plug back on
Greased Swing arm

To Do

Change Oil/Oil pan gasket
Finish 10K service, Valves, Timing, Cable Lube, Sync Carbs
Centerstand needs to be restored

Finishing up Battery Tray

2009-06-17T15:36:00.005-05:00

The battery tray was re-installed today, and following the Airheads.org club canon #2, "Airheads believe that the simplest engineering solutions are the best." With this in mind I looked for the rubber vibration bobbins that connect the battery tray to the frame. These little dampeners cost $13-18 dollars a piece x 5 from BMW, so to spend $65 seemed a bit high, so I went forward with my solution.

Went to Ace Hardware and bought 5 rubber stoppers @ 43 cents a piece, cut them down to the dampener length, drilled a 1/4 hole through the center and proceeded to bolt them to the tray and frame using M6 metric bolts, washers and nuts. Overall the cost was less than $5 dollars, looks good, and holds the tray solid.

The original dampeners are rated to hold 25lbs a piece, and the rubber stoppers are rated around 22 lbs so this seems sound, proof is a year from now.

A Stiff Drink

2009-06-12T16:46:00.007-05:00

Today after discovering that no fluids had been done by the former mechanic other than fork oil, I decided to start into the 10K service for the bike.

NOTE - BIKE IS APART DOING BATTERY TRAY SO FLUID CHANGE DONE COLD ENGINE, NOT THE BEST BUT STILL BETTER THAN NOT DOING.

I have Golden Spectro Gear Oil which is what is bottled for BMW.

Amounts

Transmission - 800cc
Final Drive 250cc
Drive Shaft 100cc

Inspection

The Transmission oil was water contaminated, brown, stunk and had traces of milky white fluid.
The Final Drive oil was also water contaminated, but not as bad
The Drive Shaft oil actually looked fairly new

I went ahead and bleed the brake fluid which looked a bit dark, and replaced with DOT3 brake fluid, worked out the big bubbles, and will let sit over night and check again.

Some cleanup

2009-06-11T09:21:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of the electronics, there is a gummy oil leak on the left hand side of the alternator wiring, might be a cam oil seal leak, goign to dig in

Battery Tray

2009-06-09T13:49:00.009-05:00

Decided to start on one of the simple items, the battery tray. Like other older airheads this tray is usually rusted at the bottom, acid damage, and the rubber mounts are broken, rusted, or damaged. Mine was all of the above. These trays are over $150 to replace, so care and feeding is necessary. A can of black gloss rustoleum does wonders, after a good sanding.

Once I removed the battery, big heavy Panasonic, does it really need to be this big?

I discovered that to really get the tray out, I need to remove the rear fender, so I started to unbolt the rear fender, well that leads to removing the rear taillight section which is all in all very time consuming. It did allow me to inspect the inside of the rear fender, and clean out underneath. Close examination, I think this fender has been repainted at least once. There are tape lines around the tire information sticker on the top of the fender.

I worked on removing the rusty nuts and rubber vibration dampening mounts, some might be ok, but at least three were damaged beyond use.

Looking online at the BMW parts fiche, they want over $15 a pop, and you need five of them with washers and nuts on both ends.

Hucky's has them for $12.00, but that still seems high.

I searched the Airheads.org archive email list and found a post, Tom Cutter responded two with two sources for replacement parts.

McMaster Carr has these for $6.00 a pop, need to check size, but will save some money.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#4403k722/=28tuoa

From 1976 BMW R75/6

Seafoam Treatment

2009-06-06T11:04:00.000-05:00

The first thing I did is to run about 4 oz of seafoam through each carb to blow out the crud. The bike idles pretty good, vibraton felt at the top end on the rpm's, will have to sync at some point.

Another Horse in the stable

2009-06-06T11:00:00.002-05:00

Today I bought a 1976 BMW R75/6 from Boxer's by Bruce, a local Beemer mechanic in Arlington, Texas. Bruce had this bike on Craiglist as a consignment. She is not the prettiest, but seems to run good, and no oil leaks, YET.

The compression test show around 125 PSI on both cylinders, not great, but better than 123.

VIN 4945953
Mileage 65,894 (odometer migh tbe broken)

BMW 1976 R75/6 Airhead

From 1976 BMW R75/6

Sign, sealed, delivered

2008-12-14T15:28:00.010-06:00

Dec 14, 20008 - today with a bit of remorse, I sold my 1977 BMW R100S. I meet a beemer-head Ron who is building his collection of fine BMW airheads.

Ron had listed a very nice BMW 2000 R1100RS silver bike that I was looking at online.

We swapped bikes, and I will be helping Ron fix some minor items.

I have spent many hours, some frustrating, most satisfying working on my first airhead, the thrill of working on a 31 year old bike, instilled a bug in me I must continue, so I will be searching for the next project bike.

Engine Oil and Filter Change

2008-12-12T20:53:00.004-06:00

Mileage on Bike
35607

It has been 6 months since I did the first oil change, I went ahead and changed the oil, oil filter, new o-ring and metal shim. The kit comes with new crush washer for the oil drain plug.

BMW Part Number
11 42 1 337 570

I have to be very careful the get the shim and the o-ring on their right, so we do not mess up the oil pressure.

Final Drive Repair

2008-12-12T20:47:00.002-06:00

I re-installed my final drive tonight. Perry's Motorcycle repaired the filler plug on the drive shaft. A good tip Perry gave me, when reinstalling the final drive, use the axle to keep it straight when inserting back into the cup, etc. This will line up the teeth on the drift shaft correctly.

Reinstalled all plug with new crush washer, tightened everyting up.

Filled with BMW Hypoid Gear Oil

100cc in the drive shaft
250cc in the final drive

Rust-eze

2008-12-07T14:20:00.007-06:00

Removed rust from under and backside of mufflers on left and right, pretty straight forward cosmetic work.

Cheap Plug for a vendor

I utilized Rust-eze Medication Bumper Ointment, proud sponsor of Lighting McQueen in Disney/Pixar movie Cars.

"Man with rusteze, I was able to get all the crud, rust, muck, and grime off my bumper, now my wife says my bumper is looking oh so fine."

Before.........................After

$4 carb sync tool

2008-11-02T11:11:00.002-06:00

This article should be printed out for any airhead, VTwin mechanic

http://www.airheads.org/content/view/183/98/

I have tried the carb sync method of shorting out each cylinder, but I'm not experienced enough to detect the sound differences, so I thought I would try this method. Now the online forums recognize this technique, but argue that it is less effective given it is only measuring vacuum differences. I thought I would give is a shot, and for $4 buck it can not hurt at this point to get the vacuum right.

I built my tool from parts from Lowes, 3.87 in tubing, and a yard stick. I used motor oil, because that is what I had sitting around.

PICTURE OF TOOL HERE

I built the tool ,and hung it from the garage door railings over night to let the oil settle to the the bottom on the tubing. The next day went for a 30 min ride, and came back in synced the carbs at idle, using the idle screw stop.

I will need to sync the carbs with the new throttle cables, but I need a second set of hands which are not here right now.

October Recap, Future Work

2008-11-01T11:02:00.000-05:00

Trans Fluid
New Spark Plugs
New Choke, Throttle Cables
New Brake Pads
New Brake Fluid
New Carb Kits
New Brake Kits

November (no more Riding predicted)

Sync Carbs
Get some final riding in

Dec-Feb (Winter Projects, Storage)

Stabilize Fuel
Trickle Charger every two weeks for battery
Final Drive stripped screw, fix with helicoil
Lube transmission/clutch spline with back end off
Top end, new rubber pushrod seals, inspect top end
Start on cosmetics, start with simple rust on mufflers
Oil change over winter, remove oil pan inspect oil pump and strainer

New brake fuild, wrapping up

2008-10-31T10:57:00.001-05:00

Well , it is the end of October, I put the carbs, and brakes, and front wheel all back together now.

I added brake fluid, DOT 3, which is recommended by Clymer and the forums. I bleed the brakes, and it feels pretty good, no bubbles in the line. I will test ride, and bleed a little more if necessary. I put the tank back on and took it for a test ride.

The carbs need adjusting quickly, since putting all new cables, etc on. This is my next procedure, build a carb stick and balance them until she purrs.

Rebuild Front Wheel Bearings

2008-10-30T10:48:00.002-05:00

I'm very proud of this next maintenance items, not because it was hard to do, but it is the first procedure where I actually made my own tool to perform the work. After reading the posts online, the front wheel bearing cap on my R100S has four small holes in the cap that requires a tool to be inserted into to it to unscrew the polished cap. The posts warn about not using a screw drive or nail to perform this task of screwing the cap, the cap is fairly large so it needs to be done right.

Following the Airhead canyons of do it cheap, I cut a 1x1 strip of scrap wood about two feet long, enough to get some leverage., I then measure the holes on the cap and drilled some small holes in the center of the wood that aligned with the cap. I took some small sheet metal bolts and inserted them into two of the holes so they were protruding out from the wood, but enough grab in the wood not to move.

I inserted the tool into the cap, and leftty loosey waa laa, she unscrewed with a bit of torque. I would love to work on machines all day if it paid what the IT industry would.

I cleaned up the bearings, the grease had gone pretty brown, cleaned the bearings out with Gunk cleaner, than simple green, a good rinse, and blew them out with air. I proceeded to lube with Moly past, pout all the spacers back together, and man did the front wheel glide. After I put them wheel back on I could not believe the free play in the wheel. I have left the brake calipers loose since the rebuild until this part was completed.

INSERT PICTURE OF TOOL HERE

New Front brakes

2008-10-24T10:32:00.002-05:00

I ordered new caliper kits for the dual front disc brakes, these are dust covers, and seals, and new pads, Freedo brake pads from the BeemerShop to be exact

While I had the front wheel off I decided to inspect the front wheel bearings and relube using the proper grease.

I drained all the brake fluid, and got to work on the front end.

The brake caliper pistons and the inside were very clean, very little work, no scratches on the pistons, and the internal groove of each piston was remarkably clean.

From the Beemershop

"When BMW switched from the original non-metallic Jurid pad to the semi-metallic Textar pad, there was a noticeable improvement in braking power. Those pads are still available from BMW, but they are very expensive. Ferodo Platinum Series pads are constructed similar to the BMW Textar pad at a fraction of the cost. Fits all 74-80 models EXCEPT R65. The only semi-metallic aftermarket brake pads available for the /6/7 series. Provides longer life and better stopping power with a slight increase in rotor wear. Recommend new o-ring and clip which are not included, but we have them in stock."

New Throttle Cables

2008-10-19T10:29:00.000-05:00

Since I just re-did the carbs, and choke cables, before I put them back on the bike I installed new throttle cables.

At this point, I have replaced all the cables minus the new brake cable I ordered.

New carb kit, choke, and throttle cables.

I'm in the process of making a carb sync tool, since everything will have to be synced given all these new parts.

New Carb Rebuild

2008-10-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

Time to rebuild the carbs today, my carb rebuild came in the mail

New Diaphrams
New Gaskets
New O-rings

I did noticed that the left carb ran much smoother, I did one at a time, between test rides.

Here is the kit visually

New Clutch Cable

2008-10-16T10:23:00.000-05:00

I installed a new clutch cable today, boy what a difference the new bowden cable made, I adjusted to the proper feel, with no slippage, it made such a difference in shifting from first to second.

New Plugs Bosch W5DC Copper Core

2008-10-06T19:45:00.004-05:00

I installed new spark plugs today, man bike started right up, first try with choke. The old NGK plugs did not look that bad, and I will save for emergency road trip parts, but at least I know they are new, and original Bosch plugs to boot.

Bing Carb Numbers

2008-10-05T10:01:00.006-05:00

In preparing to order Bing rebuild kits, I came across conflicting information about my 1977 R100S. Some of the third party online parts suppliers have my carbs listed as 32mm carbs, others listed as 40mm carbs.

The Beemershop showed me where the numbers are, man they are hard to read. On mine they are located on the left webbing area right below the cover, they are stamped vertically, and mine were not stamped deep. The "/" slahes alomst look like 1's if your aware this is the format X/Y/Z.

Mine are 40mm carbs, like I thought, but it is worth checking, measure twice, buy once.

Left Carb
94/40/103

Right Carb
94/40/104

Reference:

Bing Link

Good Vibrations

2008-10-03T20:03:00.002-05:00

Real Progress

A short 40 mins test ride, no stumbling, no lurching, no stalling, very slight popping on engine braking, but not load or consistent. I might have somewhat corrected the fuel issue. On the next ride, I will pull over at random times, and check fuel level in bowls just to see if the absense of screens is realing making a difference.

Next problem, is why the low vibration at all speeds. Idle is rough, Plug replacement, and check gap spacing is next test, of course one at a time to see if the new plugs will help.

Tranny Drink

2008-10-03T19:44:00.000-05:00

Continuing my maintenance list, I had order some Redline Transmission fluid, not a difficult task, not necessary given the unknown maintenance this bike had.

While draining the old gear oil, I realized I forgot to get a new crush washer for the drain plug. I have a new filler plug crush washer, hopefully it will not leak much.

One quart of Redline 75W90 synthetic oil, and about 10 mins later were good to go.

Note
Old oil did not look bad at all. Magnet drain plug had a bit of black paste, and some small flakes.

Fuel Petcock Screens

2008-10-02T19:51:00.000-05:00

Since my stumbling, lurching issue started, I want to test if this was a fuel flow issue.

The Test Ride
I went for a short ride, various speed, after about 10 mins, the bike lurched, and begin its usual crappy ride. I pulled over, gave it about 2 mins for carbs to fill back up and continued on. I rode another 10 mins, and the bike still was lurching, this time I had only one petcock on, the left, I quickly reached down turned it off, and pulled over.

The left carb bowl was about 1/3 full, and the right about half. I left the petcocks on, and it would not start, until I let the bowls fill back up. At this point the carbs are not synced, so it might be running lean or rich, but it did seem as though my issue is fuel flow.

Fuel gas cap is venting, so I decided to check the new petcock screens. I proceeded to let the bike cool off, and then drain the fuel, the left side seemed slower than the right as the fuel flowed out of the petcocks. I cleaned them out,, there was some red flakes coming out of the petcock tops, and reinstalled minus the small lower screens. I left the top straw screen on, since i know the tank is flaking a bit.

This tank is due for flush out, repair, and paint, but for now I will try riding without lower screens to see if this helps.

Flasher Relay Part 3 Solved

2008-09-30T20:00:00.004-05:00

I talked to Jim Westbrook today, a recent airhead expert find through craigslist about my flasher relay issue, which to date still has not been resolved. I bought a new flasher from Napa after taking the advice from the airhead archive, but no luck.

Flasher Relay

Front

Part:	ATM 111953227D
Product Line:	Altrom

Price

10.79

When I starting troubleshooting, Jim asked if I had brake lights and horn, and sure enough I did not. The problem after all this troubleshooting turned out to be a bad fuse connection on the top fuse on the connection board. I sanded the contact, and replaced the fuse with a more sturdy looking one, and sure enough I got brake lights, horn and flasher back using my original OEM flasher, go figure, and the new flasher does not work, 10 bucks down the drain.

No so fast grasshopper, the issue noted in my previous post about the indicator light is still not working. With the indicator light hooked in (black.white wire on Terminal C of the flasher), the flasher starts buzzing, and I get no light. I will take a look at the circuit board, and light, because my high beam indicator light is also not working, and they are tied together at the ground side.

Good link on flasher relay substitute wiring., LINK

Carbs, Fat, Protein

2008-09-28T23:00:00.003-05:00

Time to take a look at the carbs. I have set the timing, valves, and new points, still running hard. New plugs coming this week, but I thought it would not hurt to take a look at the jets.

I went ahead and broke them down them Sunday night to discover some tank flakes, paste in the atomizer's, idle jet, and mixture screw area. I went ahead and used Gunk and Simple Green to clean and blow out everything I could find. The o-rings, and gaskets need to be replaced, but I figured for now, removing the gunk would at least help me continue my troubleshooting by eliminating any gunk that might effect acceleration or lurching effect during throttle.

I meet a guy from Forney, who suggested looking at the fuel lines, petcocks, since the condition seems fuel related. The next time this lurching, and stalling happens, I'm temped to quickly shutoff the fuel petcocks and remove the bowls to see if there is fuel flow issue. The fuel seems to flow fine with the bowls off at rest. The floats look original, but seem to float level.

I have removed the gas cap before thinking it was a vacumn issue, but that does not seem to help.

I will keep trying until it gets better or worse.

Notes on choke assembly from Robert Fleischer's web page (used as a reminder)
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/bingcv.htm

The carburetor enrichener parts orientation. The photo on the left side has a dimple on the shaft, hard to see, points to the lever barrel opening. Photo on the right has its shaft marked R, and it is from a 1978 Airhead, RIGHT side.

Three month re-cap

2008-09-28T09:50:00.010-05:00

Well it has been three months since I bought and started working on my beemer. This recap will list of everything I bought and fixed, and what remains to be done to make my R100S road worthy for a trip outside my county.

June

Purchase Bike June 27th, end of month, and it sat at a mechanics waiting for parts to finish off bill of sale
Fixed Odometer gear slip problem

July

Bike at mechanics
Fixed Brake calipers, replaced brake fluid, bleed system
Drained fork oil, replaced fork seals, replaced fork oil
Installed front turn signals, replaced flasher relay (bad part)
Fixed headlight short, replaced fuses
Installed Bridgestone Spitfire S11, tubes, rimstrips, balanced
Replaced valve cover gaskets, and put helicoils in for both cover threaded bolts
Fixed high beam positive connection, rusty
Fixed running light ground wire
Replaced dry rotted timing inspection plug
Replaced stripped bolts that hold front axle on
Lubed front wheel axle

August

Bike returned from mechanic
Bike inspected, insured, and tagged for Texas

This is when problems started to occur

Flushed tank
Lubricated petcocks
Installed new screens
Changed oil, Castrol GTX 20W-50 (next one will use Golden Spectro 4)
Changed oil filter with new shim, o-ring, no paper gasket
Discovered left over mouse housing in Air Chamber, NO FILTER
Cleaned up housing
Up to this point, bike had not be ridden much
Flasher broken, removed indicator light plug for now

September

Maintenance Items

Final drive oil replaced
Choke cables lubricated
Installed new air filter
Installed new fuel taps
New OEM original rubber handlebar grips
New National Cycle Deflector Screen DX

I can summarize the later half of month as the real troubleshooting

Bike would stall and run real hard at speeds above 3000 RPMs, or after 10-20 mins, bike ended up dying by the side of the road
Replaced points, damaged wire and bad points
Adjusted valves
Adjusted timing
Adjusted points gap
Adjusted throttle stop screws for idle
Bike seems to be running ok, 5 min test ride
October will be the month where I hopefully ride more, and see if the bike is any better

Timing is everyting

2008-09-27T16:06:00.006-05:00

Well this weekend started my first tune up, after having so much trouble with starting and running well. All advice received so far, is timing, ignition or fuel related, so I figure it was time to go ahead and do a tune up since I do not know what the previous owner had done. Most items done to date were fixing minor issues, or replacing fluids, now I getting down and dirty and trying to make this baby purr.

On the list:

Adjust Valves
Adjust Points Gap
Adjust Timing

Replace plugs, later date

Bike was still running hard before these maintenance items, and I tested the bike after each procedure. Good news is after messing with the timing plate which wad frozen to the case, I got the timing correct, valves set to .10 & .20 gap, and set the points to .40 gap. The bike is running much better, it actually accelerates well, and seems fairly balanced. When I rebuild the carbs I will adjust the throttle screws per cylinder to get idle right @ 1000 rpm's, since I need to do this anyway during the rebuild.

I'm hoping my carbs are gunky which might explain the hesitations around 4000 rpm's I'm getting. It is not as bad before adjusting the timing.

Troubleshooting Starting issue

2008-09-21T10:03:00.009-05:00

Well, I have an engine that will not start, it cranks, but no start

Here is the condition

Turn ignition on
Set choke
Start cranking
No ignition
Lights work
Emergency switch good
Battery has more than 12V on meter

According to the advice given and Clymers manual Chapter 1, it could be a number of things. A good piece of advice is to start with basics, are we getting compression and spark.

I do not own a compression gauge so I started with ignition. Now I have to admit, I'm clueless to the powers of voltage, grounding. I do not know much about removing plugs, etc.

I decided to follow the advice of the book, and the forum, I removed one spark plug on the cylinder, wire and all, placed the plug down on the fins to ground this high voltage device to the "frame ground"

I switched on the key, moved the start to run, hit the start button, NO BLUE SPARK.

I repeated this for the other side, NO BLUE SPARK, problem found.

Ok, no spark, advice, guides would suggest a couple of things, bad plugs, bad coils, bad points.

Bad plugs, they looked ok, mostly brown on the right, a bit of black on the left, what are the odds of both plugs failing at the same time??

Bad coils? My bike uses two 6V Bosch coils in line together, once again what are the odds of both of these failing at once. Now the wiring schematic shows they are wired in line up stream from the condenser, it could be a bad wire between them, SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE, it could be a bad condenser. Most of the forums say that coils and condensers usually do not fail, even though this bike is 31 years old.

The next logical single point of failure is the ignition mechanism, contact breaker/points.

I pulled the battery negative lead, and inspected the points. They are badly pitted, and the black wire leading from the condenser is badly pinched where the engine cover meets a rubber grommet. As you can see in the diagram, the area that looks burnt on the sheathing was badly crimped. The pictures does not do it justice, this cable was bad, and the points were even worse. Amazing it was running at all. The black wire is flat, points sheared to one side, I think I found the issue.

I quickly went to Ted Porter's online store. (http://www.beemershop.com/catalog/) and order a set of points, and some honda moly paste for future spline and rear cup lube.

Once I get these I will try to get her back on the road, I will try to also set the timing since I have to replace the points.

Airhead Beemers Club, Craigslist and more

2008-09-21T09:59:00.002-05:00

Building on the frustration of my last ride, my bike is now sitting in my garage. This is where the power of knowledge and other beemer heads is best utilized. I got lucky and meet a gentlemen in the Texas area trying to sell a R90. He answered my email request wondering if he did maintenance, becasue the bike he was selling described all the recent work that he had done to get it up to shape.

After talking to him and mentioned that he was working with an another gentlemen that was a avid Airhead and likes to rebuild and sell.

I also decided to reach out to Oak at askoak.com to see what my next troubleshooting steps should be for the prior lurching and now dead condition.

With a combination of adive I moved on to my next step, troubleshooting my starter issue.

New Problem, stalling and lurching

2008-09-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought everything was ok.

A new problem is starting to happen. I ride the bike, it gets warmed up, bring up to speeds around 45-60 and it starts to hesitate, lurch, and sometimes stall.

I final ride on Sep 20th during a casual Sunday resulted in final failure to crank the bike over. I pushed the beast home a mile and it is siting in my garage, will not turn over.

Back to the drawing board.

New Grips, Ready to ride.

2008-09-18T09:53:00.000-05:00

This was a big week, everything including my new oem rubber grips are installed, and I;m ready for a test run. I have original cables on the throttle, new air filter, most the fluids changed now, flashers working, petcocks working, choke is loose, were good to go, cross your fingers.

Been waiting - Chicago BMW Parts

2008-09-14T09:45:00.001-05:00

I finally got my order of parts from Chicago BMW. The forums are right, these guys are one of the less expensive parts store, but do not order from them if you are on any kinda of schedule. It took three weeks for a Air Filter, two fuel petcock nipples, and two standard rubber grips to arrive. They have good customer support, but realize that they have to order parts to be aggressive with their pricing, which means you might have to wait for the best price.

I have not been riduing the bike since I had not air filter, and working petcocks. I ordered new petcock nipples because i broke one while messing with the fuel line, and the other looked really old.

I proceeded to install the air filter, and put the petcocks back to together, she is now ready for the road.

Choke Cables

2008-09-13T11:42:00.002-05:00

I decided to try to free up my old choke cables today.

After removing both of them from the choke assembly, man what a pain that is, I realized the left side choke was really the one sticking badly. The internal wire near the carb conneciton is bent a couple times, and seems like it is time to replace.

Now, I do not have a fancy cable luber thingy, and these cables are old and on there way out soon, so I just needed a temporary solution. I decided that some gear oil might do the trick, and it is what I had laying around from my final drive oil replacement.

I proceeded to pour in drop by drop some oil in the cables where they would normall connect to the choke mechanism, and after "worrying" the cable back and forth the oil dripped out the bottom. This actually seem to work pretty easy with out homemade tools, just some paitence.

Now I will be replacing these cable this winter, and Ted Porter's online shop does not list them, but he said he stocks them for $10.00

Flasher Relay Part 2

2008-09-12T11:37:00.001-05:00

My original post on this never fixed the issue, I was days away from ordering a new $60.00 dollar relay, that it occurred to me that this relay is two-in-one, and when troubleshooting original I remembered that when pulling out the flash indicator light the problem went away.

I must of not realized the errors of my way earlier. I decided to pull the indicator light connection off the flasher relay plug this time, and loose that function for now, result, no buzzing and working turn signals.

I will replace this part, because I like to know when I accidentally leave the flashers on, but for now I can deal with it.

Final Drive Oil, Drive Shaft Oil

2008-09-07T11:34:00.002-05:00

Replaced Final Drive Oil today, no problems, uses Hypoid Gear oil from walmart, SupoerTech, do not know much about this oil, will be using Redline for the gears.

Went to replace the drive shaft oil, and realized the top screw is stripped.

PICTURE HERE

After sending an email to AskOak@aol.com, he recommended using a custom homemade metal wedge to remove it. I might try to see of I can pull of the final drive and send it to him or Ted Porter for repair. I guess this is a common problem when over torqued.

Newbie Mistake, Throttle Cables

2008-09-06T11:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit it, and even Ted Porter's Common Mistake website did not save me on this screw up. I need new throttle cables, so this newbie excited to see a set of 1978 R100/7 cables on ebay for $17.00 dollars, bid and won, WHOO HOO.

Problem is these cables do not work with my model, 1977 R100S. Funny thing is I ignored the advice on the wise Beemer Heads and went ahead and installed them. After wresting an hour with these new old cables, I got them installed on the throttle body, and installed them on the carbs, start it, revs to 4000 RPMS, because the cable ends near the carb are too short, thus lifting the throttle lever too high. "My Bad"

I quickly removed the new old cables, and reinstalled my original old cables, and back to normal idle, RPM's. Anybody need a set of 1977 R100/7 throttle ad speedo cables?

Installed National Cycle Deflector Screen DX

2008-09-06T11:22:00.001-05:00

Ordered a National Cycle Deflector Screen DX from Midwest Powersports. Bot I really like how easy it was to install and adjust. I need to take some pictures so people can see it.

It does not provide all the protection of a Plexistar, but is looks much better on this model.

My first Oil change

2008-08-28T13:55:00.004-05:00

Today was my first oil change since getting the bike back from the mechanic. He did put 2.5 liters of fresh oil in when replacing the oil pan gasket, but used Castrol GTX 20W-50, and I want to switch it to Spectro Golden 4. I will also be inspecting the oil filter, o-ring situation.

After draining all the oil, I re-installed the oil plug and decided to focus on the filter. I will not be removing the oil pan, screen, etc since the oil pan gasket is brand new, and I do not have that ordered yet. After the air filter nightmare, I will be doing a full oil strip down this winter.

My 77 R100 uses the recessed oil cover,

can accept the hinged oil filter, and I will be using the advice on Anton measuring the depth of the canister, and deciding whether to use Shim and paper cover gasket. GREAT ARTICLE HERE, http://largiader.com/tech/filters/canister.html

Removal of Old Filter

When removing the oil cover, there was a paper gasket installed. When I removed the oil filter, the previous owner used a BMW purolator long filter, non-hinged. The metal shim was installed against the face of the cover, and the o-ring which was red, was snug up against the canister edge. My version has the older sharper edge canister, and the o-ring was marred with marks of the canister edge. He basically installed it backwards.

New Installation

I installed the hinged filter,

metal shim, white $2000 o-ring, and then cover, leaving off the paper gasket. I do not own a caliper, and could not measure the canister depth, but after reading Snowbum's article,which sows it is rarely used, and most likely would always be better off without it, I left it off for now. I will keep my eye on leaks, etc.

There's a mouse in my house

2008-08-24T13:29:00.001-05:00

WOW, today while continuing my basic maintenance routine, I decided to inspect the air filter to see if what the buyer sold me was cruddy and old. I removed the left side cover, choke cable cable and all, and was shocked to see no air filter. I immediately thought of ruined carbs, and stories of overhauls. I did this at night in my garage and the shadows of the garage lights initially hide the fact that something else was in there beside an air filter.

I discovered to my amazement, remnants of a Little critter that had once bunked down and made himself/herself at home in the cozy voice space between the left and right carbs intakes.

I quickly removed the carb tubes, tapped up my Bings and went to work on cleaning out the nut shells, small bits of twine, and other appealing droppings left behind. Since most of the debris was below the intake holes, I'm hoping not too much ever made it into the carbs.

Guess what rebuild I will be doring this winter, Bing.com

Flasher Relay

2008-08-23T13:41:00.001-05:00

Today, a small buzzing was coming out of my headlight bucket. After removing the housing, a the small black box on the left was buzzing while the key was in the run position. This was the flasher relay device. After removing the box, the buzzing does stop and does not translate its problem downstream anywhere I could tell, but then I loose the flasher function. The flashers do work while the buzzing is happening, but it is something I want to fix.

After reading the airheads archive list and posting an email, I get different opinions on what the problem is and how to fix.

Some suggest it is a bad relay, some suggest it is bad grounding, and some suggest it was a bad fuse. Currently I have removed the flasher, and will proceed with buying a alternate car flasher, which will suffice minus the indicator light on the odometer. For you headz who have the same problem I will post my fix. I have been told to check out a VW replacement, or pick up one at autozone. Here is a diagram of the flasher for wiring reference.

The airheads club does have a good article on this topic under this link, http://www.airheads.org/content/view/159/49/.

Here is the VW part I'm thinking of trying, recommended by a few headz.

http://www.airheadparts.com/viewDetail.asp?strMasterCat=&idproduct=2939

New Rubbers

2008-07-17T10:00:00.005-05:00

Since the mechanic had my bike in the shop and the original tires were cracked and dry rotted, I decided to heed the advice of the Airhead Archive list and try out the Bridegstone Spitfire S11 tires.

I also listened to the whole thread on whether to use tubes or not. I decided to go with new tubes, rim strips, and new tires. I went online to American Tire and ordered the following for the bike.

1 x BRIDGESTONE S11 100/90H-19 BW FRONT (B1150) = $51.01

1 x BRIDGESTONE S11 110/90H-18 BW REAR (B2140) = $53.36

Sub-Total: $104.37 GROUND SHIPPING

(Code 2000 Texas, United States ): $16.79

Total: $121.16

These tires will hopefully last 10K miles.

Some major items

2008-07-14T09:55:00.002-05:00

In mid July, the guy I bought the bike from had his mechanic finish some items that needed looking after from the Bill of Sale. This wrencher loved to work on bikes, and seem to have some good knowledge of beemers.

He drained the brake and fork oil, replaced some seals, rebuilt one of the brake calipers, replaced the valve cover and oil pan gaskets. He also installed the grab bar and brand new turn signals on the front.

One thing to note is on the 1977 BMW R100S, the front turn signal brackets are chrome plated metal, gut a later R100CS model uses black metal brackets which are much cheaper. Rusty at MAX BMW turned me onto this and I had the mechanic install those instead.

Napa inline fuel filters

2008-07-12T10:15:00.002-05:00

After noticing that my petcocks had no internal screens in them (I will replace these when I service the petcocks), I decided to go with the inline Napa Fuel Filters (paper ones). These are cheap and can be purchased also in bulk at some marine supply stores.

Here is the Napa link for future reference, Part Number 702323.

http://www.napaonline.com/NOLPPSE/(S(oimsun55uan0n0vr40qfbt55))/Results.aspx?Ntt=702323%20&Ntk=Keyword&N=0&Nty=1&D=702323%20&Dn=0&Dk=1&Dp=3

These fuel filters are easy to install, but I did remove the cross over line between the original fuel T joints to make these fit. I have the older Fuel Petcock Style #2, the the output nipple sticking straight down, not to the left or right on later bikes.

Lets get Wrenching

2008-07-01T20:00:00.006-05:00

Ok, my first maintenance item. I found a very useful post on how to fix a slipped gear within the airhead boxer odometers.

This link (http://www.airheads.org/content/view/160/98/) is awesome, has pictures, and a very well laid out description on how to fix the slipped gear preventing the odometer to advance.

I carefully removed the odometer, the tac cable was a bear to remove, laid out everything on the dinning room table and dismantled this baby until I could see that the gear was indeed slipping. I proceeded to use JB weld to fix the gear as instructed, and everything went as planned. Fixed odometer.

Got to love free resources.

Lets get started

2008-06-28T18:00:00.001-05:00

The moment I got home I went on to eBay and purchased a Clymer manual. While doing my research of the bikes, I came across BMW websites that suggested getting this bible right away. I ordered the book for a total of $42.17, and decided I would not do any work until it arrived, (Yeah Right).

I took the bike out today for a short test ride, and the first thing I noticed wrong besides what was told to me during the test ride, is the odometer was not advancing as I rode it around the neighborhood.

What GIVES???

Today I also decided that I would keep a spreadsheet of all maintenance and parts order to show a running total if I ever needed to sell it.

I also decided to use delicious bookmarks to store all my favorite online resources which is a very long list up to this point.

My first beemer

2008-06-28T15:00:00.004-05:00

June 28, 2008

I was very excited today to be purchasing my first BMW motorcycle from a gentlmen in Dallas. He is a hobbiest who would buy old motorcycles, wax them up, change oil, and turn them for profit. He was busy running a furniture warehouse business, so he decided to get out of the turning motorcycle business for a bit.

I found this 1977 BMW R100S boxer through dallas craigslist with 35263 miles. I was debating going with a 1975 R90/7 which was black and in good condition also, but this one looked a bit newer even though I knew it needed some work to get road worthy.

The bill of sale included some misc items, grab bar, turn signals, and a left side head gasket which was leaking a bit on the floor.

I ended up hauling the bike home, and taking pictures right away. Little did I know the slight mess ahead of me.