seeking how to articles, for rebuilding the headlight bucket/wiring/board inside

[brant914]

Hi everyone
happy friday

I've been making good progress on the 1971 R75/5
I've been sanding the tank, fender, etc.

so last item to sand for paint is the Headlight Bucket
I've ordered some DeOxit, and intend to fully clean the connections inside

I'm assuming the small board inside needs to come out for cleaning... and I just noticed, the chrome mounts for the headlight wings... not sure if those are removable yet.

I searched the forum
and Kurt also your helpful resource list.
I'm armed with deoxit, sand paper, and wiring diagrams now.


what I have not yet found are articles or threads of others that have fully disassembled the headlight bucket
I see Brooks chose to touch up his paint, and leave the wiring unmolested.... unfortunately I don't think that I have that option
the wiring harness was cut, at some point in the past and put back together (probably with a replacement headlight bucket) in the most lovely previous owner way
the paint is really rough too.


anyone have knowledge of great threads or articles to fully disassemble the wiring inside of the headlight bucket?

 

[20774]

I'll look for articles. A couple of things. The board is held down with four "points". Those must be bent back in order to remove the board. The issue is that those points don't like to be bent around much...not sure how many times you get to do that. They work harden each time they are bent. One must anneal them by applying heat...not sure of the exact process, but I think they need to get cherry red but don't quote me on that. Once they cool, they have their flexibility back. Of course, this results in damage to the paint.

Another thing, I've seen people who paint the inside of the shell white. It really helps seeing inside there if/when they need to track something down after it's installed on the bike.

 

[brant914]

Those are really good instructions... I'm glad I haven't tried to muscle it apart yet... and will proceed with extreme caution
I like the idea of painting white also


I found 2 dabs of green paint inside
and looking at pictures on the internet, I see other's also have the green paint mark

I thought... someone spilled some paint.. but I now see it is a factory mark

not important.. but does anyone know what the factory was signifying or marking it green for?
just curious

brant

 

[nrpetersen]

My R90/6 headlight reflector over time has lost all of its silver. I have replaced it with aluminum foil but it isn't very good yet. Have others encountered this? Is there any fix to re-silver it? The wiring inside is still good.

 

[barryg]

My first BMW motorcycle was a ‘71 R50/5. Owned and rode it over 30 years. It’s a cool vintage bike and an odd duck. That head light bucket assembly is one very unique, cool, antique’ish part of the /5 series. Old school complex which makes it hard to service and work on. It’s a combination of old and new combined together. A lot of it depends on your skill level of late 60’s/early70’s electrical/mechanical ability. U may have to take several bucket assemblies to make one good one; expensive. Some guys build a work around head light bucket assembly that has the old school look; but have modern assemblies hidden in the bucket or under the tank, etc. Do some research; find Ur spot, knuckle down and get at it. Good luck.

 

[barryg]

One little upgrade I made somewhere in the mid 80’s was the parking light bulb. Removed the old one and installed a halogen bulb. When the bike was new; U didn’t have to run your headlight on in daytime. When U do that now, U usually run the the little battery down, so U can’t start the bike. I installed a halogen parking light bulb. Daytime riding I turn it on without the headlight on. A glance at the headlight in the daytime, the halogen parking light looks like the headlight is on. The battery stays charged up. Just a suggestion.

 

[brant914]

Barry,

thats a great suggestion from experience.
and I choose to stay with the stock alternator, so I've heard I'm going to struggle with charge already
thank you

and I love the look of the /5 headlight and key
upgrading the internals into a stock looking part sounds tempting

brant