From chinacat!rider!root Mon Jan 10 14:47:35 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 8 Date: 10 Jan 94 14:16:05 CST (Mon) Well... today was a saturday - so I did some part time programming to help pay for this project. Not to leave the day a total waste (I'm waiting on parts from all over - and machine shop work), I decided to get what I need to paint the frame (Rustoleum primer and black glossy paint), and some stuff to clean up all the cast aluminum (engine, castings, tranny, etc). I visited my favorite part of KMART - automotive, and located an aluminum etch (disguised as Mag Wheel cleaner), a nice brass wire brush (doesn't leave ferris particles behind that will later rust) - some naval jelly (for rust removal), then visited paints and found the primer and glossy black. Back to automotive for some high temp (they claim 1200 deg.F) aluminum engine paint. Back to home with all my goodies - and into the garage. I start with the front cover to the engine. On this model, this is natural sand cast aluminum.. which looks nice new, but because it is porous - once it gets dirty - it more or less stays dirty. I take this part into the house - into the laundry room sink, where I also have a spray bottle of Simple Green, a scrubby sponge (the one with the green scrubby on it), and the bottle of Mag Wheel cleaner. (A note on the Mag wheel cleaner. I'm always amazed that they sell this stuff.. it is a concentrated solution of phosphoric and hydrofloric acids - with some soapy stuff added. HF is one of the nastiest acids known to man. Besides having a REAL liking for human flesh - it also kills the nerve endings FIRST - so you don't know you're being eaten up by it. It is the one acid I really dislike - and to sell it on the shelves of KMART, where semiliterate's are going to buy it and completely ignore the inadaquate warnings on the bottle is close to criminal! OK - off soapbox! - back to bike work)... Anyway - doning gloves and goggles - I liberally spritz the cover with simple green - and scrub. Most of the greasy dirt comes off. I then spritz it with the mag cleaner - and it bubbles nicely. I rinse thoroughly.. it looks better, but not really clean, or uniform in color. I do the mag cleaner again - it foams - and really doesn't do much else. I can see a little dirt floating off - but it really doesn't look too much better. So, I use very hot water to rinse it off - and dry it off, and back to the garage. In comparison to uncleaned pieces - the cover looks better. It dosen't look great. Remembering a trick I've used on the other BMW (der car) for the valve cover - I grab the can of aluminum paint - and give the cover a very light coat. MUCH too shiny! But.. with giving it a rubbing with a clean old towel to remove most of the paint - it looks PERFECT! The trick here is to rub the paint OFF while it's still wet. Since the aluminum castings are very rough, and porous - they do retain a thin film of the aluminum paint - and after rubbing have a nice dull sheen. They basically look just like they came out of the mold! Plus, they'll stay clean longer, and be easier to keep clean - the paint that is left fills most of the porous pores in the aluminum casting, so it can't retain dirt. I learned this trick about 2 decades ago when I rebuilt my Triumph Bonneville.. and have used it many times since. Did the valve cover on BOHICA (der BMW car).. and 2 years later, it STILL looks like new. Oil spills wipe right off. Dirt cleans off with Simple Green and water. This worked SO well that I proceeded to do all the rest of the aluminum castings - including the tranny and engine (I did wash the tranny casing - after sealing up any openings - wife didn't even look as I walked through the house with it.. - engine was too much. Used paint thinner to clean the oil/grunge off it - then the rubber aluminum paint trick. When done - everything LOOKS LIKE it just came out of the factory! If I can find some black wrinkle paint - I'll be doing the BMW logo on the top cover tomorrow (and I'll tell you how to get perfect wrinkle EVERY TIME - using the spray can paint!). Maybe tomorrow I will also start work on the frame... Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Mon Jan 10 16:43:17 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 9 Date: 10 Jan 94 16:24:26 CST (Mon) Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeemernuts: Don't have a lot to report for Day 9 - called into work for most of the day due to a server failure (it's back and running). Did take a look at the engine - and just out of curiousity I pulled out the valve lifters/tappets/followers (everyone - including the manuals has a different name for these). These are the cylindrical pieces that go between the pushrods and the camshaft lobes (if you look in the manual it will become somewhat clearer). The job of these parts is to translate the rotory eccentric motion of a cam lob to a linear motion needed by the pushrod to open/close the valves. The two front lifters looked perfect, and I almost didn't bother removing the rear ones.. good thing I did. BOTH the rear ones have rough surfaces on them.. looks like little canyons in the surface! Turns out (from talking to a few people) that this can be caused by the valve clearance being too wide for a long period of time. These are impact fractures in the hardened surface of the lifter. Luckily - this dosen't seem to effect the cams themselves.. they look PERFECT - without even the polishing of the lobes that you see with high-milage camshafts. So.. what to do? Noemi sent me a fax from a local club rag, where a former mechanic was moving out of California.. and he had LOTS of R65 parts from a bike he was parting out. He had two good lifters (which are different on the R65 from the ones used on any other R bike), which I've bought for $5/each. He also has a headlight shell for $10, and a tool tray for $15. THANKS NOEMI!! Will probably not have too much to report for a bit - I'm awaiting parts to start arriving. Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) Don Eilenberger Bellcore 331 Newman Springs Rd. Red Bank, NJ 07701 Voice: 908-758-3167 FAX: 908-758-3166 EMAIL: dje@mail.bellcore.com >From chinacat!rider!root Tue Jan 11 00:38:23 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 9 Date: 11 Jan 94 00:21:41 CST (Tue) Be-nuts! Thanks again to Noemi for the info on Fred Carr and his R65 bargains. He also listed in his ad a points housing (distributor - but it really isn't) for $50. I had ordered one from Eurotech for $150 (which I thought was WAY too high, but he - at the time - was the only game in town). I called Chris at Eurotech to see if he would remove it from the order (if the order hadn't been shipped) - or take it back if the order had been shipped. He was not receptive to this idea.. he didn't outright refuse - but I mentioned the ad (which he'd seen - so he knew I wasn't making it up) - and asked if he could do anything on the price - that I'd be willing to meet him somewhere inbetween. He said since he gave me such a good deal on the starter ($125) he couldn't really do anything. Well - since I consider a deal a deal, and don't welch on one.. I guess I paid $100 more for the points housing than I should have.. but then again, Fred Carr has a starter that he wanted $200 for - so I guess it all balances out - more or less. More productive stuff I got done was to start to strip the frame. I found this neat brass wire wheel (black and decker product) meant for use in an electric drill that is perfect for removing paint and rust from metal surfaces. Since it is a wire wheel - it works exceptionally well on curved surfaces (frame) and for cleaning rust out of welds. In general - the frame is in good shape. There is a bit of surface rust on a few spots where the fairing was attached (and scratched the paint) - and some surface rust on the plates where the mufflers and rear pegs mount. Both responded well to the wire wheel - followed by 320 sandpaper. I then used Rust-oleum primer followed by Rust-oleum black enamel. Looks about identical to the factory paint in color and shine. Next I am considering what to do about all the nuts and bolts. Most appear to have been nickle or zinc plated.. and are somewhat tarnished or corroded looking. They do polish up nicely on my buffing wheel.. but there sure are a lot of them. When I did my Triump many years ago, I found a stock of stainless cap-head bolts (the Triump used SAE thread bolts). Polished up - these looked dynamite, but I haven't seen a source of stainless metric hardware. Anyone have any sources? Meanwhile.. I remain waiting parts from all over the country. Best.. Don Eilenberger >From chinacat!rider!root Wed Jan 12 13:42:47 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day ?? (10?) Date: 12 Jan 94 13:35:26 CST (Wed) BeeeeeeeeeeemerNuts.. Not much to report for yesterday (day 10). Did a bit more frame cleaning/sanding/painting. Did find out that Naval Jelly (a mild corrosive acid - phosphoric - in a paste) works well to clean up the nuts and bolts. Used carefully it removes the corrorsion, and leaves the plating - they look much like new when done. The machinist has finished my clutch and cylinders.. he's working on the heads now (said the valves are saveable!) Hope to pick these parts up tomorrow. Am still waiting on parts to arive from all over so I can start some reassembly! Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Thu Jan 13 00:39:07 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 11 Date: 13 Jan 94 00:19:29 CST (Thu) Folks.. I went and visited my parts at the machine shop this afternoon after work. The clutch parts look like brand new after bead-blasting! (A savings of about $350..). The cylinders look fine after being honed.. The heads were apart, glass-beaded (blasted clean) and in the process of having the seats cut. The valves were saveable (lots of meat left on them) - as were the valve seats (it was a low milage engine). You can see where the salt water attacked the aluminum casting a bit in the intake and exhaust ports - but not enough to worry about. Hopefully all the machine work will be done tomorrow. At the home front - I first went and got kerosene for my garage heater (all of about 4,000 btu's - not enough for anything under about 40 degrees). I then attacked the frame again. I removed the rear wheel (again), the rear fender (this is some ugly puppy eh? - be hard to think of how it could have been made uglier - especially with the unusual color - sorta a greenish/brown/blackish color), and the rear portion of the frame (the part that unbolts). I then cleaned, sanded, de-rusted this part of the frame and painted it. While I was waiting for it to dry, I cleaned up all the nuts and bolts - this time I used the mag wheel cleaner I was using on the aluminum bits. Since it contains phosphoric and hydrofloric acids.. it does quite a nice job on plated fasteners. About 5 minutes of soaking, and then rinse.. they look like new. By the time I was done cleaning these, and the lock assembly, the rear section was dry enough to carefully bolt back on. I reinstalled the fender (didn't bother painting it - the dull/dark color it is now sorta makes it disappear when it's on the bike, which is fine with me). That was about it except removing some more of the wiring harness to get at parts of the frame for painting. Best... Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Thu Jan 13 23:38:32 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 12 Date: 13 Jan 94 23:11:31 CST (Thu) Beemerpeoples.. Sorry about the doublespacing that follows.. my term emulator does a wacky cut/paste. I sent the message wrongly (didn't like bmw@rdier.cactus.org for some reason) and rather than retype it (loosing the spontaneous feeling of it).. I cut and pasted.. so here is day 12: Did NOTHING today on the bike. Went to a meeting this AM that was called to discuss what we were going to do at our next meeting. After this mind numbing exercise.. I just want to crawl in a hole somewhere. May actually get off my butt and walk the 10 feet into the garage to visit it though. Maybe tomorrow - my parts should be done at the machine shop. I stopped yesterday and had a nice chat with Louie.. mostly about building model rockets. He didn't want to do any work on my heads (they were on the bench) - he had a headache.. Oh well... TOMORROW! DAMMIT! Don >From chinacat!rider!root Fri Jan 14 19:17:15 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 12 - mixed feelings Date: 14 Jan 94 19:10:26 CST (Fri) I think today is day 12.. or, nope.. I guess it's day 13 (let's see... picked it up New Years day, that was the 1st.. today is the 14th.. yeah! day 13). Went to the machine shop today and picked up my parts.. Louie was tinkering with a Honda Odessey he found somewhere.. this was one of the first ATV's - a BIG 4 wheeler with a vario-belt transmission in it. More or less a bit smaller than a vw bug based dune buggy. He was thinking about making it into a "Road Warrior" sorta beast.. complete with a few weapons mounted on top (Louie is just that sorta guy..!). Anyway - guess he liked me, 'cause the bill for doing the valves, glass beading everything (heads, clutch parts, cylinders) and honing the cylinders came to a grand total of $65! And past experience friends have told me about guarantee that the job is PERFECT (I would guess that from watching the work in progress)... So, that was good news! The order for engine assembly stuff showed up today from Competition Accessories - and everything was there except the rings - which from talking to them, are taking a bit to get from BMW. More or less good news... The other order that arrived today was from Eurotech. This was SUPPOSED to be for a starter, a complete wiring harness, and a distributor. Well.. it more or less had 3 packages to it.. the starter looks fine from outside appearance. The wiring harness is NOT complete - the entire front portion (from the frame connectors fowards) are missing. And this cost $75 - which was a premium price over what others wanted for one where the headlight connector had been removed to mount a fairing (this one I don't know if it was removed, since this entire part of the harness didn't show up). The distributor was a BIG disappointment - as a matter a fact they're getting this back first thing Monday! They charged me $150 for a distributor that had been butchered by someone who put an aftermarket electronic ignition in it! I opened it up and found it RUSTY and corroded - and the center spindle was not the original with the advance mechanism, but what looks like some garage mechanic's idea of a shaft for an electronic sender.. complete with several rusty coils! Basically a piece of SH*T!! - I called and left them a message expressing my dismay at this - and telling them that I'm sending it BACK. Their ad claims that "they'll make it right" and the customer comes first.. we'll see if this is just talk. I immediately called Fred Carr (thanks! Noemi!) and ordered the distributor he has (he opened it and looked for me - it's original and in good shape) for $50 - and he offered me a wiring harness COMPLETE with EVERYTHING including the switches for $30 - which I also ordered! So.. sum of the day - good, not so good, and bad! Maybe if it doesn't hit zero in my garage tonight, I'll start reassembling the clutch... Best.. and have a good weekend! Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) PS: I know there was an incident here before where info from this list was transmitted to a dealer.. who wasn't happy about it. I really DON'T CARE if anyone transmits this info.. since it is factual, and not flames. >From chinacat!rider!root Mon Jan 17 13:41:58 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65, days 14,15 & 16 so far.. Date: 17 Jan 94 13:09:39 CST (Mon) Beemers... Sorry to hear about the shakeup in CA.. hope everyone is OK! R65 Saga Continued: Just got off the phone with Chris of Eurotech. He returned my message of last friday - where I pretty much blasted them for sending me a junk distributor. Chris was very good about it - and promised to send a UPS pickup tag - and credit my charge card for it. I also asked him about the missing forward part of the harness - he is sending me two to look at and decide if they have what I need. All in all - so far I'm impressed favorably with his attitude! Other stuff on R65 - not much this weekend. The temperature here never got much above 10 degrees F - including my garage. I tried going out to work a few times - but even with a heavy sweatshirt on, the best I could do was about 10 minutes. EVERYTHING is cold! Tools, the bike, all the parts... I did drag a few electronic parts inside for R&R - the voltage regulators looks fine (inside). Cleaned it up and resealed it. Have to check the rear brake light switch.. have it off and gotta clean it up and then Ohmmeter it.. Hope it warms enough in the next day or so to reassemble the clutch. Got the new miracle spline lube - so I'm ready to start bolting it together! Best... Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Mon Jan 17 23:41:11 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 16 (continued) Date: 17 Jan 94 23:37:05 CST (Mon) Beeeeeeeeemernuuuuuuts: Well, I did get out to the garage tonight - it got up over 40 - which after our recent weather was downright TOASTY! (My kero heater also helped). My goodies from Bent Beemer arrived today - the handlebar clampdowns, the headlamp bracket, and the handlebar/triple clamp crash pad! I was FINALLY able to rid the bike of some of the last of the first owner's ugliness - the hacked up crash pad, the missing headlamp bracket (well.. most of it was missing), and the God awful ugly peeling chrome plated handlebar setbacks! It was GREAT taking all this old crap off - and restoring the front end to more or less what the factory intended. I'm still waiting on the headlight bucket from Fred Carr (hope he wasn't in earthquake area) - and chasing down the rest of the headlamp assembly. While taking all this crap off - I removed the rest of the old wiring harness, and sanded and painted this part of the frame (strangely - this was the rustiest part of the bike.. just surface rust - but it appeared that BMW didn't paint under the tank all that well). At this point - all of the frame is as painted as it's gonna get - so stuff can start going back on! I attempted to reassemble the clutch - and found that the 10mm bolts that are use to assemble it, may be one-time only! While torqueing several of them up (16 ft/lbs.. not much), two of them wouldn't quite tighten like the others.. sorta too many turns for each 1lb increase in torque.. finally one of them turned REAL EASY! Luckily, it snapped right under the head - and was easily removeable with a pair of gas pliers. Will have to buy 6 new 10mm's tomorrow, and try again! Was a relief to finally be able to get back at it again! Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Tue Jan 18 22:44:35 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 17 - got something done! Date: 18 Jan 94 22:36:37 CST (Tue) Folks... Despite 4 degree temperatures - using my kero heater to take the "chill" off the garage, and bundling up with a heavy sweatshirt, I tackled the clutch again. I'd stopped on the way home at a local autoparts, and picked up replacements for the 10mm bolts that hold the clutch assembly together (for those who missed yesterdays episode - I tried this yesterday - but the stainless bolts that were used originally got longer and longer as I tried to torque them up - until one got infinately long!). This time - all went well. I gorped the splines with the new lube #10 from BMW (says on it - ingredients - petroleum oil and trade secret). Stuff is red, sort stringy, and quite viscous.. I assembled all the reconditioned parts (that I at first was CERTAIN I would have to replace - they looked SO BAD), lined up the disk with the quickly centering tool I'd whipped up yesterday, tightened up the bolts (the new ones torqued up JUST FINE). Lifted up the tranny - put the shaft into the clutch center, tightened up all the bolts holding the tranny to the engine. IT WORKS! - I tried rotating the engine while manually operating the clutch with the lever on the back of the tranny - and it clutches and declutches JUST FINE! By this point I was freezing - so off the kero heater, and in to my hot little keyboard! Finally feel like I'm making some progress.. stuff is starting to go back together! Best.. Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Wed Jan 19 22:33:06 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Brrrrr... Day 18 Date: 19 Jan 94 22:13:58 CST (Wed) Warm People (Rub it in...) Very little happened today/tonight in R65 land. Temp here is hovering around 0F - which means the lights in the garage (flourescents) have trouble lighting. I left the kero heater on for a few hours while I took a short nap, in the hope that the garage would be tolerable - but nope! Still too damn cold! So, what to do? This AM, while attempting to get BOHICA the BMW car type thing started (long story - only took about an hour).. who should pull up but UPS with a package from Eurotech. Chris had promised to send me ALL the R65 harness parts he had tagged, so I could see if I could sort out what I needed. I opened the box this evening, and found a main harness (which he'd already sent me) and (!) what I needed - the front/headlight instrument/turnsignal harness! Complete and not Windjammer hacked! So - since it was too cold to do anything in the garage - I brought the harness bits inside, with a new roll of Scotch(tm) Brand electical tape - and sat watching TV and retaping the harnesses (for some reason around this era, BMW was still using cloth tape for wrapping harnesses - and after this many years it looked a bit tatty). So.. unless I find something else to bring in to work on, that will be about it for day 18.. I did talk to Fred Carr - he'd gotten my check, had the flu, is better and shipping the other stuff I ordered from him! Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) '79 R65, disassembled, un-named (looking for ideas..) '87 535i BOHICA (Bend Over Here It Comes Again! - which it did this AM!) PS: My impression of Eurotech is climbing quickly - Chris has been VERY cooperative in taking care of any problems I had with what I ordered from him., seems like good people! >From chinacat!rider!root Fri Jan 21 00:38:19 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 19.. more BRRRRR! Date: 21 Jan 94 00:28:40 CST (Fri) Beemerpeoples... Sorry if the typing is worse than usual (no bargain anyway).. just came in from the garage (about 1AM) - temp in garage when I last checked was +1 deg. C... and three hours left me with cold fingers and toes... (luckily I don't type with my toes.. cause they're REALLY cold). Tonight.. I got almost all of the new wiring harness installed. Was a bit more of a challange than it would be for the CA located people, since it gets stiff when cold - making it a bit hard to get into place. It all went together more or less logically.. and I can now sorta understand the reason behind the plug-central under the forward part of the tank. In case of a crash.. the front part of the harness is actually several parts, each of which can be replaced seperately. Getting all the wiring to lay alongside the main frame tube so it looks good was a bit of work, but when done, it looks at least as good as factory. I then started installing the new wiring on the engine, including the diode board. Had just a tad of confusion (I'd fogotten to mark 1 wire) - finally figured out (with the help of a wiring diagram) that it was the exciter voltage wire for the starter solenoid... so... Jim B.. whatch'a doin' sunday? Wanna help lift an engine? It's ready to go back into the frame.. I can just as easily finish up the rings and top ends with the engine in the frame.. so... Goin' into wash up now with REAL HOT water.. Don (brrrrr!).. (dje@mail.bellcore.com) PS: Thanks all for the advice on heaters.. I may take a look for one of the radiant ones.. a friend has one, and really likes it. Problem is.. all the stores around are out of them, since heat is a major problem around here right now. The radiant ones have one advantage of the blower (salimander) type (Jim B brought one over on engine-out day.. works great).. thre sorry - the radiant ones don't require electricity to work, and right now this is a major plus in NJ - they've been dropping power intermittently to help heat the south.. >From chinacat!rider!root Fri Jan 21 15:08:16 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: Anyone got.. could I borrow.. Date: 21 Jan 94 14:27:42 CST (Fri) BeemerKindPeople... Sometime in the near future (within a few weeks) - I'll be attempting to put the exhausts back on the R65.. I've ordered new nuts and compression rings from CompSpec.. who also offered to sell me the "genuine" BMW exhaust nut wrench.. for a price around $40. Seein' how this is not an item I'd use everyday - I would be tempted to improvise (couldn't find my Norton wrench - but then they used REAL metal for the nuts - cast iron/chrome plated - and they didn't bend all up).. but if someone was kind enough to offer to loan me a wrench.. I'll spring UPS both ways! Hate to pay $40 for a one-time-tool... Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) PS: I checked with CompSpec on my backordered rings.. and... the rings are in the mail! - Should have them in a day or so, now if Fred Carr got the lifters out to me - it will be top end reassembly time! (And maybe soon... real motorcycle noises from my garage!!). >From chinacat!rider!root Sat Jan 22 01:16:35 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 20 (still brrrr.. but better!) Date: 22 Jan 94 00:54:22 CST (Sat) Folks.. Tonight I checked over my work from last night - and found it just a tad lacking. I hooked up power to the new harness I installed - and nothing quite worked correctly. Took a bit of puzzling on it to figure it out - but it turned out that I had two of the mid-harness connectors switched. Once I got them sorted out - EVERYTHING WORKS!!!! I checked the turnsignals (now blink - before were just on all the time) - the brake lights (now work with the lever/ pedal - before were on ALL the time) - the instrument lights, and everything else I could check. Basically it looks like replacing everything makes it all work! I got so involved in this that I didn't get to tonights thought about project - flushing and bleeding the front disk brake. Hmmmmmm.... maybe tomorrow! I did screw around again with the paint on the frame.. I was not happy with how some of it turned out - so I attempted ot (woops - "to") touch it up - of course this caused wrinkles in the paint (back in the old days - pre-green - spray paint WORKED.. grrrrrr) - so out comes the brass wheel, off comes ALL the paint - and I start over again! (4th time on some parts). Somethin' different about spray paints today! Hard to get a good job outa them (especially since National Bronze Company exploded - NiBCO made the best spray paints - when the plant exploded - took a small chunk of NJ with it!). Anywho.. supposed to reach ABOVE FREEZING! I'll be working in skivies! Tonight at about 20F felt real good! Best.. Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) '87 535i BOHICA (a Bimmer) '79 R65 un-named (a Beemer) (boy - it's a pain correcting people on this!) >From chinacat!rider!root Sat Jan 22 23:41:17 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 21 - not quite so brrrrr.. Date: 22 Jan 94 23:10:35 CST (Sat) Folks.. Today was a heat wave! Hit 30F at one point! Made garage work a long-sleeve shirt affair! Today's project was (strange that Ed Hackett just sent mail a person doing it on an Alfa) change the brake jelly! I didn't know that the special brake fluid that BMW must have installed at the factory was actually a jelly! (With seeds!). When I opened the reservior, I was somewhat agast at what I saw! Was mush - redish, jelly like, mush - with some hard parts! Apparently the fluid had NEVER been changed - and in the course of 15 years had turned into something it's makers had never intended it to be! Took the master cylinder off the bike - since I could see that this would require at least a complete disassembly/cleaining reassembly.. At my warm cellar workbench, I took the cylinder apart (this isn't a mystery to me - I used to own cars with Girling hydraulics.. which generally required a yearly rebuilt), and found the seals and bore were in surprising good shape considering the crud they were surrounded by. I cleaned up everything, and reassembled. Took a bit to bleed out the cylinder - but once I did it seemed to be working fine. The fluid down to the caliper wasn't as bad - only a bit discolored. After reassembly, flushing and bleeding - the brake seems to be working OK - no excess motion, nice firm feel to it.. guess I'll have to wait until the moto is mobile to see how well it works! Best.. Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Mon Jan 24 11:12:29 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 22 - WARM AT LAST! Date: 24 Jan 94 10:58:54 CST (Mon) Peoples.. Today Jim Bassette came over to help me lift the engine back in.. and he brought his propane heater! WAS WARM in the garage! Darn near pleasant! It was great that Jim was here to lend a hand since he's about twice my size (a slight exageration) and about twice as strong (not too big an exageration). Jim is capable of lifting (I can do this) and holding (I can't do this for long) - the engine while we try to figure out how it came out of the frame so we can put it back into the frame (I think.. check me on this Jim) that we more or less backed it in.. the tranny end in first, more or less up to where the battery box belongs - and then a twist, grunt and ommmph - and the front weasled in. Was a tight fit! So.. after getting the engine in - we decided this went so well, we'd throw a few more parts back on. Back on went the starter.. the footpegs, etc.. I had already put the rear wheel back on before the engine job - sorta thought it might help steady the bike. Did the rest of the wiring from the starter to the battery, routed lots of cables and wires, used lots of tiewraps (yeah... I got black ones.. ). After getting all this done - I demo'd to Jim how wrinkle paint works (why does it ALWAYS clog up the nozzle?) and how to get it to wrinkle evenly and quickly (ask me nice and I'll tell'ya). I'm wrinkling the engine bits that were originally finished in a semi-glass black.. I like how the wrinkle looks on the cast alum better. I may also black wrinkle the engine pan, and then polish the fins on it.. I kinda like this look - and since I'm not shooting for authentic here... That was about it for day 22! It's starting to look like a motopickle again! Now if the rest of my engine parts arrive, maybe in a week or so it will start to SOUND like a motopickle again! Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) '87 535i BOHICA der Bimmer '79 R65 Unnamed yet der Beemer >From chinacat!rider!root Tue Jan 25 09:18:20 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 Day 23 - WARM! Date: 25 Jan 94 08:59:19 CST (Tue) Beeeeemernuts! Warm is a relative thing - tonight 40F+ in the garage was WONDERFUL! My rings arrived today from Competition Acessories.. but I'm still missing the new (used) lifters from Fred Carr (he mentioned to another netter that he'd shipped the stuff last tues - so maybe tomorrow!). I got ready to assemble the top-ends.. cleaned up the piston tops. The one that had the most water in it was the easiest to clean - a fingernail would scrape off the carbon on this one (back in the car world.. you can usually spot which cylinder in a car has a cooling system leak into it - it's the one that looks BRAND NEW.. the water will remove ALL the carbon). The other piston was a bit tougher - the carbon required some coaxing with a blunt instrument. When I got both of them looking fairly clean, I polished the tops of the pistons a bit with 400 grit paper - and rinsed everything with WD40 (I saw someplace - maybe PEP Boys - a 1 gallon can of WD40 for about $15 - should have bought it - at the rate I'm going through the spray cans - it would have paid for itself real quickly). I also took the heads and did the alum paint/wipe treatment to them, and baked them a bit on the top of the kero heater. Look REAL good! Took the cylinders into the laundry room and scrubbed them with Simple Green and hot water to get any of the honing grit off them, plus prep them for the alum paint treatment. Did the treatment, and baked these on the top of the kero heater (damn handy this heater!). That was about it for the biggies tonight - did a little puttering around like putting the front coil in place (very tight fit) [of course it and the backet had to be sanded and painted first]. When I brought the bike home - one coil bracket was missing - and the other was broken. I didn't realize the one was broken (it was the front one - and this isn't very visable..) so I only got one used replacement from Bent Beemer... now I need another. I also need a few more odds and ends - I'm trying to get EVERYTHING new that I think I'll need at one time - maybe get a small discount.. so far the list is: 4 driveshaft bolts - these are the ones from the tranny to the driveshaft - the book says they are stretch bolts and ONE TIME only (noemi??) 1 hydraulic brake light switch - I'm sure this is identical to the old ones I used to replace on old Volvo's - and I may just try the Volvo dealer tomorrow... 1 master cylinder kit - hopefully these are available.. apparently the outer seal on the cylinder is kaput.. I've got a slow leak since I changed the brake jelly. And of course - 1 coil bracket. Did these have a habit of breaking? Supposed to return to cold tomorrow - plus rest of the week looks busy.. but hopefully, I'll have some more to report! Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Wed Jan 26 08:11:33 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - day 24 - Still WARM! Date: 26 Jan 94 07:34:43 CST (Wed) Beemerphiles! Although snow was falling outside my garage - it still was comfortable in the garage with the kero heater going and a sweatshirt - I would guess close to 45-50F ! Tonight I pulled the engine pan (I'd done it on the bench, just to check the bottom end - but hadn't cleaned it and didn't have a new gasket for it), cleaned it up, refinished it, put in my new gasket and reinstalled it. Aside from the mess I gotta clean up in the laundry room sink.. it was a no-brainer sorta job (more or less like these once in a while!). After I got done with this - I put in a new oil filter and all the gaskets. Now I'm just waiting on the package from Fred Carr to finish up the engine! Since none of this took my alloted garage time (I'm giving myself 2 hours a night - it's MY quality time!) - I took a look at the gas tank - which has been sitting quietly in another corner of the garage. This is some kinda stupid cap eh? Correct me if I'm wrong - the key disconnects the top of the cap from the bottom - making it difficult, but not impossible to unscrew the cap - but making it really impossible to screw the cap back in?? Have I got this right?? That's what this one does! I can unscrew it no matter WHERE the key is - but only screw it back in after turning the key so the threaded part locks up! Hmmmmm... as we always claim over on the BMW car list.. "This must be a FEATURE!" (this covers almost all of the little factory engineering curiosities we find in the BMW cars.. so, maybe we can adopt it for the motos also!). Whilst (always wanted to start a paragraph with this!) I had the cap off, I perused the inside of the tank, which has a gallon or so of gas in it. The inside of the tank appears to have a red coating on it. Not rust.. it looks like an applied coating. Do BMW's of this era come with a coating on the inside of the tanks?? Or was this perhaps some previous owners answer for perhaps a rusting tank? I did drain a cup of gas from the petcock - (Andy Rooney on: "have you ever wondered how a petcock got it's name??" Andy Rooney off!) - and it came out clear with no particles in it (and apparently no water!). Smelled like gasoline.. didn't taste it. I'll be draining out what is in the tank - since if nothing else it has gotta be stale. Since I still had a bit of time left - I rubbed some leather treatment into the RideAllDay seat - turns out it is REAL leather.. and ugly it is - but comfortable it appears to be.. so it may stay on for a while (money also influences this decision.. can't afford a Corbin at the moment). Looked a bit better after the treatment - and my hands felt great - you rub this stuff in with your hands (they smell great too!). That was about it for tonight! Maybe it will snow enough so there is no work tomorrow (RIGHT!) - and I can tinker ALL day! Best.. Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) >From chinacat!rider!root Thu Jan 27 00:41:26 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 25 - Snow! Date: 26 Jan 94 23:51:36 CST (Wed) Folks.. I had hoped to report that we had a "snow day" here - where work is cancelled due to bad weather. No such luck - although work did start 2 hours late due to the weather.. Wasn't a REAL exciting eve in R65 land. Didn't have too much to do, since I'm waiting on parts. I did decide to take a look see at the front wheel bearings since these have been the topic of conversation here lately - and these ones probably had been under salt water. I removed the front wheel - and since I had it off, decided to refinish the brake rotors (the aluminum center was discolored and a bit corroded - probably due to the exposure to salt water - or maybe just old age) - I should have said "rotor" - singular, as in single disk brake... anyway, it went into the laundry room for a good scrubbing up with simple green.. and then onto the kero heater for a drying and pre-paint heating... Meanwhile - I took a look at the front bearings - as best as I could without removing them, since it appears that there is a grease seal that must be destroyed to get at the bearings. It appears the seal did it's job - the bearings rotate smoothly with no roughness when rotated with a fingertip stuck in the axle hole. There was no sign of water intrusion, and the grease that came out on my finger was clean... so - I decided not to screw with a working thing! (More or less the same as don't fix it if it isn't broken!) By now - the rotor was nice and warm, and dry - so I taped off the bits I didn't want paint on - and got out my can of black wrinkle paint (this is the paint that purposely ends up with a wrinkly finish - perfect for use on rough castings - it looks like you intended to have the rough look!). I realize that this bike did not come with the inner aluminum part of the rotors with black wrinkle - but the look with the two stainless steel washer/rings polished up - and the heads of the bolts polished up is super! The black sets off the shiny bits - including the actual rotor surface.. looks NEAT! ... so if you wanta flame me for it.. flame ahead! (I like how it looks - so there! And my daddy can beat your daddy! so there!) [sorry - paint fumes I guess...]. Anyway - the rotor looked SO good that it now made the paint on the rim look sorta crappy. Since I didn't have any Wurth wheel paint (at least that's what is used on the Bimmer's wheels) - I did a spray/wipe with Rustoleum Silver - gives a look very much like original - but the wipe is important.. if you don't the look will be MUCH too shiny. At this point - I'd more or less run out of lilly's to be gilded - so I reassembled it all and called it a night. Hopefully the parts will be here tomorrow from Fred Carr.. I called and he shipped them last Thursday - so a week from CA is about right. Also he's heard from other's here about the project - and he's really interested in the net.. anyone local who could show him how it works would really make his day! Best.. Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) '87 535i BOHICA der Bimmer '79 R65 Unnamed der Beemer (and getting closer!) >From chinacat!rider!root Fri Jan 28 01:23:36 1994 From: bmw@rider.cactus.org (Don Eilenberger) Subject: R65 - Day 26 and counting! Date: 28 Jan 94 01:16:23 CST (Fri) Mostly counting days until my parts arrive (Jim B.. nothing to worry about yet - I don't have the parts to finish up the engine - maybe Sunday before the game??)... so, not to let the momentum stop (Eilenberger's law of inertia - an ass at rest tends to stay at rest, an ass in motion...) I went out into the garage looking for ANYTHING to do! What I found were the valve covers. These are the new angular ones (I don't care if you only like ROUND ones.. this is what I've got - so there!). They were originally just the rough aluminum castings - and sorta grotty looking. I tried polishing one - but then when I tried it out against one of the refinished heads - I didn't like the look - so... out comes the can of black wrinkle paint - on goes the kero heater.. So - they more or less look like the newer painted ones, with the polished fins - except the paint is nice and wrinkly.. and looks really neat. (You'll have to wait for the pics when it's ALL done to see just HOW neat!) Meanwhile - we're getting just another winter storm - but it looks like those of us along the coast are just getting rain - supposed to be 2 inches of ice inland! (Not moto weather - even with grips and a vest).. Meanwhile - the vision of Noemi dropping her **that's right** bike.. while all vested up in August.. will keep me warm here in the cold! Don (dje@mail.bellcore.com) PS: the book I saw discussed on Bosch FoolInjection - I have it, and it is excellent - but not really a diagnostics book - more theory on how it all works - with some diagnostics thrown in. I found it interesting and useful reading - but then I even will read a service manual cover to cover (weird.. but what the heck.. it's harmless). The author is Probst - the book is Bosch Fuel Injection - cost was about $15..