My first Oil change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.