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More Questions re: 1963 R69s

166926

New member
Everyone's help here has been great. I followed Vech's starting procedure, put the proper spark plug caps on, ended up cleaning out the idle jets (they are SMALL!!) and ended up putting in some in line filters, and it seems to start pretty reliably on the first 2-3 kicks. I upped the idle, just to be on the safe side.

I also think that the timing is all set - I may have actually succeeded on this bike.

However, I have noticed that there is still that metallic knock. It also doesn't seem to stumble the engine, but it's definitely there as the motor gets hot.

Just a thought, but how does the vibration damper work on these things? Again, this is not a noise that I ever had with my r50/2. Trying to see what it could be.

Second thing is the gear choice v. speed on the bike. Wondering what range you all tend to shift from 2-3-4. Today I was mostly secondary roads, with a posted limit of 50mph, so I didn't take it out of 3rd, and when I did, at about 50, I felt like I was kind of lugging the engine. Seem about right to you all?

Thanks, and have a great weekend!
 
Re: damper... Here's what the damper assembly looks like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roundel/210109318/

and here's what it looks like when installed:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roundel/207262996/

What is supposed to happen is when the tip of the crankshaft tries to whip off center, that rubber insert on the steel mass is supposed to compress some and the steel is supposed to help stabilize things. It's a "bandaid" to the flexing observed on high reving R69S crankshafts. This has to do with where the bearings were placed that support the crankshaft. If the rubber is deterioated, the steel piece can be all over the place and can contact the inside of the front housing.

Re: engine shifting... I shift my R69S 1st to 2nd around 20, 2nd to 3rd around 35, and 3rd to 4th around 50. But I too feel some lugging of my R69S if I shift into 4th around 50. I try to be in a situation where if I want to get into 4th, I'll only do it if I plan to continue to gain speed like on the freeway or something. If I'm going to just hang around 50 or so, I might just back off and stay in 3rd. At around 60-65 and 4th gear, the bike is in a nice sweet spot.
 
My R69S shift points are very roughly 20, 40, and 60 MPH when up shifting and 55, 35, and 10 MPH when down shifting. When on the back road twisties I often keep the bike in second gear up to about 60 MPH and never see 4th.

Vibration damping mass should be a tight fit over the "coil spring element". When mounted you should be able to rotate the mass with some effort. If the mass moves easily your "coil spring element" is shot and needs to be replaced.

http://www.snafu.org/restore/service/enhancements/
 
Now it's getting stranger

Thanks for the pics. I pulled the front cover off, and while I have some of the pieces in there from the dampener, it doesn't have the big weight in the middle! It looks like it has the front and back piece (11 23 0070142 and 146/147), but the middle is a big round piece of rubber, and not the parts listed in the parts catalog.

I can e-mail a pic of what's up there, as I'm still figuring out this whole "cloud" thing.
 
Thanks, I've sent off a pic. I'm missing parts 4(both) through 6 of the prior link's diagram. Why would anyone take off the main piece? The other thing that I think is interesting is that the rubber in between the front and rear cover seems to have an inner ring and an outer ring; it's all pretty solid, probably through time and heat. I wonder if the rubber in the middle was the original rubber, and it all just sort of fused together. But why not put the weight back in?

Hmm....
 
Here's the damper in question. Not really sure what this is all about...certainly missing the steel ring. Some say it's not really needed unless you're running near redline.

Also notice that you have the older style advance unit with the "question mark" springs to limit the advance weights. These springs are prone to breaking which then lets the ignition over advance...not a good thing for the high compression R69S. Be sure those springs are working and your timing isn't advancing too far.
 

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"missing parts 4(both) through 6 of the prior link's diagram. Why would anyone take off..."

You don't need the dampner - more trouble than it is worth in my opinion - the other parts were probably left so the PO did not need to get the shorter generator bolt needed if you remove the whole thing - if it were mine I would get the shorter bolt and remove all the dampner parts - when this thing goes wrong and comes apart it will destroy your front cover and maybe more and you will wish it were never there
 
So the damper came in a few days ago, and a friend said he had a new advance he could swap me. Good news was the damper was a dawdle to put together and install. The advance was a different story. Short form is that the hump on the front plate was just a little too big to fit in the slot on the shaft. As i was removing it, i managed to catch the unit and it pulled apart, ruining one of the springs. Since it didnt fit right anyway, i cobbled together one unit from parts of both the new and old advance. I was hpoing to use the new advance plate with the new stop spring, but the bump for the slot index needs to be filed down, so I'm using the old plate with the new cam. I also see that the old style stop spring was actually tightened at an angle, so it wasnt springing, but a hard stop because it was tightened against the side of its cut out. I bent it back to where it looked like a good distance per Duane Ausherman's article and tightened it up.

Re-timed statically (for whatever reason, i had much more ajustibility on the points plate) and went to start it. It was a bear to start, but i think i flooded it. When it started and warmed up, it had a great steady idle, felt smoother than i last recall. Tomorrow ill give it a full blown ride. Hope i dont fully blow the motor!
 
This is definitely a bike from another era! You can't rush the starting procedure. Just be mellow.... Was too enthusiastic this AM, so itt ook about 20 Minutes to start, soaked the plugs, etc.

BUT, when it started, it ran beautifully. Magnatudes better than before. Got it up to about 65 MPH, but it's straining there. I may have limited the advance a bit too much. I'll tinker a little more.

Stopped at the hardware store, another guy literally turned around off the main road to talk. Had a nice conversation, he just picked up an R80 himself. Then, on the way out, another nice talk with another fan. Started up on the 5th kick. Again, mellow.

Got home, opened the garage, 5th kick.

Many thanks to all for the help!:german
 
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