I was hoping that a BMW mechanic could help me with a difficult problem I went for a short ride about two weeks ago and noticed that alternator light was flickering at lower RPM. a quick check with a voltmeter when I got home found it was not charging at all , removed the front cover and a diode fell out on the ground , one of the rubber mounting studs broke and melted the ground wire and also a resistor on the diode board , replaced the mounting studs . diode board , alternator brushes and new style voltage regulator, and it charges great 13-14 volts and light is out even at an idle , THIS IS WHERE THE REAL PROBLEM STARTS , being and licensed A&P ( aircraft) mechanic for the past 48 years I decided to check the timing (it was running great something to be said for the old mantra IF it works don't F-with it ) hooked up my snap on timing light and no timing marks could be found in the window , moved the "bean can " stop to stop and still no timing marks , pulled the plugs and turned the engine over using the 6mm alternator allen bolt got to the ot_ s mark and painted it white advanced to the Z mark and did the same , hooked everything up and got the wife to be my throttle master , and went looking for the marks again turning the bean can stop to stop and nothing no timing marks at 1200 to 3500 rpm's , never took the bean can off , that was yesterday,, this morning I pulled the plugs again and noticed that the engine was not on TDC when the OT|s mark was lined up with the line in the timing hole , I got it as close as I could to TDC compression stroke using a small rounded wood stick , maybe 2-3 flywheel teeth off and made another paint mark on a flywheel tooth , when it was as close to TDC as I could get it, I turned the engine about 75 degrees BACK to the OT mark , By now my head was spinning and I had to put a new blade belt on the mower and Forest Gump on the lawn for a while , and think about this some more , I bought the bike about five years ago and it had around 20K miles on it it has 34k now and I have rebuilt the carbs , steering head bearings and a few other things , I called a friend (Tod ) and he suggested that someone put the flywheel on one bolt hole off , five bolt holes is 360 divided by 5 = 72 degrees . Does this even sound right ,he thought someone might have removed the flywheel to replace the rear main seal , ? with 20,000 something miles on it ? , could the factory have got the flywheel miss installed ? I really don't want to pull the flywheel off just to find out , is there some kind of TDC tool like they use for two strokes , I have one I made for aircraft engines but it wont even come close , got out a one inch travel dial indicator and it wont work either, Does anyone make a TDC tool so I could find the true TDC and remark the flywheel ? I counted the flywheel teeth and it's ten teeth between the OT mark and the Z mark so if I could find the true TDC I could remark the flywheel , I was thinking of removing the left cylinder head and using a dial indicator directly on the piston and cutting a 4" disc out of brass shim stock and mounting it to the front of the alternator rotor and marking by using a pointer ? ANYONE having any ideas on this please let me know what your thoughts are , I have my Great Falls ticket and need to get it fixed ! Rich Rabe Middleton , Idaho or prabe50@ msn.com or text @ 1-208-880-9650
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