Battery Tray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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