All Gone to Pieces

Well, the disassembly is just about complete. I had a little setback for the better part of a week when I had a cold and Mother Nature chose to rain on us every day and Christmas is coming up so there's been shopping to do, you know... Still, the bike is basically in pieces. I'm sure we'll be taking apart various elements more to make sure it's all in good working shape, but we can start sorting through the parts and sending them out. In fact, I started this week by dropping off the speedometer at North Hollywood Speedometer and Clock Co. The speedometer is working, but probably hasn't had any work for the last 43 years, so it's time.

Oh - remember I told you about the spiderwebs in the last entry? Here's a picture:

I guess, these days, when there is work done to the steering mechanism, the loose ball bearings that were used originally by the factory are replaced by a new kind of bearings that are held together with a ring that look like this:

Rick felt that if we found loose ball bearings in there, that would be another really strong sign that the miles were original and accurate. And here they are:

 

It was a little challenging removing the last few parts and keeping it balanced without any wheels (note the stack of wood on the back of the frame to keep it from tipping forward):
















We finally got down to the bare frame:

And we found that the kickstand had been sheared off inside the frame:

Hard to see where the bolt ends and the frame starts.

So after an hour and a half of banging away, narrowly avoiding major finger injuires, we (and by "we", I mean Bob) finally got it out by drilling out the bolt and using a square tap to wedge in there and unscrew it.

And that's where it is tonight:

And where it will remain until after New Year's.

So, here are my motorcycle related New Year's resolutions:

• I will sort and send out all parts that need to go out by January 18th.
• I will also order all needed parts and start looking for the hard to find parts by that time.
• I will be riding this bike in March 2011.

Wish me luck!

And Happy Holidays to the thousands of you out there reading this blog! ;-)

Ho Ho Ho!      Vroom Vroom!

Disassembly continued

The disassembly continues. I've been in to Black Kat Motorwerks to work with Rick and spend time breaking it down. I've been taking some notes and lots of digital pictures of all of the detail before I take it apart. I got all of the wiring out of the bike and I followed along in the superb restoration and service manual by Barrington Motor Works. I drew out a lot of the wiring on my own in my notebook, but I would have saved a lot of time if I'd followed along in this manual a little sooner. As it turns out, I was pretty accurate, but not as detailed as I could have been, and I might have just made up a few incorrect names for various parts. I'm all clear now, though...

Some parts are obvious, some require special BMW tools and some are tricky to figure out, especially for a newbie like me. Luckily, Rick knows it all and could probably take it apart blindfolded. In fact, he knows most of the bolt sizes by heart. He can also tell me which parts will have spiderwebs and eggs. You'd be surprised how many places have those, after 43 years out of the factory.

I'll include a few shots of the progress...

No more transmission.

Dirty business

My parts cabinet trophy case.

My motorcycle is fast becoming a  fancy wheelbarrow.

You probably can't see all the cleaning that went into the engine case alone. More to go once it's out of the frame. I have a lot of cleaning to go on the frame, the engine, the bolts and nuts and more before I send them out for paint, chrome and cad-plating.

Somehow this is the fun part for me. I think that putting it back together all clean and shiny will be pretty fun, too...and then there's the riding when it's done. Okay, I guess this is just one of the fun parts. I have to say that I'm learning a lot, but I could've come into this knowing a lot more. I'm grateful to Rick and Bob for all of their help and advice without so much as a condescending joke. I even laughed when I tried to mount the carburetor upside down!

Stay tuned for pictures of piles of parts...after a bit more cleaning and disassembly.

Disassembly, Day 1

It's been fun, getting this bike running, but I guess there's a part of me that won't really trust it till we've gone over everything and replaced all of the parts that need to be replaced. I also just think it'll be a lot of fun to start putting it all back together.

To that end, I started to break it down yesterday...

First, Rick and I spent some time clearing some space for her to live during the restoration. He cleared off a couple of tables and I'll be using an old glass trophy case for shelves. It'll work! :)

Last shot before starting to break it down...
...except for the right muffler, which was already off.

 We drained the gas and the engine oil, transmission oil, drive shaft and final drive oil, removed the tank and I popped the license plate off and filed that away for a little while...

It already looks better, doesn't it??

Funny, it looks like a completely different bike without the tank and seat. It had the big seat and the big tank, which made it look a bit chunky, I think. When I put it back together, it'll be with the solo seat and probably the smaller tank, so it'll have a sleeker, longer look.

Beach road testing

It was a beautiful cool breezy day today for a road test, so I rode around near the airport and then down by the beach. I had to pull over for a bit to get a picture of of the ol' fella after stretching his legs on the road by the beach...

It was a lovely ride and a lot of fun. On the way back, though, I put my foot down at a stop light and noticed that the road was awfully slick. As it turned out, it was just my boot that was slick as it was drenched in gasoline from the left carburetor. Somehow, the plug at the bottom had come off and it was spewing fuel from there. I made it back to the shop and Rick had an extra plug and he replaced it for me.

The gear oil from the driveshaft came out clean today after the ride!!  So, we're ready to break it down. I might take it for one more ride and after that check out the oil under the cylinder covers to make sure that there isn't any crud swimming around in there and then we'll also check the gaps again.

The center part of the spark plugs change color during a ride depending on the mixture of air and gas that is burning. If it's too rich (too much gas), the spark plug is dark. If it's too lean (too much air) it's bright white. If it's tan and a little speckled, it's juuuuuussst right, as Goldilocks might say, if she were examining spark plugs. It looks like we got the carburetor mixture dialed in today as the spark plugs are both just the right color.

The next step is to clean up a corner of the shop to work, break the bike down into parts and make LISTS! Mom will be so proud of me! Not for working on a motorcycle, but because...

• lists are, 
• you know, 
• the answer to everything...
• :-)

More about those lists when we get to them.

Road Testing delayed

We ran into our first snag, today, with a short in the wiring.

The first little snag was that one of the tiny screws for the wiring hub that connects the battery to the harness was completely stuck. We had to replace that piece before we could connect the battery. To do that, meant removing one exhaust pipe, deflating and removing the rear tire and the seat. Not a big deal, but it added on a bit of time to a "simple" job.

Once we'd hooked up the battery we found that the headlight didn't work, even with a new bulb. With a little electrical digging, we found that we had raw power before the light switch, but no power downstream of the switch. My first reaction was, "Who cares? We're replacing all the wiring, anyway!!" But before we do that, we have to ride it a bit more to see how it acts when it heats up and when the engine's run a bit more and we need to have the brake light and turn signals working to really take it out on the road. Also, how else will we know if the headlight works and the brake light and the turn signals and the switches for all of those? So, we have to fix the wiring to test everything, before we tear it all out. Bob, who works at Black Kat Motorwerks will be troubleshooting that today. It will save hours to have him chase down that short quickly and I will learn enough about the wiring when I put in the new wiring harness on the restored frame...so I'm happy to let him take care of that one...

I've been reading up on converting the bike to 12 volt electrical. It would change the whole charging system to something more powerful and more modern. It would make the lights brighter and would be able to power lights on a sidecar if I decide to do that one day. It would also make it a little less of an authentic restoration... That is something you have to think about every step of the way with a restoration. Is this just for me, or am I trying to keep it authentic? I think that, for now, I'll stay with the 6 volt electrical system, but I'll use a halogen bulb for the headlight and an LED for the tail light. I probably won't be riding it too much in the dark and it's not something that is too hard to convert later on. The different bulbs will give me more light - Rick says it'll be about 2/3 of what I could get with a 12 volt system, so it sounds like a reasonable compromise for now and will make it more desirable for a collector.

Get Your Motor Running...

Okay, I kind of had to use that headline once on this blog... I know it's a little corny, but hey — we got it running — yesterday! At first it just coughed and used up the fuel from the priming, then we tried other carburetors on it and they worked and then we took mine off, cleaned out the jets and all of the passageways back and forth across them, put them back on and it started right up. Okay, well it took a few kicks...

Then, today, we took it for a ride. There was a little prep. We checked the breaks and the splines on the wheels.

Splines

If I have this correct, the splines are part of the final drive - they are the final connection between the drive shaft and the rear wheel. There are interlocking teeth and each time you start off fast from a stop, you wear down one side of the teeth, so sometimes they look very thin...and sometimes they break and you can't go anywhere... These look square and clean, so we're in good shape, there.

Splines Close-up

I tightened up the bolts that were loose, we put on the new license plate, hooked up the rear brake, put the lens for the headlight on, and rolled it outside. Rick rode it up and down the road a few times, listening and analyzing, and when he was satisfied, I got to ride it around a bit.

Here's Rick's ride:

Pretty exciting for me to see this thing come to life. Granted, the video might not be as thrilling for those of you who have not been working on the bike...

Here are a couple of photos from when I got to ride it:

 

The good news is that it ran well and when we dumped the oil after the ride, it was all clean (not picking up any corrosion from inside) except for the oil in the drive shaft. That came out brown, so we'll keep replacing the oil until it all comes out clean.

I thought you might...

Want to see the brown oil from the drive shaft?













We also found that the speedometer and odometer are working, and we haven't found anything so far that would point to the fact that the 22,000 + miles are not the accurate mileage for this bike, soooo...we might have a low-mileage restoration, here!

Next step is to ride it some more....

Registration Day

I guess, when you bring a motor vehicle into California, you have to register it, apply for the title change, pay use taxes, etc. right away. This was out of state and not registered, although I did have a valid title from Hector who ran out and got the title in his name before shipping it out for me. I had to get the VIN verified before registering it and they had to see the bike intact to do the VIN verification, so I had to rent a van, load it up and bring it to AAA. There was a little hiccup where the inspector didn't want to step up into the van to look at the numbers and the odometer, but she got someone out there who would and everyone was very helpful in dealing with a 1967 motorcycle where the numbers differed a bit from what they might have been used to...and now I have California plates for the bike! One day, I might look for CA plates from 1967 and buy those and get the registration transferred to those, but at least I'm legal.

We cleaned up the carburetors today, soaking them in a kerosene wash and cleaning them with scrubbers and wire brushes. We still have to clean them a bit more...we'll boil them in lemon juice as the acid apparently cleans them up well.

 

                 Before                                    After    

Tomorrow we're going to add fluids and new spark plug cables, clean it out a bit and at some point in the near future, we're going to see how it runs!  That was fast, eh??

Once we see how it runs, then we take it all apart, figure out what needs to be sent out for repair or bodywork, what gets replaced, what gets re-plated, re-chromed and repainted. We start hunting for replacement parts and cleaning up pieces that get re-chromed and re-plated. Every bolt gets cleaned with a wire brush and we "chase the threads" with a die to make it work better before it goes to cad-plating. Then they come back shiny and perfect!  :-)

It's very satisfying, I have to say. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I got to mow the grass. Part of it was that I got to drive the tractor — yet another vehicle I got to drive! However, that wasn't the whole reason I liked to cut the grass. I started doing it before I was allowed to drive the tractor. Sometimes they were power mowers, but I even liked pushing the little push mower! To me, it was the satisfaction of starting out with a messy looking lawn, with dandelions and weeds and grass of all different lengths. A little time on the mower, and it looked beautiful! Neat and straight and best of all, it smelled like cut grass. I still love the smell of cut grass! Taking a dirty sticky bolt that doesn't turn well and making it work perfectly and look beautiful is very satisfying. Even better if it's a whole part like a carburetor and with a little time and care, this device as complicated and simple as it might be, regains the ability to mix fuel and air to make a motorcycle run. Complicated and simple because this is what was being used in 1967 and yet I am so impressed that people figured out how to make this work and then to manufacture it! The complex electronic fuel injection these days is more versatile and efficient and I'm sure much less satisfying to fix. I wonder if a car that was born in 2010 will still be around 43 years from now. I suspect that the software used to fix it will be out of date, but Giovanni Battista Venturi's (1746–1822) "Venturi effect" will never go out of style!

Oh — so we did soak the carbs in hot lemon juice.


It smelled like Thanksgiving!

Day One

I started off the day by spraying down almost all of the bolts and screws on the bike with WD-40, leting it soak in, and then carefully loosening everything so that we know it will come loose without breaking, later. After that was done, Rick and I started digging in to see what condition it was in under the “hood”… and we were pleasantly surprised! When we took the front of the engine case off, the generator was in beautiful, original condition and very clean! Here’s what it looked like:

Rick says that you can tell it’s original from the factory when you see the little string ties keeping the wires together. We’ll be replacing all the wires when we put in a new wiring harness, but it’s good to know that there wasn’t an engine leak that leaked into that area. I guess it's really rare to see it looking so incredibly clean in the front of the engine, so we were happy about that! :)  We’ll probably replace the coil as that is something that tends to go over time. We adjusted the points and the gap for the push rods for the valves. Here’s what it looks like under the valve cover:

In case you want a reminder of how a 4-stroke engine works (I did!) here's a good little moving diagram which takes you from the intake of the air/fuel mixture from the carburetor, through the combustion inside the cylinder and finally to the exhaust.

If you were wondering, the valve gaps were a little loose and the points were a little tight. Now that it's adjusted, it should run better when we get around to starting it up.

Wheels down

My project bike arrived today. A 1967 BMW R60/2 in Dover White with 22,096 miles on the odometer. It'll take a bit of investigation till we know if those are original miles.

It's rusty and doesn't run. I know already that I want to replace the handlebars, seat, tires, wiring, probably the wheels and maybe the exhaust pipes as well as quite a few other parts, including all of the washers, gaskets, tubes and cables. But I think it's a beauty!

How did I land on this particular bike?

I really needed a mentor. See, I don't know anything about restoring a motorcycle. Seriously, I hit the internet and learned the basics about internal combustion engines! I joined an online "Meetup" called "League of Gentlemen Riders". I emailed the organizer, who goes by "Quinxy", to see if he knew how I could find a mentor for a project like this. He was very kind and invited me down to the shop where he helps out and works on his own bikes from time to time.

I went down to Black Kat Motorwerks and met Rick Monohan and started to learn about the old BMW motorcycles. Rick only works on the vintage bikes - nothing that requires electronics to tune it up and troubleshoot. I could tell pretty quickly that Rick was incredibly knowledgable about these motorcycles. Every year, every part, every add-on, and seemingly every trick to bring them back from the dead. Plus, he's a really nice guy.

Rick helped me do my search and even got on the phone on conference calls with the owners to help me ask the right questions. In the end, I found this one clear across the country, in Virginia, through Craig's List. I was a little worried about buying something like this on Craig's List, but both Rick and I thought the seller, Hector, sounded honest and nice and we decided to trust him. And we were right - Hector was really nice and helpful and took care of everything quickly and easily.

And the bike is here...wheels down, on the ground in California. Here we go....

Oh, and by the way, here's a picture of what it might look like one day. This is a slightly different model bike (R69S), but if we do an immaculate job, it might look like this:

The prequel to the blog.

When I was 9, my parents got me a minibike. A little Honda QA 50: 50 cc's, 2 gears, automatic clutch, little fat tires.

                        I loved it.

                                

                                                             I LOVED it. 

                                                      

Perhaps it started before then, with a big wheel or a bicycle or roller skates, but I always loved things that moved...fast.

After the Honda, I drove a go-cart,

a bigger Honda (XR-75) and then a bigger dirt bike (Suzuki DS-100) and later, even a couple of ATC's before they became illegal. All of that was done in the relative safety of the spacious fields that were our back yard, where I was lucky enough to grow up.

I always wanted to ride a motorcycle in the street, but I was warned and scared about the dangers of a street bike (perhaps rightly so) and so I let it go for the next almost-thirty years.

      Then I got a Vespa.

      My gateway drug.

Now, I get to pursue not only one, but two dreams I've had since I was a kid.

Not only did I buy a motorcycle, but I bought a rusty one that doesn't run that I get to restore completely. I bought a 1967 BMW R60/2.

I thought that writing a blog about the process of restoring it, would not only allow some friends and family and possibly a few strangers to follow along as I figure this thing out, but would also serve as a sort of digital scrapbook for me.