Newbie needs advice on '56 R60

[ksdr60]

Hi, all. I recently acquired a 1956 R60 in "original" (to put it nicely) condition. It's a cool old bike (which y'all know, right?) but it has suffered from some neglect.

I cleaned the carbs and put some fresh gas in it, and she started right up. A little tuning, and she is to the point where she starts easily on the first kick. She shifts well, too.

Now, I need some advice on a few things. First, when I first got her, the battery was dead. The cables were corroded on, and the battery had obviously leaked, badly corroding the battery tray. I bought a new battery and tray from Benchmark, filled and charged the battery, and installed them. At first everything seemed great! The horn worked (it hadn't before I put the battery in), and the lights all worked for the first time. I did notice something that I thought was odd, though -- the neutral indicator light stayed lit even when the bike was off and the key was removed.

Anyway, I fired her up and took her for a ride. I had the headlight on with the switch in the high position. About 10 minutes in, I noticed that the high beam indicator was no longer lit. I checked the headlight -- dead. Horn -- dead.

So ... how do I diagnose this problem? Any suggestions? Battery is recharging as I type this, but obviously I need to find out what's causing the rapid drain.

Also, any suggestions on tires? The 30+ year old rubber on this old girl is showing its age and will need to be replaced before I ride her any distance.

Thanks, all.

Karl

[20774]

Karl -

From what I understand, the battery is only needed to run the lights, horn, etc., when the engine is idling. Once the RPMs come up, the generator should provide that power. Have you checked the voltage at the battery terminals with a good voltmeter to determine the level of charge coming from the generator? It should be over 7 volts, possibly like 7.2 or 7.4 volts. If not, then the problem may be that the new battery was good but has not drained down because the generator doesn't work.

Not sure why the neutral light remains on when the key is pulled. IIRC, the key is supposed to break the connection with ground when it is pulled. If the light is still lit, then power is still on that circuit. If the neutral light circuit is like my late model R69S, the switch is inside the tranny. There's a wire going to the back of the tranny that is held by a set screw. This provides a point for the wire to be grounded when the switch inside the tranny makes or breaks. Does the neutral light work as expected otherwise, going out when in a gear and coming back on when shifting back to neutral?

You may need to trace the circuit to figure out where power is getting to it and where it is also being grounded. There is an on-line version of an electrical book for the /2 models if you don't have one.

[ksdr60]

Oddly enough, the generator was indeed putting out enough power to light the neutral indicator and other lights when the rpms were up -- BEFORE I put in the new battery. Now, I get nothing, with battery in or out. I pulled out the new battery again and put it in the charger, and restarted the bike. I can't get any of the lights to work now, even with the rpms up as high as I dare in neutral.

Did I fry the generator somehow? Is it possible that I hooked up the new battery backwards? If so, what would that do to the bike and battery?

[20774]

You might want to perform some basic checks on the generator before you proceed too far. This page:

http://www.snafu.org/restore/links.html

has some good links on it. Specifically the book on understanding the /2 electrics by Doug Rinckes. As indicated Vech at Bench Mark Works sells an updated version.

You or may not know of Vech at http://www.benchmarkworks.com. He and Richard at the shop are good sources for all things /2.

Try some checks, let us know what you find, and/or give Vech a call.

[ksdr60]

Thanks for the link to Rincke's guide on the /2 electrical system. I think it contains the answer to my problem. According to the guide, hooking up the battery backward can cause the voltage regulator to depolarize. Once that happens, the charging system won't work at all. Since everything seemed to be fine before I hooked up the battery (and guessed on the cables), it looks likely that I guessed wrong and depolarized the regulator.

Fortunately, the guide also has instructions for repolarizing the regulator. I'll give it a go here shortly.

Still looking for suggestions on tires. Anything?

[20774]

Tires? I'm not sure what to tell you on /2 tires. Vech seems to like Avons. I've read about people using Metzler ME22 or ME77 3.5-18 Block C. Personally, I like the inch-size tires and will try to avoid the metric sized tires. I'm running some IRC tires GS-11 on my R69S, 3.5 in front and 4.0 in rear. So far, they've done pretty well. I think I have around 5-6K miles on the rear tire and I might have to start thinking about a new one in a 1000 miles or so.

[ksdr60]

Well, I hooked up the recharged battery the correct way, and everything seems to be working again. I didn't even have to pull the front cover off the motor.

Incidentally, the motor appears to be original and this is indeed one of the first R60's ever built (and therefore one of the first /2 bikes in common parlance, even though BMW doesn't technically consider it to be a /2). The motor and frame numbers are 618243, and it is titled as a 1956. According to what I found online, the R60 was introduced in 1956, and the serial numbers started at 618001.

Now one more question -- I'd like to add the Hella bar end turn signals to it. I know Vech has them, along with install instructions. What I'm not clear on is the switch. Vech doesn't seem to have switches. Any suggestions on what to use and where to get it?

[20774]

The R60 did start with that serial number. As low as your number is, it may have been built in 1955 and sold as a 1956 model...model years typically begin in September of the previous year.

You might trying writing to Andreas Harz at Mobile Classic Andreas.Harz@partner.bmw.de. Andreas, or someone else in their office will search the archives and tell you what color your bike was when it left the factory, what kind of seat it had on it, and where it was shipped to. Or any other info they have on file. You will need to advise him of the serial number on your bike.

That strikes me as odd that Vech wouldn't sell switches. I'm almost certain he does. Call him and verify. I attended his vintage rally a few weeks ago and he says that he's working on a replacement bat-wing switch to replace the older style toggle switches. I'm sure he can help you out.