In over my head.. and loving it.

kbasa said:

Hoske tank?

Oh my. Pictures, please!

Click to expand...

I was waiting for someone to take the bait. Hoske RS4, 10-gallon (39 liter).

Like the bikes, it's rough. But, also like the bikes, it'll be nice when I'm done with it.

I hope to see it on my doorstep soon.

Life is good.

Of course, the one friggin' night where they sit out on my trailer.. and there's an ice storm. Then, the drive to my shop, they get covered in salt.

But, ya know, life could be worse.

Thawing in my shop now:

Full Man-Cave

Hey, CDD,

I'd say you've got a solid schedule for the winter ahead. Do the rig first, and you'll have something to ride in the snow and ice.

Them-there mufflers look a mite crusty, and I was thinking that you might consider powder-coating them? There's a PC "color" (?) that looks almost like nickel plating and is very deep and lustrous. I guess this decision (PC, chrome, rattle-can caliper paint) depends on both budget and how vintage/classic you want Riggo to be. Shoot, you can have them done in neon-orange if you like, but that could be wrong.

The Naked Gold Wing site has a lot of trick custom work done on old 'Wings, including some outrageous uses of powder coating, some of which may border on the illegal, or at least on the immoral.

I've not had any powder-coating done, myself, but am thinking of it for my R1100RS pipes - I think PC-ed pipes don't blue?

I'm sure others on this site know much more about details, but I wanted to plant the seed. . .It's a long winter.

A part of me envies you your project; another part, not so much! Sometimes, all ya got left is the mantra, This is supposed to be FUN this is supposed to be FUN this is supposed to be FUN" (repeat, as necessary.)

Regards to all you crazy Fokkers (that's an airplane).

Walking Eagle

mrharve@tularosa.net said:

Do the rig first, and you'll have something to ride in the snow and ice.

Click to expand...

Probably won't be riding it by this winter!

Sometimes, all ya got left is the mantra, This is supposed to be FUN this is supposed to be FUN this is supposed to be FUN" (repeat, as necessary.)

Click to expand...

'tis fun to me.

I consider myself fortunate to have these opportunities. When I was packed up and about to walk out the door to buy them, I saw this thread. After the cost of gas and the motorcycles, I had very little left over, but I donated it to that guy and started this thread. His dog(s) is/are more important than my 3rd and 4th BMW's.

Broadway Title in Alabama

You may be able to get titles through Broadway Title (Google them) or I have heard you can apply for a registration for the bike I believe in Vermont send in a valid Bill of sale and get a Vermont title. All you do then is bring your Vermont title to your own DMV and get it transferred. I think thats how Broadway title does the transfers but they charge about $300 and more and you gotta make the bill of sale out to them, their not scammers or anything it just cost extra $$$. Probably the same thing the attorney was going to do for a lot of money. Good luck with the toys

Zeff

Yeah, I've heard of International Title Service (in Vegas), as well.. same story.

I went to the DoR yesterday, and they shot me down again. I was told that location was sympathetic to motorcyclists, but I found the wrong old lady, I guess.

I've heard that Tennessee (and Michigan) residents don't have much trouble, so I've hypothetically offered to pay all expenses (and then some) if someone there wanted to help me. If nothing else works, a title service will do.

I had some other projects to tend to (finishing off my R75 facelift, mailing the Model A camshaft, etc), but I went to work on the /2 after dinner.

How's she look? Points gap was a bit excessive, so I closed it up. Supposed to be .016", I believe.



Key in. Spark plugs out. Kick. Spark on both sides.
Starting fluid. Plugs in. Kick. Kick. Kick.
Battery charger on. Kick. Kick. Kick.
Damn.

I popped off the valve covers for a peek. Everything looked good on both sides, so I was just hoping to get lucky.



Kick some more. More starting fluid. Still no love. Guess I better adjust the valves tomorrow. Oh, by the way.. what's the red light (the one on the left)? ..and.. So, is it key in = on; key turned = headlight? Why does the key click both left and right? WTF are all the switches for?

Remember, I'm in over my head.. I know nothing about /2's.

Bonus points if you can tell me what this means:



All-in-all, it was a good day. I broke the front brake cable, and the seat tore a little when I sat down abruptly once. Sh!t happens.

Good night, my little friend..



I can see it now: Oh my gosh, crazydrummerdude, you tried to start your antique BMW without a 100 point restoration?!

You're doing great. No need to charge the battery just to start the bike, it's got a magnito ignition. I think the red light on the left is charging indicator. Turning the key one way is parking light and the other way is headlight (I think, been a long time since I had a /2). I know you're using fresh gas, might have to clean the carbs and do a static verification of the timing. If you have a reasonable amount of compression, it WILL fire up.

Ride Safe
Mike

Some of the things can be explained in a manual that Duane has on-online:

http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/2man/index.htm

As for starting, there's a number of things to consider and get right:

- you mention starting fluid; maybe that will suffice instead of using the ticklers. Starting these bikes can be an "art"...basically each bike will be different and it will finally let you know what the routine should be. Mine is 4-5 seconds of tickling. Kicking through 4-5 times, ignition off. Crack throttle about 1/8 to 1/4. Find compression stroke and give it a good kick. Be ready to hit the ticklers once she starts to rumble.

- you may have just flooded it with all the starting fluid. When flooded, open the throttle to max and kick through half a dozen times to help clear the combustion chamber. My bike is difficult to start when hot since it tends to flood easily. I have to do this routine when flooded and then don't even look at the throttle when I kick it for starting. Once she lights up, I gingerly tweak the throttle until she's running on her own.

- I wonder what the safety gap was on the magneto coil. It's supposed to be 10mm. But since you were getting spark at the plugs, it's probably set OK. Best to check that. Hard to tell from your picture but they look sort of OK. Note the two triangular "points" sticking up under where the spark plug wires screw down on the terminals. The gap between these "points" and the lowest point at the spark plug wire terminal needs to be 10mm.

- gap is nominally 0.016 inches, but has to be set at the high point of the cam plus having the points open at the S-mark. Rotate the timing plate to get the mark correct. If timing plate rotation runs out of room, the gap can be adjusted around that measurement in order to get the timing mark correct. Gap is not super critical on a two cylinder engine.

- your magneto timing might be off. Ignition and magneto timing are two different animals. The magneto breaks the lines of flux at the proper time to give the hottest spark when you need it for starting. This is the weak point of the magneto. The spark gets hotter and hotter as the RPMs increase, so you have to be sure everything's aligned for starting. There's a mark on the spinning magnet and a v-notch on the magneto body. When the engine is at the S-mark, the magnet mark needs to be in the middle of the v-notch. This is adjusted by popping the magnet off the taper of the camshaft with the proper puller tool. Reposition and tighten it down. Once aligned, the magneto doesn't need to be moved and is not used to adjust the igntion timing as is written (wrongly!) in a variety of places.

- valves looked good? Was the gap correct? There's quite a bit of threads showing on the adjusters in your picture. That might indicate the valve is sitting deeper and deeper into the head. Probably should look at that or monitor it over time. I forget which years you have, but the mid 60s bikes had an issues with soft metal for the heads. Butterheads as Duane calls them on his website. The valve clearance will change over time. BMW fixed it with the LK heads...the letters LK are stamped into the head near the spark plug hole. The spark plug threads are 3/4" long on these "long reach" heads (that's what LK stands for in German).

- the "+1" is what was stamped into the case when the bike was built as an indication of the variation from standard distance between the centers of the camshaft and crankshaft. The distance is supposed to be exactly 90mm. The stamped number indicates the deviation in one hundredths of a millimeter. The assemblers had a bin of gears and chose a set that matched this deviation. It's been suggested that over time, this distances closes up as the explosions in the chamber tends to push out on the top of the head as the piston goes flying toward the center of the engine. This pushing out on the head tends to cause the case to shrink vertically. That's why when an engine is torn down, it's important to recheck the proper meshing of the gears to be sure there's no excessive binding.

- yes, the red light (of the two triangular shaped lights) is the generator light. When running, it should go out just like the /5-on bikes. Since the /2 is magneto driven, no battery is needed to run the bike. You just might not have lights when idling. Still a good idea to get a good battery and make sure the charging system is working properly. Or else you'll have to put some black tape over that darn red light!!

With regard to the key, push down for ignition, turn to the right for headlights, turn to the left for parking lights.

If you have spark and compression, it ought to cough, or back-fire, or fart, or do something. Check the timing using the same methodology as with the airheads, but it ought to be in the ball park.

The last time I conquered a dead magneto ignition was on an Allis-Chalmers tractor. It had a Fairbanks-Morse magneto. I've forgotten more than I remember about it, being more than 25 years ago, but, I seem to recall that knocking any and all rust off of magnetic surfaces was a BIG DEAL on that project.

Is the spark white or blue? Or is it yellow? If the former, it ought to fire if the timing is right. The latter means a weak spark, which might not fire under compression.

You can tell if it's firing by hooking up a strobe light to a 12V battery and putting the induction clamp around the spark plug lead, then kicking it. If the plug is firing, the light will flash.

The top picture didn't give a great shot of the coil. How's it feel? If you squeeze it does it feel mushy? The coils, after 40-50 years, are a weak spot. Measure the resistance between the two contacts where the spark plug leads connect. If open the bike won't start. If the resistance is too low the bike may not start. How low is too low? Depends upon other conditions. My limited experience says that a cold resistance less than 12K ohms is problematic.

Assuming the coil is OK you changed the timing when you changed the points gap and that can have a drastic effect on starting. Disconnect the coil and condensor from the points. Hook up a continuity tester (perhaps an ohmeter in beep mode) between points and ground. Slowly turn the engine over. I use a hex wrench in the generator. There is an arrow on the generator showing the proper direction. Turn until the continuity tester/beeper shows an open. You want to find the exact point where the points go from closed to open. Now check your flywheel timing mark.

If you are not at the S mark the bike won't start (or will be very, very hard to start).
Also, if the line on the magneto rotor isn't in the V notch of the point backing plate the bike will be hard to start. I think Vech has a doc on his site that says how to set the static timing. Make sure the timing is right before you try kicking some more.

After you get timing set or reset points gap to what they were
before you started proceed as follows:

Weak or questionable spark weak magneto but some spark

Set spark plug gap at 0.15in - they usually start and run ok with
short gap

I did not read the whole string of posts but if you did not drop the
pan and clean out the gunk usually in there for a long stored
machine - I would do so. If you run now with new detergent oil
you will recirculate the crap you could have easily wiped out with
a rag - remember there is no oil filter in this machine

Cold start ritual:

Ign off - gas on
tickle carbs some but not as much as a Brit bike
stroke over easily twice to charge cyl with fresh gas/air

Then ign on and kick sharply 1-3 times should at least fart
If not run or fart repeat whole sequence 3 times
If still not start - look at plugs should be wet - if not tickle more
and repeat

Should not take more than 5 or 6 strokes to start in any case
do not get impatient and damage kick start ratchet - take
your time and make sure engaged at top each time before
downstroke

Make sure pedal does not hit frame on downstroke - if rubber
bumper is bad you can break pedal or frame

I wish I had a computer in my shop so I could update this in real time.

44006 said:

Set spark plug gap at 0.15in - they usually start and run ok with short gap

Click to expand...

Which reminds me... Hucky's sells:
07 11 9 976 330 sparkplug Bosch W 4 AC ( W 240 T 1 ) short reach R51/3 - 60/2 $ 5.50
and
12 12 8 003 570 sparkplug Bosch W 4 CC ( W 240 T 2 ) long reach R50 - 60/2 $ 5.50.

Is mine short or long reach (I think 11 and 17mm, respectively)?

Look at the heads at the sparkplug hole. If they are marked LK then you have heads that need a long reach plug. Caution: Just because one side is long reach doesn't mean the other is. Check both heads.

A picture of what the LK looks like cast into the head can be seen at http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/head/

If you haven't already

If the bike has been sitting for a while (looks like it has) you may want to take a quick trip through the carbs and make sure the jets and passages are all clear and the floats still float. No need to but any gaskets or seals if your just taking a peak, I'm willing to bet that your idle jet and passage is plugged pretty solid. Its the smaller of the two and to clean the passage you just gotta pull the idle screw and jet and gently use a small piece of piano wire to unblock and then somw carb cleaner and compressed air

Have fun
Zeff

Thanks for the tips, everyone.

I was just trying to get lucky and have it fire with minimal (no) work. This is the 8th motorcycle I've resurrected, so I have a pretty good idea of what I should be doing. Whether or not I actually will..

The head in your picture looks like the short reach type with the iron spark plug
thread insert visible - the LK heads do not have iron insert and look like R75/5 hole.

In any event just for a test any short reach(short thread length with no tip extension)
plug will run it even in the long reach long thread length hole. Can even use chain
saw very short plugs to start and warm up a flooded engine - just be very careful
if LK head with soft aluminum threads not to strip the threads - when in doubt
just to test run short thread plug with shorter than spec gap will get it going even
with lousy spark - use gasoline not starting fluid - fill the carbs through the short
lengths of rubber hoses extended upward if no tank.

I have the old style heads.

Well, what did I do today? Not much. Having a disassembled engine on every flat surface is a bit of a buzzkill on tearing this one apart and getting it all mixed up.

I adjusted the valves. They were way off on the left side. Kicked it over, didn't change anything. Whatever.

I have the short reach plug heads, so I'm going to order some plugs, a petcock, gaskets, and.. whatever I can think of (honestly, not much else). I can't do a full resto right now (for reasons described in my first paragraph.. and lack of a healthy income), so I just want to get it running with minimal work. I graduate in 5 months, so from that point on, I can imagine the wrenches will be flyin' and the money will be flyin' out of my wallet.

I don't think a vintage BMW is supposed to have asian turn signals. Off they go.



What bozo installed these?!



So, I ganked the in-tact one from the conversion.. and I found someone's stash! 3



(It was only a spare bulb.)

I put on one of the spare valve covers.. and noticed I do NOT have a broken fin on the head, like I thought. Sweet! So, it looks good on that (and both) side(s) now. Well, it looks like crap still, but at least it's not broken!

Oh, and what's this!?



10 gallons of awesome. It's rough, like the rest of the bike. Couple dents and needs paint.. but like the bike, it will be nice.

Spent the rest of the night polishing stuff.