Another one of those rebuild stories R50/5

barrettnjones said:

Ken,

Thanks for the perspective.
You're right.
As much as I'd love to do this myself I'm going to hold out till the next one to learn and provide what this one needs to get back on the road at this point. I realize it may need something stupid simple but the year anniversary of purchasing my Mistress is two days away and this is the longest I've not ridden a BMW (November till now) in 10 years. I've developed a twitch every time I pass a bike on the road.
As much as my pride hurts to admit, it's time to call in reinforcements.

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Barrett:
I've learned these bikes are deceivingly deceptive - what I mean is, I figured when I acquired my R65, there would be nothing to a bike like this compared to the current fuel injected and computerized bikes BUT I was wrong.
Paying an airhead professional to get her going served me well - I'd done most of the work so really what was left amounted to a lot of fine tuning. Paul Glaves said it well:

ÔÇ£Remember Ken, the first 90 percent of the work takes 90 percent of the time, and the last 10 percent of the work takes the other 90 percentof the time.ÔÇØ

You've got a very fine bike, Barrett. I'm sure you'll be riding her soon! You have a lot to be proud of!

...these bikes are deceivingly deceptive...kentuvman

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+1. I once shorted the points I had installed on an R50 that I was sellling for a friend. Luckily, my neighbour was an AME.

Barrett:

Your tech will have that non start diagnosed in no time, and then you can start riding that beautiful thing. Let us know what it was.

My tech is the closest authorized BMW dealer, Frank's in Essex. Lester is the owner while Frank was his father. Locals here tend to be very opinionated about Lester and his 'dealership.' I put that in quotes because having been to BMW dealerships in San Fransisco, Atlanta, Charlotte, Max's, and Bob's I'm inclined to disqualify Frank's as an actual dealership by comparison. But based on the facts that he sells new bikes, has certified mechanics on staff, and charges an arm and a leg I'm might call him a dealership.

I have a love hate relationship with the place. It's the only thing Vermont has within a 100 mile radius and I've purchased two brand new bikes from Lester in the past. I've been, and still am, completely satisfied with both purchases. But with any trade-in dealings, insurance claims they've been a part of, or being told what I do or do not want or need, Ive been less than satisfied.

Lester has a business to run and money to make. I've always felt if you don't watch out, he'll make more money off of you than you perceived he would or could.

That said, he now has my bike and after a preliminary examination before that closed for the holiday, he said that it appears I got the timing chain off by a tooth. That might explain why it wouldn't start before it went all dead but it isn't a good explanation of why the bike went dead when I was checking the plug for spark. I'm wary of the diagnosis because I'm sure I installed the new chain correctly. I had a buddy there helping and he's an engineer and all around pulsating brain.

After the holiday he'll be taking a closer look at it and I'll be sure to let you, helpful denizens of the MOA airhead threads, know of any furthur prognosis.

I hope everyone is either enjoying this 4th of July with more family than you ever thought possible and/or riding the hell out of your motorbike.
I sure miss mine.

Another one

There's a guy in Vermont, Bud Provin, who belongs to the Vermont club, and has an independent shop. he was formerly the lead mechanic at Bob"s BMW, and really knows his stuff! You might want to check him out.

+1 on Mr. Provin. Not sure how close you are to Pittsford, but if you aren't confident with your current shop, I'd say it would be worth an extra hundred miles to visit Bud.

Check it out -

http://thenickwackettgarage.com/bmw/


Barron

Barrett,

If you're not satisfied, go someplace else. You've put way too much blood, sweat and tears into your labor of love. Take it so someone who shares your sentiments.

In the course of owning several BMW bikes, I had a similar experience. I vote with my pocketbook. If the service/value/experience isn't good, I'll go elsewhere.

What's so cool about this forum, is we have a fellowship of a lot of experienced BMW folks with a great resource pool. I found Judson Motors through a MOA member who'd had a very positive experience and so did I. It was about 100 miles out of my way but well worth it as the owner was extremely patient and available - in the course of getting my Airhead going, Ron told me where he was at in the various processes/steps it took to get my bike humming like she does.

Persevre!

Thanks a lot for the suggestion guys. I've only heard legend of an airhead Yoda in Vermont but in my extremely small circle up here Bud has didn't have a name and wasnt real. So thanks! I'll definitely be contacting him in the future.

Thanks for everyone's help on here. I can't thank y'all enough.
Here's some more lovely pictures I've collected from the web and made into a collage for your veiwing pleasure.

Up dates soon to follow.

Cheers,
https://www.icloud.com/journal/#1;C...zIQxAGsQ;92B2D015-064F-44CF-86BA-7D260BE4CE86

I must say, the dealer in Essex did exactly what I asked. Get the bike running please.
They did nothing more, nothing less. That's good news for someone trying to 'do it themselves.'
The electrical issue was a single loose wire in the headlight casing. I didn't ask which one because those specific type of questions to Lester are usually met with vagueness so I didn't ask.
The trouble it had starting was because it needed the points gap and timing adjusted.
Now it runs. Loudly.
So I scooped it up yesterday and brought it home. I know that the carbs and valves need adjusting. They also mentioned that it's likely that a pushrod needs to be centered.
I ran the bike up the hill and back for about 15 minutes then back to the Batcave!

Pulled the brand new plugs and wanted to present them to you, dear committed reader.
I thought that based on the soot left on the plugs someone might be able to forensically determine richness in fuel mixture, spark, or otherwise and help out in the carb adjustment of things.

This thing was dual plugged? I don't recall that piece of info... Looks like the same plug top and bottom?

Plug reading is probably not what it was in the "olden" days. Unleaded ethanol doesn't leave quite the telltale signs the leaded gas did.

Look in the Resources and Links thread under Spark Plugs for several links to reading plugs.

i think he's showing the same plugs in both pictures, right one being the cleaner one and left one being the "sootier" one.

edit: "scratch that...reverse it"

apt13 said:

i think he's showing the same plugs in both pictures, right one being the cleaner one and left one being the "sootier" one.

edit: "scratch that...reverse it"

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Yep. Same plugs top pic as is in bottom pic. I wanted good close ups with detail so I took two different pictures, each plug being the central focus.


So why does one side look cleaner than the other?

barrettnjones said:

So why does one side look cleaner than the other?

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Well, the left and right side of the bike are only connected by the crankshaft, and thus are virtually independent motors. So, you have spark, timing, compression, fuel settings, carb synch...I'm probably missing a few. I would do the best I could to take care of the externals and get the bike running the best I could. If that doesn't match up the spark plugs, and it were just a skoosh off, I probably wouldn't worry about it.

Lmo1131 said:

Edit - If you haven't spent a lot of time inside that head light bucket, I'd suggest you get to know it really well (it may save a ton of grief in the middle of nowhere some night). I spent hours routing and rerouting wires so they seemed to make some sense (to me). If you kind of blew through the wiring of this bike, I'd suggest pulling the headlight out and taking another look, with an eye on making sure the terminal connections are all secure.

You didn't say... did the spark go away too, are do you know if you even had spark? If no spark, you may want to recheck your coil connection, and possibly pull the front cover and recheck your point gap (if the point don't open you'll not have a spark).

One thing at a time.

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Looks like Lew was going down the right path - headlight bucket & timing! Glad she's running & back in your hands - keep us posted on your progress.

Too true Lew, too true.

I'm happy to have past that hurdle even if my tail was between my legs a little.
I got the pushrods out to take a look and it would seem as if someone's botched the rocker alignment. I'm not going to name any names here but you can rest assured I'll have a pep talk with the guy.
There are these rings around the rods where it would appear they've might of been rubbing against a gasket?

Take a look:
Here's the left side.

Sorry for the dark pictures.

Here's the right side:

Oh, by the way, the cup inside the (new) spark plug wire broke off and came out with the plug.
Sweet huh?

Rick Jones sells nice quality spark plug wires - mine have the black NGK caps

kentuvman said:

Rick Jones sells nice quality spark plug wires - mine have the black NGK caps

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Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm going to see if I can't replace the end of this one with an end that Hucky sells rather than buying a whole new wire. In the mean time I'll use one of the old ones.

Am I related to Rick Jones?

FWIW - my 1982 R65LS had the original wires & silver capped plugs - when we thought we had a carb problem it turned out one of the wires was cracked where the cap meets the base and was arching - we discovered that at night!

If your wires are not new, I suggest you invest in a new set along with new caps. Rick Jones knows his stuff. Maybe Uncle Rick to you!

kentuvman said:

If your wires are not new, I suggest you invest in a new set along with new caps. Rick Jones knows his stuff. Maybe Uncle Rick to you!

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The ignition wires in all of these later pictures are a new set I bought with the silver caps. The older ones I replaced are the ones with the rubber boot on the business end.

And while we're on the subject here's a question for the masses (that aren't getting ready for travel to the rally):
Since one of the new wires broke I have to order a replacement. I plan on ordering the match on the other side but in the meantime I thought of using the better looking one of the older plug wires.
I've got (what I think after a second feeble attempt) the pushrods all lined up and the valve lash adjusted. I'd like to run the bike tomorrow and attempt to adjust the throttle cables, sync the carbs, and adjust the idle.

But about those ignition wires (one new, one old). They are two different lengths!!

Is this going to cause miss firing issues?
Please don't tell me I have to wait till I get the replacement. Check out the picture below for the length difference at the end when the two wires are laid out flat.

Advise soon and I'll post a picture of a beautiful lady on a beemer.