It lives!

I was right about the chances of my poker hand holding up.

Now while I AM pleased to win, why couldn’t it have been one of the runs where the prize is a pair of new tires?! I shouldn’t complain. Not only is this a better trophy than the ink jet print-in-a-glass frame I got for my last win but I’m more likely to get a traffic ticket on one of these rides than win it.

Here are my Bing carbs.

Remember way back at the start of this adventure, how I spent all that time cleaning and rebuilding these? Funny but now the exteriors look too rough compared to the bike I’m mounting these on. I probably should have bead blasted these. I set all the jets to nominal starting positions based on the service manuals and leveled the floats. I have no idea if these carbs will work but we’ll find out soon.

Here’s the airbox outlet on one of Joe’ spare parts.

Hee’s that same outlet on my airbox.

Notice that I’m missing the o-ring that BMW must have designed on later bikes. Too bad because that looks like a good idea. It was a serious struggle to get the carbs mounted.

There is a rigid plastic elbow between the carb and the airbox and everything fits so tightly together. Why couldn’t BMW use something flexible there? If they didn’t like rubber then make it corrugated for flex, upsize it if you’re worried about air restriction. Oh yeah, even the BMW-specified hose clamps were a problem.

Looks nice, with that BMW logo, right? But the sizes were such that getting them each started over the coupling hoses was a finger-munching exercise, whether I slipped them on fromt he sides or opened them completely. I guess they didn’t want too much clamp free tail after tightening but this was just ridiculous. After my fingers were nearly useless (again) I used a couple of larger generic clamps on the left side.

After I got my clutch cable routed I tried to verify it was not binding. I was concerned because the pull required was studly. I recalled it always being stiff but I was worried about just how strong that spring tension felt. Joe assured me they really were absurdly stiff and folks rarely kept the clutch disengaged at stop lights. Darn thing felt like a hand exerciser! Well, that meant it was time to whip out the Easy Clutch from Bench Mark Works. I understand there are a variety of these devices but Craig Vechorik’s is what I think of first.

It is a straight-forward pulley system. If I remember my physics classes correctly it doubles the travel of the hand control, halves the effort, and halves the motion at the clutch. The issue is if the clutch engagement varies too much, say when it warms up or stretches, I may need to chase clutch adjustment. It didn’t feel right but I had to cut my brand new clutch cable back about 4″. The cut end gets inserted into the brass sleeve (seriously tight fit) and held with three set screws. I worry about those set screws but the cable pull should have half the tension on it that it had before.

Seems to work fine in the garage. Makes the clutch motion just stiff instead of “you’re shitting me, right?”

I mentioned some of the cosmetic parts are still rough on this bike but the tail reflector was bugging me so I splurged on a replacement. I still need to buy new headlight ears because of similar rust and dings I can’t improve enough.

Here is the ignition key kit from Stan at Rocky Point Cycle.

This is designed to completely replace the super-funky original switch but leave the bucket exterior stock look. It’ll also prevent anyone from starting the bike with just a 10 penny nail, as Joe related anecdotally.

The first piece is a collar that you wrap the original bucket tabs around.

Here’s the switch part, inserted into the collar and held with a set screw. As mentioned in the instructions, I had to grind the metal key opening larger, underneath the sliding plastic cover.

I should note that while the kit comes complete with some nice Posi-Lock connectors I was forced to use my own Posi-Lock stash because the OEM wires were too big to use Stan’s included parts for the ground and horn connections. All the remaining connections go to the new terminal block in this kit. By the way, this new terminal block is great. It uses a non-rotating clamp under a screw instead of the OEM bare set screws. If I have any trouble with the OEM block I’ll be looking to replace it with something like this.

Here’s a long shot of the bucket at this point.

And here’s a closer view of the messy spaghetti inside. I need an elf to come clean it up for me because if all my connections are good I’m not touching it.

Here’s an exterior view of the bucket and you can see how the ignition switch appears unmolested.

The key switch has three positions, extremely similar to the original switch, allowing the engine to run with or without the headlight.

Now I went to fit the gas tank and I discovered that not only is the wiring under the tank too messy but the EnDuraLast regulator/rectifier will NOT fit in the OEM location as planned. I had to move it foward and down.

By turning it 90-degrees it also made it easier to use just tie-wraps to secure it. I also had to extend the brown ground wire and use a new bolt-and-nut to ground its case. Then it was just a matter of making the wiring bundle a little tighter. I had to pull the speedo cable out of the tranny (again) to pass it on the other side of several wires. Then voila!

You might notice the stunning Keihan stainless exhaust pipes now mounted too! There is a small dimple on the left pipe but I can’t see sending ’em back to Stan because of it. We’ll see what he says.

The repair manual talks about removing the seat to remove or replace the gas tank. Nuts to that! It slides in place just fine with a little careful twist from the side. I need it to be easy to remove since I have to get back under there when I install the electronic ignition later. Here’s a teaser preview of those parts.

So now I’m down to just a couple of things that need doing before I try starting the bike. Technically I could try to start it but the headlight is not mounted to the bucket, two exhaust hangers are not secured to the engine/peg mounts, and the front brake cable is not mounted in the far arm. That’s it. When I got to tasting the finish last week it drove me to wrench harder after work this week, despite our local heat wave. I could hardly sleep, dreaming about getting it all done. Friday was my birthday and I took the day off to spend half with my wife (who works a 4 day/40 hour week) and half with this bike. I worked until I was completely spent, sore everywhere and filthy from rolling around the garage floor.

I’m frustrated by those three things left to do so I called Joe and begged him to come over this weekend whenever it was convenient to give me an hour of his time.

1) There must be a trick to the headlight ring that I’m not getting. It hooks at the top of the bucket and has a spring latch at the bottom. But seeing and doing are two different things.

2) I just need a little more muscle, two more hands, to push new springy exhaust hangers onto the engine/peg bolts. I can’t quite get a C-clamp to work in there.

3) The front brake cable is insane. I adjusted the cam spreader to its minimum but the forward arm is still just “a bridge too far.” Gary helped me wrestle with it last week and we got close but no cigar, maybe 1/8th inch away from starting the end-adjuster nut.

I just need to do those three items, fix whatever else I did wrong (probably some incorrect or poor crimps somewhere), do a checklist shortly after starting up (timing, balance carbs, re-torque head, valve adjust, fluids change, verify charging system), install the Boyer ignition, and bolting on the front cover. Hard to believe I’m THIS close to engine noise! I also got my first scratch in the paint. It is on the rear fender from the negative-side battery strap as I was yanking it into place. That won’t seem like much after the first time I drop the bike but right now it feels like a lot.

While I’m waiting for Joe to call I got a wild-hair idea. Idle hands and all that. I took the original key —

And I used a small Dremel abrasive bit to cut around the metal. After I cut away enough plastic (or glue?) I was able to pull out the bits —

Here’s the remaining plastic shell.

I was careful not to cut through to the other side and I was gentle pulling out the old key bits to avoid cracking the shell.

Here’s what one of the new keys looks like.

Yeah, I blurred the key code. Not that I don’t trust you guys but who knows who’s watching? I didn’t blur the key cuts because if you can reproduce this just by looking at the cuts then I’m not slowing you down much in any event, eh? Anyway, I went ahead and started grinding the head of one new key in a vice with a hand file until it fit properly in the old plastic shell. It took lots of back-and-forth test fitting in the ignition.

I mixed some 5-minute epoxy and poured it around the new key in the old shell.

If I did this right you won’t be able to tell I’m using a new key system when it is inserted in the bucket! How cool is that?

Okay, since Joe’s not on the way yet and to scare me straight, I promised you a better list of expenses. Here you go. These do not include any items under $3 and I probably missed a few items that belong on the list, say $100 or so. Also, I do not have saddlebags yet and if I go for new Hepco & Becker replicas they’ll cost me another $450. So we’re awfully close to a round $10K. Sorry about the formatting. I haven’t figured out how to properly insert a spreadsheet in a WordPress blog —

“Restoration expenses, 1973 BMW R75/5 in decending order
By item (smaller items not inc. tax or ship) Cost

Painting service (fenders & tank, with all prep) $835.00
Keihan /5 mufflers $595.00
Wheel lacing parts & service & tire mount service $594.00
EnDuraLast charging kit $469.00
Keihan 3-pc stainless headers $385.00
Pistons & rings (overbore set of 2) $358.00
Speedo & tach restoration service $353.74
Sargent Classic seat $319.90
Complete valve job labor $295.00
Tires & tubes $254.00
H4 headlight conversion $249.95
Rear shocks, Progressive (2) w/springs installed $249.95
Powder coating service $225.00
Stainless bolt kit $185.00
Boyer Microdigital electronic ignition $179.95
Centerstand $175.00
Rubber kit (hand grips, foot grips, etc.) $166.50
Valves (intake & exhaust, 4 total) $155.40
Polished spoke& nipple kit, front wheel $135.00
Polished spoke & nipple kit, rear wheel $135.00
Clutch plate $103.95
Lace & true front wheel $97.00
Lace & true rear wheel $97.00
EZ Clutch $95.00
Bore & hone cylinders (2) $92.00
Handlebar switch, left $90.85
Handlebar switch, right $90.85
Head exhaust thread repair $90.00
Tank emblems (2) $85.90
Ignition coil $77.39
Ignition coil $77.39
Progressive fork springs $69.95
Battery $68.00
Lock set (steering head & seat) $65.00
Hub cap $63.91
Main wiring harness $61.95
Starter relay $54.39
Wrist pins, lightened (2) $52.00
Beadblast cylinders & heads $50.00
Front end (forks) rebuild kit $49.95
Engine wiring harness $48.59
Top end gasket kit $48.00
Tune up kit (plugs, filters, gaskets) $45.90
Carb rebuild kit $45.00
POR-15 gas tank repair kit $42.50
Speedometer cable $40.39
Tachometer cable $40.39
Ignition switch kit (Stan’s) $39.95
Clutch diaphragm spring $39.59
Exhaust clamp rings (2+2), fit on headers” $39.56
Fuel petcock $36.25
Muffler brackets, stainless $34.48
Front seat hinge $34.39
Valve springs $31.60
Exhaust hangers, stainless $29.90
Mount front tire & tube $27.00
Mount rear tire & tube $27.00
Clutch cable $26.10
Wheel/swing arm bearing BR30203 $25.88
Wheel/swing arm bearing BR30203 $25.88
Wheel/swing arm bearing BR30203 $25.88
Wheel/swing arm bearing BR30203 $25.88
Bearing BR32 (steering) $24.44
Bearing, steering $23.95
Front brake cable $23.95
Wheel seals (2) $23.90
Wheel seals (2) $23.90
Throwout bearing (ball cage) $23.77
VIN plate & rivets $21.25
Valve seats $20.00
Fuel line (2 meters) $19.90
Wheel seals (2) $16.94
Battery straps (2) $16.80
Starter rebuild kit $16.80
Throttle cable $16.39
Wheel bearing (extra BR30203, other vendor) $16.10
Wheel/swing arm bearing $16.10
Wheel/swing arm bearing $16.10
Wheel/swing arm bearing, extra (destroyed one) $16.10
Spark plug wires, 5 K-ohm $15.95
Throttle cable, for USA bar $14.95
Turn signal flasher $12.95
BMW Microlube (clutch spline lube) $12.39
Gas cap gasket $12.19
Fork oil $11.99
Flywheel bolts (5) $11.00
Choke cable LH $9.59
Choke cable RH $9.59
Alternator rotor bolt $9.39
Push rod seals (4) $8.80
Timing advance spring set $8.50
Hand control perch (wedge) $8.10
Turn signal gaskets (4) $8.00
Driveshaft boot $7.85
Oil pan gasket $7.25
Hypoid gear oil $6.82
Swing arm seals $6.40
Driveshaft bolts (4) $5.80
Tach drive seal $5.70
Turn signal bulbs (4) $5.56
Clutch rod seal $5.00
Clutch rod felt $4.55
Front tank support (rubber) $4.39
Brake spring $3.20

Total $9,180.28

“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself.” Sounds like Dirty Harry was my accountant on this project.

The work continued because Joe stopped by! Yes, those exhaust hangers were really a two-man job. My new headlight needed a small tweak in the chrome ring before it would pop on. And the front brake cable had to be re-routed. Joe agreed the set-up looked right to have the cable loop to the left of the bucket and mount the gromet on the headlight ear’s clip. However that was just not going to work. Maybe my cable is not for the USA bars (it is same length as the old one). Who knows. We routed the cable to the right of the bucket and straight down. That gave us more play in the cable and it wasn’t such an absurd effort to get the adjusting nut onto the brake arm.

Joe didn’t like the amount of tension in the throttle so we re-routed the left side cable for less of a tight bend beneath the handlebars. Funny thing, that didn’t change the tension much. Must be those new throttle return springs I put on the carbs. More manly-man controls! He much approved of the Easy Clutch, and he helped me adjust it too (I didn’t have the clutch 100% engaging).

The moment of truth was upon us. I put a gallon of fresh premium gasoline in the tank. First time it was wet since the teardown. We set the petcocks to Reserve and turned the ignition key for the very first time. Headlight, check. High beam check. Tail light, check. Turn signals, check. Brake light, both switches, check. Instrument lights, all working except the oil pressure warning light. Either a bad switch or a bad connection (should light up until pressure is made) – deal with it later. Hold our breath and punch the starter button.

Nothing. Try a few more times because we’re stubborn. Nothing. I suspect the starter relay because my sense of wiring that was weak. Off comes the gas tank and Joe helps me re-wire that relay using the old one as a guide. There were some terminal # markings on the old one that are not present on the new relay. We try the starter, gas tank still off and plug wires disconnected. “Rarrarrarrarr!” Huzzah, it spins! Put the tank back on, turn the gas back on, reconnect the plugs.

“Rarrarrarrarr!” “Rarrarrarrarr!” Hmm, the starter is spinning the motor but no hint of ignition. Okay, pull one plug off and look for spark. Hmm, no spark. Well I did have the points wide open like the book said. No, Joe says we need closer to the right gap. So I twist the points closer, still not to book gap, and we get spark. “Rarrarrarrarr!” “Rarrarrarrarr!”

Hmm, “do you smell any gas?” “No, how about you?” And the spark plugs are not wet at all. Okay, so we pull off the valve covers and check the valve adjustment, not precise, just making sure we have some gap. Joe says loose noisy valves are less of a problem than tight valves that never close. Nope, gap seems about right and Joe turns the engine while covering the plug holes with fingers. Yep, we have compression (and Joe gets my anti-seize blown all over his hands). “Rarrarrarrarr!” “Rarrarrarrarr!” Nothing.

It could be bad timing but it’d have to be WAY out and I don’t think that’s possible. I never messed with the timing chain. We pull the float bowls off the carbs. Yep, we’ve got gas. But there is some fine gunk floating around in there. Joe removes one of the main jets, doable from below with carbs still on the bike. Ahh. Clogged. I scrounge for fine wire and come up with a set of pin-drill bits. He cleans jets on both sides until we’re satisfied that they are clear. He also noted they were loose in the carbs to start with. Odd, but then again I was the one who renovated the carbs. Slap everything back together.

“Rarrarrarrarr! P-too!” “Rarrarrarrarr! P-too!” Hey, it sort of wants to catch. One of the exhaust headers is warmer than the other so we were only sort-of firing one cylinder. Joe decides we should properly gap the points since they’re still way over spec. He shows me how to bend the feeler gauges to access the points more smoothly and we set a proper gap.

“Rarrarrarrarr! Vroom! Put-put-put-put-put-put…” I can’t believe it. It lives! Joe rolls back and forth under the carbs, first setting the idle adjust screws for max RPM (like it says in the book) and then setting the throttle adjust screws for actual idle speed (800-1,000 RPM). We jump for joy.

Joe calls his wife Mary. She must be out working in her garden so he leaves her a voicemail with the sound of an idling R-bike. I call Gary and make him listen to the engine purring. Joe’s got to go but his work here is done. I said I only needed an hour of his time. More like four hours.

Sorry I don’t have any photos to show of us leaping around the garage but we were busy! I’ve still got a load of things to do (mentioned way up above) before I hit the road. I’d say I’ll be scaring pedestrians next weekend. I’m too burnt now to do much more unless it cools off today (fat chance). I need to drain the carb float bowls again and I may need to clean jets again. I hope this is just form the first splash of gas through the tank but it is possible the POR-15 kit didn’t do the trick properly. I should add see-though gas line filters ASAP just to head off any future issues. Someone on the Airheads list mentions NAPA P/N 7-02323 or 7-02357 both fit the OEM gas lines.

Turns out to have been a good idea to wait on installing the electronic ignition because otherwise our troubleshooting would have been confounded by the little black box. Points certainly are easier to mess with. Now I can make the swap, knowing for sure the OEM system works.

It lives!