The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
Technical Discussion => Restoration Progress Logs => Topic started by: ged in oz on February 23, 2019, 09:03:58 PM
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Hello, I posted an intro in the General Announcements section but I figured I would try and collate this stuff in a resto thread. I’ve already had some fantastic input from members here, so thanks very much guys for the help so far. I’m not a BMW guy, so I really appreciate the guidance.
Ok, so I’ve acquired an ‘83 R65 that has spent the last 6 years as a Rat Bike. The seller was a nice young fella who had a reasonable understanding of the bike and it’s mechanical requirements, so despite looking ‘ratty’, it’s actually not in bad nick mechanically for a 35 year old bike. It certainly does need general maintenance and plenty of issues attended to, but overall it’s not toooo bad, other than being”cosmetically challenged”. Oh boy, is it ugly!
I’ll post a few pics to give you the flavour.
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I’m struggling to get photos uploaded here. Any tips?
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As you can see, it’s covered in road grime, oil, grease and muck, as befits a Rat Bike. In fact I doubt that it has seen a wash in the past 6 years. At least he’s kept the oil and grease up to it!
As Joe (Wilcom) mentioned in the other thread, BMW’s are supposed to be oil tight!, but that doesn’t suit the Rat Bike ethos I suppose so the young bloke has gone out of his way to make sure all of its daily sludge stayed as on board as possible...
I also pointed out in the other thread that it has had a single seat modification undertaken at some point in the past, which allows you to get a discount in your annual registration costs by removing its pillion capacity. Personally, I don’t think that saving 50 bux a year or whatever is justification for butchering up old motorcycles!
For those not in Australia, that particular registration discount only existed in Queensland, 9and as Tony pointed out, it has now been abolished). I live in the neighbouring state of New South Wales, (10 hour round trip to go and get the poor old girl - it was up in Toowoomba), where we have never had a state sanctioned program to butcher your classic motorcycle!
Another difference between Qld and NSW is that you need to have your vehicle inspected annually in NSW in order to keep it registered. No such bother in good old Qld! As long as it still starts and runs, you’re good to go..... Most people on this side of the border therefore avoid buying QLD vehicles like the plague. Although annual inspections are a pain in the butt, there is a lot to be said for them in terms of maintaining safety standards and even reliability.
There is pretty much no way that this bike would have been on the road in NSW. The oil leaks would have been a fail. I think one of the photos shows a small puddle of oil that collected in the trailer on the way back home. So I was pretty surprised to find once it was degreased and pressure washed and given a good warm up and run that it doesn’t really leak that badly at all. It was just the accumulation of 6 years worth of muck!
Copper washers in the final drive, drive shaft and gearbox all need replacing and I’ve found some dodgy threads in various filler plugs as well, (I bet that’ll be fun...)
The previous owner assures me that he was running pod filters on it but pulled them off a few months ago (when it was off the road) and just didnt get around to replacing them. I hope so. Am I correct in thinking that these things have Nikasil bores? They’re certainly worth protecting!
More pics
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The Hot Dog mufflers really were a bridge too far for me, so they got short shrift pretty quickly! My brother had left a pair of (certainly not Dunstall) Megaphonies from his Hinckley Bonnie in my shed, so with a bit of cutting and shutting, they’ve been pressed into service until something better turns up. The header pipes had been fabricated out of mild steel exhaust tube, so no real drama butchering that up.
A big thanks to Tony up in Cairns who gave us the tale of the
Don Wilson front disc. That’s an amazing bit of history in that story! I’ve spent a couple of hours yesterday and today trying to clean 6 years worth of brake dust off that front wheel so it’s worthy of carrying that little piece of history around on it!
The objective at this point in time is to get it back on the road, pretty much as is, but serviced and sorted so that it’s safe and reliable. I’ve got a rather expensive package on the way from Moto Bins and another order ready to go for Munich Motorcycles as well as an air box and bits on the way from a wrecker in Sydney. Where do you guys recommend for bits in Aussie?
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It is amazing what you can bring these old things back from.
Here are three timeline shots of mine - first immediately after cleaning 20 years of rat shit of fit prior to starting the rebuild. Then just prior to registration and finally more recently just after fitting the K100 front end to it. I do wish I'd done the cosemetics, but I was in a hurry to have something to ride.
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Where do you guys recommend for bits in Aussie?
Nowhere. They are all too absurdly expensive. The bits I needed for mine came from around the planet, mostly courtesy of eBay.
I have a personal hatred of Munich motors and would not buy a part from them if it was the last one on planet Earth.
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Wow. That’s come back a looong way! I’m looking forward to reading more of the journey.
Cheers for tip on MM. I see that they have air box spring clips at $15 each! I’ll see how my MotoBins order goes this week.
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There is a photo essay of the journey on this very site. My reason for posting the then and now photos is to pass on my major learning, which is - do the bloody cosmetics.
Yes they are time consuming and yes they cost money. But if you don't you end up with a perfectly mechanically restored bike that looks pretty ordinary.
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There is a photo essay of the journey on this very site. My reason for posting the then and now photos is to pass on my major learning, which is - do the bloody cosmetics.
Yes they are time consuming and yes they cost money. But if you don't you end up with a perfectly mechanically restored bike that looks pretty ordinary.
Yep, point taken. I guess we tend to focus more on reliability and making sure the bike makes it back home, than on how it looks but ultimately it’s value is determined by what it looks like!
And gee, on that basis I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me...
Mind you, I learned a long time ago to never go into these things expecting to even recover your costs. Besides being foolhardy, it’s possibly the worst motivation you could have undertaking a project like this. If you aren’t in it for the love of doing it, you’re going the wrong way!
I had a long winded order lined up on MM web store, but they wanted a credit card rather than PayPal. I hate using my credit card, so I left the order sitting in my basket overnight and now it’s dissappeared. Oh well, guess I’ll just get another moto bins order underway.
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Why anyone buys from MM is beyond me. Unless they have changed their pricing policies, 9 times out of 10, their price before the lethal amount they add for post is more than MB's price including post.
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Why anyone buys from MM is beyond me. Unless they have changed their pricing policies, 9 times out of 10, their price before the lethal amount they add for post is more than MB's price including post.
Why anyone buys from MM is beyond me. Unless they have changed their pricing policies, 9 times out of 10, their price before the lethal amount they add for post is more than MB's price including post.
Yeah, I don’t get that. I guess some people are just reluctant to import from OS. I don’t think I’ve ever had a parcel gone missing even in the pre Ebay era.
So Tony, what d‘ya think is going on here?... The coil has been, ever so neatly, mounted to a chunk of blue RHS! Whaaat the...
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So Tony, what d‘ya think is going on here?... The coil has been, ever so neatly, mounted to a chunk of blue RHS! Whaaat the...
The author of that bit of gross overkill is a man after my own heart. Downstairs I have a very similar arrangement (except I used Orricon steel which is silver) to mount some non BMW coils. And I suspect for the same reason.
Your bike is of an age that it would have left the factory fitted with the (in)famous crack-o-matic grey coil. There is a BMW owners refrain when it comes to coils "if it's grey, throw it away". I would say one of your POs (previous owners) took fright at the cost of a replacement Bosch coil and decided to adapt - hopefully they got the resistance about right, and used the lump of R-section to mount them and provide a heat sink.
In my own case I ended up with a double ended Mercury outboard coil because it had the right resistance and I also used a piece of R-Section to mount it.
When my mercury coils began to give trouble I bit the bullet and bought a Bosch coil. I also upgraded the ICU to the latest model and the bike has never looked back.
Dyna coils are a very acceptable replacement for the Bosch coils, but here in Australia they end up costing near as much as the Bosch coil, so I bought the bosch.
I strongly urge you to check the resistance of your coil because too high or low will greatly shorten the life of the ICU. And I just know the next question you are goign to ask is what should the resistance be and frankly I've forgotten.
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Haha, I knew you’d have the answer! :)
All of that makes sense and yeah, that ICU would no doubt be pretty sensitive to changes in coil resistance... I guess I’m measuring the resistance of the Primary side?
I’ll keep my eye open for a replacement original.... The ICU is not the sort of component you want to fail in the middle of nowhere! and the cost of original coils is likely to be cheaper than the cost of getting it towed back home!
Cheers Tony.
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And "snap" here is my contribution to the rogue's gallery of awful kludged coils.
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Are you sure that you didn’t do the job on mine?! It looks like the same bloke did both. :)
I’ve been reading your progress threads on here Tony and it’s been most enlightening! Lots of hints and links for suppliers and information. Thanks!
I’m presently reading the Snowbum files.... including all of the back info on coils (with the correct primary and secondary coil resistance readings). Pretty handy stuff. Mind you, all of that can stay right where t is for the time being, until I get it back on the road. I’ve got a barrage of Roadworthy items to attend to first and that’s going to be sufficient challenge for the next couple of weeks.
I’m waiting on a few different parcels to arrive from numerous origins around the planet at the moment. Moto Bins for most of it including fork seals, a (square) master cylinder reservoir, foot pegs and handgrips etc, all the usual Roadworthy fail items basically. A second parcel should arrive next week with service kit and more tidy up sundries. I’ve also got and Airbox coming up from a wrecker in Sydney.
The latest Ebay purchase this week however is a bit of a punt.... My fuel tank cap is stuffed and there is no way it will pass inspection in NSW. The original cap seems to be unobtainable (?) and the repro options seem to start at $150 to $200! The cheapest option I found was a Chinese repro at about $130. So,..... I found a scrappy but complete tank with cap, tap and badges (my tap needs a kit as well) for about $180 landed (including the bloody GST now payable on EBay international transactions - if you see Joe Hockey poke him in the eye for me).
My tank is a definite challenge!, so we’ll see how this one goes. It’s been repainted (black with pinstripes) so I’ll assume it’s full of filler, but that won’t stop it being roadworthy. It’s coming International Priority from Louisiana which is usually pretty quick, so we’ll see how’s it goes. Fingers crossed.
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Play nice with the seller of your new tank because sadly it is probably going to end up returned to him along with a bill.
International carriage regulations do not allow the transportation of used fuel tanks by aircraft, and as surface post virtually doesn't exist anymore it amounts to making it impossible to send fuel tanks by post.
New ones are no problem, and motorcycles, complete with (empty) fuel tank can be transported by air, but not a used fuel tank on its own.
Whilst I hope your tank arrives I will not be surprised if it doesn't, having been caught by the rules.
On the other hand, if the rules have changed, I have needed a new tank for my KLE for a long time and all the good tans are in the UK, Germany and Spain.
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Yeah, right. Good point. I’ve posted tanks in Australia before, but I’ve never tried to post one into Australia... Guess we’ll have to see how it goes. Worth a shot I suppose.
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The YABB PM system doesn't seem to allow photos attached to messages.
This is our other expensive foible.
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Oh no! A Dakdak.... Yep, I’ve done a lot of miles in a 70’s Kombi about 25 years ago. Man, they can be pigs to work on.
Anything with a cable running from the very front of the vehicle all the way to the very back of the vehicle, (as in a kombi accelerator cable) well, that’s a bloody design flaw! And yes, I did have to change one of the side of the road.
Funny thing, when I got the R65 home, unloaded it and fired it up, the first thing I thought was, Dakdak! Theyre very similar aren’t they.
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Where’s the Big Gallah by the way?
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Where’s the Big Gallah by the way?
At Kimba, 1/2 way across the Nullabor. The accelerator cable in this one is a double pig because it is an automatic - if you break the front one you are back on the road in 20 minutes (well at least you were when I was in my 30s, now let's call it an hour so that the time for the very necessary cuppa is included). The rear cable is non standard, originally they had a rose jointed link rod, but strangely nobody has seen one for a very long time, hence there is a second cable and to replace that you must wait for the engine and gearbox to cool down because you have to literally wrap your arms around the gearbox.
This one has the Type IV engine so it isn't really much of a "dak-dak", at 2.2lt it has almost enough power to get out of its own shadow, but hey, you are in a Kombi and the world is a more relaxed place anyway.
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I got a tank from Germany last year and didn't have any issues with it, at least not for being a fuel tank. It took forever and a day to arrive but it made it.
It was clean and dry. I'm not sure how thoroughly the various authorities are in searching these things out but the Germans, US Customs, and the notoriously difficult to deal with US Postal service didn't bother with mine.
Never a guarantee but good luck to you.
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I got a tank from Germany last year and didn't have any issues with it, at least not for being a fuel tank. It took forever and a day to arrive but it made it.
Yeah, I’m hopeful BPT. I get the feeling that this particular tank has been sitting on a workshop shelf for a while... hopefully all remaining fuel vapours have evaporated and with the cap and tap fitted, it won’t get detected! Never much of a strategy that, but it’s all I’ve got.
I’m more keen on getting the cap than the tank really. My dented up tank will make it through inspection, the leaking cap won’t. I can’t believe the price of a replacement cap.
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Where’s the Big Gallah by the way?
At Kimba, 1/2 way across the Nullabor.
This one has the Type IV engine so it isn't really much of a "dak-dak", at 2.2lt it has almost enough power to get out of its own shadow, but hey, you are in a Kombi and the world is a more relaxed place anyway.
I should have known that it would no ordinary Kombi!
If it made it to Kimba and back, that’s a great vehicle!
Type4? Never heard of it. I had to google it even... I don’t think I’ve ever seen one? I had a friend with a Type 3 for many years and I did a couple of Brisbane/Sydney/Brisbane trips in that one. They were a great car.
I was driving through the hills of Mullumbimby yesterday and actually saw one of these bloody things.
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Apparently, when Kombi’s grow up, they want to be one of these. That’s my 1976 Mercedes Benz 508D. They have a huuuge following in Europe, but they’re pretty thin on the ground out here. I think I’ve counted about 6 so far.
A 5 tonne chassis with all of 80 diesel horses, a 2.2ltr Kombi would leave it for Dead!
It’s on the road and running and registered, but the rust repairs and refit of the back has been ongoing for over a year. Just in case I don’t have enough projects on the table...
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A 5 tonne chassis with all of 80 diesel horses, a 2.2ltr Kombi would leave it for Dead!
I like that van! and I wouldn't be too sure about the outcome of a race - whilst ours has 90hp it is also an automatic, a very old design and inefficient automatic.
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I should have known that it would no ordinary Kombi!
If it made it to Kimba and back, that’s a great vehicle!
It made it to Perth and back, but it did need a top end refresh when it got back.
It is a perfectly ordinary 1974 Kombi with only two "quirks" - it is automatic and it used to have an air conditioner. Sadly time took a toll on the A/C and it was beyond repair when the Kombi was restored over 2016~17.
It gets horridly confusing with VW model designations.
Type 1 - Beetle
Type 2 - Kombi - Originally used the type 1 engine
Type 3 - more "normal" looking car is sedan, notchback and wagon - used a special version of the type 1 engine called a "pancake" with crank mounted fan and very low profile overall.
Type IV - ambitious "normal" car - failed totally int he market place. But engine for this car was a shared design with Porsche and also used in Porsche 914. The Type IV engine was used in post 1972 Kombis after both the Type IV car and the 014 belly-flopped in he market.
The Final development of the Type IV engine was in the T2 (bread box) Kombi of about 1980 - in the final form it was fuel injected and water cooled - a great engine with finnicky maintenance requirements that owners rarely kept up - most of the surviving fleet now have Subaru power which is a near "bolt up".
Love your photo of the country buggy. I owned two of the them. By far the rarest post-war manufactured VW, but utterly worthless as they were made in Australia and the Philippines only and in such small numbers that no one knows what they are. There is one in the VW museum and it is amusing to ask passersby what they think it is.
here is a photo of my pair of the damn things - One I registered the other I sold. The registered one was then sold shortly after when I decided that if I wanted that sort of vehicle I'd buy a Moke which has more performance and is safer to boot.
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That’s hilarious. Until yesterday, I hadn’t seen one of those since 1974!
I had no idea that you could get a 2.2L Kombi, (or an auto for that matter) but I think if you were going to race one against an MB 508D, the Nullarbor is the place to do it! It’d be like the tortoise and the tortoise. The Benz bus tops out at 94kmh. Downhill on the motorways, I’ve seen triple digits! and with a good tailwind, maybe..... 96. And hills?! Don’t even mention hills.
What it lacks in speed it makes up for in reliability. It’ll probably go forever. I love it.
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So the hardest part of trying to re-complete a bike like this, is that you have no idea what was there originally.
I’ve had a couple of parcels turn up from various sources, just in time for the weekend. This thing was running pod filters, (which weren’t even fitted when i got it.) I want the original airbox setup on it. I’m more interested in originality and longevity than the 2 horsepower I might lose by using the original setup.
I’ve got most of the inlet plumbing between the airbox and carbs sitting about right, but I have a 3mm ally plate, (that pretty clearly isn’t original), blocking off the rear of the starter motor cavity and interfering with the routing of the breather tube.
Can anyone shed some light on what might be supposed to be there?
I don’t have an air filter yet, but the top of the airbox wants to sit about 40mm or so higher than the bottom section of the airbox. I’m assuming that the filter sits between the two sections to fill out that gap?, or do I have the wrong airbox?
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I had no idea that you could get a 2.2L Kombi, The Benz bus tops out at 94kmh. Downhill on the motorways, I’ve seen triple digits! and with a good tailwind, maybe..... 96. And hills?! Don’t even mention hills.
Officially there is no such thing as a 2.2lt Type IV - You buy the pistons and barrels, the barrels are thinner that standard to get the higher capacity and are supposedly made of better quality steel than the std cast iron, they are also nickasil coated.
In the interests of the engine living a long time we cruse at around 90kph on the highway. Hills, yeah let's not talk about hills.
The Type IV engine started life as 1700CC and then went to 1800 and finally (officially) to 2.0lt, but the crank never chnaged in terms of its base circle and the 1800/2lt pistons are the same, only the rods changed - cunnign VW stroked the engine by offset grinding to move the centre of the big ends - the 1800 has smaller big ends than the 1700 and the 2lt are smaller again.
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Re airbox
Chuck the 3mm plate at the end of the starter cover, you don't use it. The airbox is located by one central bolt and 2 bolts that clamp the airbox to the starter cavity.
Near the central bolton the top of the gearbox you will see a tempting little phillips headed screw - Do not under any circumstances remove that screw. It retains a piece of steel channel inside the gearbox that lubricates the gears and bearings by flooding them with oil collected in the channel by being thrown there by the input gear. Undo the screw and the channel falls onto the gears, if it doesn't get "eaten" will will make a lot of noise and the gear/bearings will die of lubrication failure.
You might want to go to Real OEM and get a feel for the airbox components and where they go.
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I’m assuming that the filter sits between the two sections to fill out that gap?, or do I have the wrong airbox?
Yes, the air filter makes up the difference. Also, make sure you have the "snorkles" on the airbox cover as I've read that performance suffers if they are removed.
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Re airbox
You might want to go to Real OEM and get a feel for the airbox components and where they go.
Wow. I might have been stuffing around for years before I found that Tony! Awesome. Thank you. The young fella I bought the bike off hit on me for an extra 50 bux for the Clymer manual which is great, but it isn’t really model specific and it doesn’t show exploded assembly diagrams like that. Exactly what I needed.
Thanks for tip on the screw as well. Yup, that could go very wrong...
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I’m assuming that the filter sits between the two sections to fill out that gap?, or do I have the wrong airbox?
Yes, the air filter makes up the difference. Also, make sure you have the "snorkles" on the airbox cover as I've read that performance suffers if they are removed.
Thanks Justin. I was hoping that was what was happening. I’m waiting on another parcel form Moto Bins which has all my service parts including the air filter. The first shipment arrived in under a week, so it’s only a couple of days away.
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If you hear of anyone mention "Max" or "parts fiche", here is what they're talking about. It's a BMW dealer in the US that puts the fiche online. Same pictures and such as Real OEM but set up a little bit differently.
https://shop.maxbmw.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51897&rnd=07242017
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https://shop.maxbmw.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51897&rnd=07242017
Excellent! Thanks BPT. I really appreciate the help you guys are providing.
So, I’ve just dropped the Mrs at the airport which gives me a few days to make some real mess and spray motor bike parts all over the place for a bit, without “ah hmm”s and “oh, really”s. :)
It looks like a good opportunity to do the fork seals and have a look at the steering head bearings.
I’ve actually got a huge shed and workshop area, but it’s already full of old motorcycles and projects and other crap! (my business actually takes up most of it). I’m hoping to have this thing mobile again within a few more weeks, so I’m doing all of this in the car port attached to the house, so it’s kind of shared domain.
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Well, that was quite a week. The boss is back and I managed to have everything mostly back together and on its wheels again before she arrived!
Front end all went pretty easily. I did wait a week for replacement bump stop rubbers ,(a soft, clear material rather than the red ones). Steering head bearings weren’t too bad. They just got a good clean up, reassembled, fresh grease and adjusted.
The master cylinder was a mess. Full of some sort of molten muck, but again a good clean up and the internals were all fit to go back together. It certainly looked like a kit had been through it in the last couple of years. The reservoir had 3 good cracks in it, so that was replaced, fluids flushed and drained and it feels pretty good.
I replaced a lot of fasteners on my way through with 8.8 rated, zinc plated hex head bolts, (because that was all I could source locally), but Allen head replacements are at my post box waiting for collection.
Airbox system is complete again but I need to get the fuel tank sorted before I can get it running and test it all. No doubt the carbs will need adjustment and sorting, but we’ll get to that in due course. I’ve still got to do oil change and valve clearances too.
The fuel tank! What a bloody nightmare... I’m still waiting on the US tank and old mate has messaged me to say that he spent an extra week trying to get the fumes out before posting it, which he was due to do on Monday.... here’s hoping it makes it.
So, while I’m waiting with my fingers crossed, I figured I ought to have a crack at straightening the original tank. I used the bladder method to push a couple of its dents out, but the main dent wasn’t going to budge like that, so I resorted to welding a 20mmx20mm square tube offcut about 12mm wide to the tank and using a slide hammer to pull it out as far as I could. It was successful to a large extent, but it certainly wasn’t pretty! I got most of the surface to within <10mm of its correct level and then treated the surface and stuffed it full of filler. It’s still got plenty of sanding left to get it right, but it’s at least well on the way.
I’m waiting on shock absorbers to turn up and the fuel tank, (with its cap, which is what I’m really after) so give it another week or so, I’m pretty confident it will be fit for inspection and hopefully, plates.
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That is looking seriously good. Well done!
I am really looking forward to seeing where this journey ends.
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Cheers Tony. Yep, it’s coming on but I’m a bit of a “glass half empty” kind of guy, and all I ever see is how much work there is still to do. But that’s just elbow grease and man hours basically.
Where it ends up is still a bit up in the air. I’m keen to get it on the road and clicking off kilometres again and see where it goes from there. I’m more a fan of rolling restorations rather than complete strip down and rebuild, which tends to drag out and get wildly expensive.
I’m going to leave the single seat, bobbed rear guard and silly little LED taillights and indicators on it for the time being and pick up the bits required to return it to original as and when they pop up. It’s still a pretty extensive shopping list, (pipes, headers, rear guard, seat and tail unit, tool boxes, indicators, instrument surround) but they are generally all the bits that everybody is currently ripping off and discarding when building them into customs, so they are turning up fairly regularly.
Patience and persistence will be the key I suspect, which is fine if it’s back on the road rather than taking up workshop space!
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Well it’s progress, but it’s been slow. Painting takes sooooo long.... The tank has been off it for 2 weeks, so the bike hasn’t been running and it was good to finally get to the point of being able to put fuel back in it today, after a final 4 day wait for the tank sealant to cure. I figured that the sealant was worth it to protect against rust and leaks in the welded and repaired areas of the tank top.
I rigged up a quick fuel line and filter today and it sprang to life again, which was good to hear.
The finish on the tank is ok, but far from perfect. Better than it was though. The front guard and side covers have been a real pain! The plastic is really difficult to buff....
I’ve got about a thimble full of blue paint left though, which should be almost enough to finish the front guard (again!) and the final blue piece, the seat ducktail, which I picked up the other day, (long story, I’ll get round to telling about it later and believe me, It’s an interesting ducktail!) so hopefully, I’ll get around to finishing the paint in the next couple of days and I can get on with my life.
Couple of photos (in bad light) but it gives you an idea of where it’s at. There are still many miles to go, but I’m hoping to have it back on the road in it’s current form in the next week or two. Fingers crossed.
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Hi ged,
Interesting job to be putting the bike back to original and I'm enjoying reading your posts. Did you paint your triple trees or clean them up? They look pretty good.
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Hi ged,
Interesting job to be putting the bike back to original and I'm enjoying reading your posts. Did you paint your triple trees or clean them up? They look pretty good.
Hi tunnelrider, yep. I’m going in pretty much the opposite direction from most people doing R65 projects at the moment, but then I’m well used to swimming against the stream! :) :) :)
I’m not really a fan of the muppetracer craze going on at the moment and I really did see this project as an opportunity to save at least one Airhead from such a fate. Each to their own as they say, but my money is firmly on the side of history and the intent of the BMW engineers who designed and built these things. I really believe that people would be a little misguided to think that their ‘custom’ is going to end up better than what the factory produced, on pretty much any level you’d care to nominate, including aesthetics.
I was also thinking that the market would be well stocked with excess bits left over from custom conversions, and that was pretty much true. I’m still going, but having no real trouble tracking down the original bits I was missing for this.
Because this was more of a resurrection rather than a restoration, I haven’t really focused on going crazy cleaning and refurbing bits, so I only cleaned up the top triple clamp, not the bottom.
There is a before and after photo earlier on here somewhere with the top triple clamp, brake master cylinder and handle bar clamps, which I vapour blasted in a homemade vapour blaster that I made up a few years ago. It wasn’t my design, (I stole it from a South African guy on a Triumph forum) but it’s basically a pickle drum and a pool pump... I think I spent all of about 50 bux making it! But it does a fantastic job. I also did the fork sliders, disc carrier, alternator cover and starter motor cover. You do need to mate it to a high output air compressor for the best results though. Mine is 3hp.
I’ll post up some photos if anyone is interested. It’s pretty easy really.
Things have been rolling along with the bike, so I’ll post an update later today I hope.
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Yesss! We got through Roadworthy Certificate inspection, insurance, licensing etc etc yesterday and we now have plates on it, and shes on the road!
I ran it in for inspection last week but old mate the inspector, looked it over and said “are those LED indicators ADR stamped?” (It had teeny weeny little LED lights it) Ahhhh, no. “Tailight?’ Ahhhhh, no. “Go on, off ya go. Bring it back when it’s fixed”. Smiley And fair enough too. I’m a big fan of large, bright easy to see indicators, just like the factory ones....
As it turned out, I had already collected both front and rear indicators, plus the rear mount bar and front headlight holding plate with the front indicator mounts - the mounts had been chopped on mine - as well as a (barely) serviceable tailight, so it was just a matter of fitting all of that up over the weekend. Gee, I made that sound easy... you can just imagine the sorts of things that you encounter. I just transplanted what was already there. I still need to find an instrument shroud.
I’ve put a heap of kilometres under her over the last 2 days and she’s running mostly ok, but still some gremlins to sort and piles of other work to do as well. But, that’s the point of a rolling restoration. I can do most of the other bits and pieces as I go along over coming months.
Still tracking down the whole rear guard/nice tailight/indicators, plus a dual seat, although I have put a pair of old soft panniers on it today which works really well with the single seat. So I strapped some boxes to the rack and I ran a delivery to some customers about 45 minutes ride away through the mountains. Beautiful.
I went to the Post Office as well while I was out there and woohoo, picked up the fuel tank from the US. It made it... The cap is buggered though! Still, it looks like a straighter, nicer tank than mine so I’ll keep it aside for stage 2 of this project, somewhere down the track which will probably be more like a restoration....
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Congrats on your progress.
Certainly interested to hear about your pickle bucket vapor blaster.
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A lovely job. Congratulations!
If you are minded to share the design of your vapour blaster, I'm interested too.
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Yeah ged, well done on the roadworthy! Nothing better to encourage your confidence knowing if you get pulled up for speeding you won't get pinged for anything else. I also would like to see a pic or two of the vapour blaster. Reckon my old man's home made compressor I have in my garage would be well capable of 3HP. Speaking of that, I thought it'd be more pressure dependent? The air tank on my old man's compressor is twice as large as cheap modern electric ones. I'll look at the kW rating next time I'm in the garage.
Your petrol cap may be better than you think - you can get new rain flaps for them if that's your problem? I've never bothered locking my cap. If your cap catches and 'ratchets' there's a fix for that also, involving drilling a few small screws into it if I recall reading a couple of times a while ago. Pretty sure it's easily found by a search on the net.
The 'new' tank does look alright although the pin stripes seem to be sitting on the creases of the of the top/sides of the tank more than what I thought was OEM, from my look at your photo. Here's a pic of my repainted tank (prob been repainted before also no doubt)
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Cheers fellas. I’ll get around to resizing some photos and give you a brief description later tonight, (I hope...)
Yeah Tunnelrider, the poor old tank has done a few versions I think. It looks like it was originally red so I suspect when the paint comes off it, it’ll have plenty of previous repairs as well. We’ll see. Rusty as buggery inside as well, but that’s treatable.
The cap! The lock barrel is already floating in the hole and it was missing its seal but the bigger isssue is that the pressed steel threaded male section, is spinning in its holder. I’m not sure that it’s rebuildable?
Hey! I just noticed that you have an ‘83 Pantah in your signature? No way! Me too.
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The cap is fixable, but will not be lockable. See Snowbum's site for a "discussion" of where to drill and where to insert self-tapping screws to lock the top and bottom halves together.
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The cap is fixable, but will not be lockable. See Snowbum's site for a "discussion" of where to drill and where to insert self-tapping screws to lock the top and bottom halves together.
Excellent! Thanks Tony. I’m not too worried about lockable, more focused on breathable at the moment! I’ve got a generic ‘Supercheap’ screw in cap on it, which fits fine but doesn’t bloody breath. It caught me out a couple of times when I first put the tank back on it. Just went onto the left cylinder about 2 kms from home... took a few minutes to figure out what was going on. I locked it down for the inspection too, and then forgot about it. 2 kms....
I’ve drilled a hole in the bugga now, so it breaths but its not particularly watertight, which is asking for trouble.
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Well, that sux... I spent over an hour last night doing a long winded explanation of my vapour blaster, resized the photos and was just about to upload it all when our internet connection fell over... lost the lot! Dang. So, I’ll just upload some photos and I’m sure you guys can figure it all out.
First up though, I threw this together with bits and pieces I had lying around at the time about 4 years ago. It ain’t pretty! But, it does work. In an ideal world, it would be water tight and lose no water or blast media outside the system. Mine rarely does any work so it lives out the back of my shed in the graveyard, and overflows everywhere, but you might want to be more particular if it’s actually inside!
The first couple of photos date from when I put it together and the last photos, more recently.I bought a 20kg bag of glass bead blast media when I built it and still have a few kg left.
The system is basically a swimming pool pump sucking from the lower outlet of the 20L drum (about an inch or so off the bottom) and the pump outlet is then split into 2. One line feeds a generic sandblasting gun in the blast chamber with the compressed air added and the other outlet is returned back to the 20L drum about 4 inches off the bottom, with an elbow (I think) inside directing the flow back towards the bottom of the 20L drum, agitating the slurry mix and keeping the glass beads in suspension.
From memory, the unit that I copied had a windscreen wiper of some sort adapted to the inside of the blast chamber but I haven’t gotten around to that. It would be great though. You really need to clean the screen every few seconds to retain reasonable visability. I use a garden hose also inside the blast chamber and just squirt the screen every now and again to clear it, thus causing the water overflow... I’m sure someone could come up with something better.
The glass bead media is apparently innocuous, but because my system isn’t particularly well sealed, I always wear a mask and eye protection of some sort. I’m sure breathing the vapour isn’t good for you. Again, more time and effort would improve this.
Anyway, there’s the basic template. I’m sure you guys could come up with something prettier, cleaner and more efficient, but mine is great for the amount of work it does and it does a great job. Good luck with it!
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Well, that escalated quickly.... My advice would be to be very careful placing “Wanted” ads online. Oh dear, I’ve almost collected the entire bodywork of second bike! And I would stop soon, except there are more little bits still to go.
My latest pickup yielded some nice original parts from an R45 custom conversion, and because the guy was moving house, it was very well priced....
The seat looks in really nice original condition! 35 years old. Wow. Except for the one downside. It’s brown. Argh! It’ll look just kack with the blue! I can’t believe it. Everyone building customs wants a brown seat. Except me. I’d be the only bloke in Australia who doesn’t want a brown seat. Can’t belive it.
It seems the custom builders all retain the original header pipes and crossovers etc as well, so that is the one item that is proving elusive, (nearly everything else has been pretty easily obtainable).
The fabricated headers on my bike are 38mm, welded onto 35mm stubs at the head. These mufflers are 35mm, so I might have to roll up some adapter sleeves to get it all to fit until I can track down some original headers. It’s way too loud as it is at the moment with the Megaphonies, so I’m looking forward to making it a little more civil.
Ive put over 200Km’s on it on it over the past week or however long it’s been registered, and it’s going beautifully! (except for the starter motor self engaging. ) I haven’t rebuilt the carbs yet so there was plenty of popping and farting going on for a while, but they’ve cleared out pretty well ands it’s starting first touch of the button and is running along nicely.
Today’s haul also gives me enough parts to get the rear end mostly back to standard, but I’m actually a bit reluctant to chop up the existing modified single seat conversion, which has a small rack area and little welded frame that keeps the pannier bags off the wheel. It all actually works pretty well together, so I figure I should just find another original rear subframe (plenty of them around) and save the entire single seat setup as is. What it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in utility. It’s handy.
It’s not just parts that jump out at you from wanted ads either. It’s whole bikes. I’m talking to a bloke locally who has an R65LS that needs some seeeerious work, but it looks well worth saving. I have neither the time, money nor space for another motorcycle project, but that has never stopped me in the past! I love LS’s...
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Yeah man, those LS parts look in good nick. Ged you seem to come by racks quite a lot, lucky. That single seat you have too, primo. I've only had panniers and double seat for carrying things, often wished for a small rack but never persevered.
Thanks for your pics of your vapour blaster, it gives good shiny results which is important, doesn't matter how you get there! It works that's important. I've always been put off bead blasting by manuals (or was it Snowbum) that say it's hard to remove it all from the insides, where you don't want it.
Hey! I just noticed that you have an ‘83 Pantah in your signature? No way! Me too.
Ha ha, funny we own both the 80's beasts. TBH I find the R65 more nimble than the Pantah and a much more useful bike in general, the R65 will go anywhere and get itself out. Oh doesn't quite have the same looks tho ;) PM me some time on it.
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Yep, the original post that got lost while posting it, came with a whole paragraph warning that this machine is “DEATH” to virtually all bearing surfaces! It is indeed very difficult to remove all the residual blast media. But,... if your very aware of the potential and therefore pay the required attention to multiple cycles of water rinses and air blasting and water and air and... you’ll eventually get there. In my experience so far anyway, (famous last words).
I don’t use it very often, but yeah it’s a very effective tool when used on most surfaces.
Yeah, it’s an interesting comparison between the Pantah and the R65. They’re both ‘83 models and probably cost roughly the same amount at the time, so it’s a valid comparison although my Pantah is only a 500. They’re both busy little engines! I had the R65 on a stretch between the interchanges on the highway the other day and it was revving it’s poor head(s) off at 120klm/hr. You don’t really tend to notice how busy the Pantah is at the same rate. The R65 is obviously geared a little shorter and I’d be looking at changing sprockets on the Pantah! :)
The flip side of course is that the R65 is like a tractor around the hills and dales that I actually live amongst. Plonk it into 4th or even 5th at 80K’s and it’s just perfect. There aren’t very many straight bits around here, so it’s suits the local terrain entirely. The rebuilt front end feels great and the Yss’s on the rear are compliant and well controlled. It’s pretty sure footed although I’m grounding out an exhaust clamp on the right and the dodgy centre stand foot on the left and it will need a new set of rubber sooner rather than later as well.
I’m really enjoying it so far, and I’m enjoying bringing it back from the brink as well!
The only thing that worries me on the R65 are the exhaust valves and seats. They’re a notorious weak spot. I’ve no idea of ithis bikes history, so I’d like to eventually have that done to ensure it keeps going for a very long time to come.
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The only thing that worries me on the R65 are the exhaust valves and seats. They’re a notorious weak spot. I’ve no idea of ithis bikes history, so I’d like to eventually have that done to ensure it keeps going for a very long time to come.
Yes good idea to be conscious of this, OEM exhaust valve seat regression occurs more quickly riding at sustained high revs (6K+) and will be something to watch carefully if your bike has done a high amount of km's. An early warning of seat regression is that the valve clearances always require backing off when doing a tune up. A late warning of impending failure is an intermittent metallic valve noise, clearly heard at idle, different to the normal, noisy boxer valve chatter! I ignored this for a month or two, rode 500km over that time then had an exhaust valve seat failure at 173,000 km. It didn't ruin the cylinders or piston, but was expensive paying for the recondition of the heads, new valves and oversize valve guides. At least they've been done now though.
The only other breakdown I've had with my R65 was the timing chain separating at 184,000 km, it'd been changed previously I presume once before, as the max recommended replacement interval is 80K km. I was a bit slack on that one. Once again, no harm done to the engine but was only taking off from lights, not doing 100km/h... I don't want to alarm you unnecessarily but if the distance on your odo is over a multiple of 80,000km you may want to consider this.
A good judge on timing chain wear (or more correctly chain sprocket wear) can be found while doing the timing as part of a tune up. Advanced sprocket wear causes the timing marks to appear to be a double image when doing the timing by strobe light through the timing hole. This will mean the timing chain's been on for a long time. (Unless someone's just replaced the chain without replacing the sprocket but it'd have to be a pretty lazy owner or unscrupulous shop to do that.)
Yeah, it’s an interesting comparison between the Pantah and the R65. They’re both ‘83 models and probably cost roughly the same amount at the time, so it’s a valid comparison although my Pantah is only a 500. They’re both busy little engines! I had the R65 on a stretch between the interchanges on the highway the other day and it was revving it’s poor head(s) off at 120klm/hr. You don’t really tend to notice how busy the Pantah is at the same rate. The R65 is obviously geared a little shorter and I’d be looking at changing sprockets on the Pantah! :-)
The short gearing on the R65 does make it good for getting away ok but I agree, over 120km/h they're running out of legs. Like you I've got nice twisty roads on my doorstep that suit the smaller capacity bikes. I agree also the Pantah does seem less busy at 120km/h with more headroom, but not a whole lot more. The R65 will sit on 6000rpm at 130km/h easily enough to chew up the k's.
Yeah changing the sprockets on the Pantah! My one came with a 15T front sprocket which made the gearing even more ridiculously high. I had to ride the clutch to get underway and sometimes change to 1st following traffic!
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My advice given the lack of knowledge regarding the history is to change valves more or less immediately - they are after all so much cheaper than an engine rebuild.
I have a photo used to scare "youngsters" that shows what happens when an exhaust valve drops - and an OEM R65 is good for a valve drop any time after 50,000km (and yes that will buy me an argument in some quarters, but at one stage I had a collection of ruined R65 engines that had all dropped valves and they all had around that mileage).
Intervalve, sold by Motobins, are a good alternative to OEM (I use them, but then as my valves are somewhat larger than stock there is no OEM path for me). Lead free seats are available and a bit cheaper than BMW, but if you have stock sized valves, OEM is probably best - it took BMW a couple of goes to get it right, but in the end they did.
That said, if your seats are still serviceable I'd be inclined to "suck it and see" as replacing seats is not trivial and you may not need to - just monitor tappet clearances and if they do not sudden;y start closing up - golden.
The big thing is to use a quality machine shop that knows what they are doing! Butchers have ruined countless BMW heads. There is nothing difficult about working on them, but there is a skill-set needed. Any shop that works on VW air-cooled heads will have all the necessary skills/experience.
If your valve guides have not shifted I would be inclined to not replace them - have them K-lined which gives you pretty much the same life as a new guide, and when the insert wears out, the machine shop can replace the insert in minutes. Using a K-line does reduce the contact area of the stem in contact with the guide and some have argued that this effects heat transfer. They are correct, it does, and the difference is about the same as the difference in a rider's speed over a good hill, with and without a pre-ride bladder emptying.
Whilst getting the new valves have your rockers refaced. BMW were notoriously parsimonious with the depth of their hardening treatment so after your rockers have been refaced, take them to a black smith and have the contact areas properly hardened (preferably an old Blacksmith who still has, and knows how to use hardening treatments containing cyanide like "Hardite").
If in the process of refacing the rockers the existing needle roller bearing shells are destroyed (ask me) don't despair, they are catalogue bearings (bless you bmw) and you will need to make up a mandrel, shaft and sleeve to press out the old ones and press the new ones in. When pressing in the new bearings - all the rollers should be present (ask me how many bearings it took to learn this) to spread the load and avoid caving in the end of a brand
new shell.
BTW, the first sign that you have picked a good machine shop is that they fit the keepers to the valves and ensure that the valve is free to rotate inside them and that the retaining ridges int he valves match the keepers perfectly. My original keepers were rejected by my shop, but the cool thing is that in the arcane world of engine rebuilders keepers can be sourced from sources other than BMW and therefore cost cents rather than dollars.
A final comment on the topic off seats. If you do decide to have new seats put in and if you decide to avoid the cost of BMW lead free seats, you may be offered the choice of press-in or screw-in seats. Contrary to popular mythology, screw-in seats have no better in-service record of failure than pressed in seats - providing the machinist knows what they are doing. I watched the seats get put into my R100 heads recently - the machinist spent a long time on the mill setting up the desired level of interference and when the heads came out of the oven he pressed the seats in with a little 12 ton press. He does thousands of VW head each year and can count seat failures in the last few decades on the fingers of one hand.
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The only other breakdown I've had with my R65 was the timing chain separating at 184,000 km, it'd been changed previously I presume once before, as the max recommended replacement interval is 80K km. I was a bit slack on that one. Once again, no harm done to the engine but was only taking off from lights, not doing 100km/h... I don't want to alarm you unnecessarily but if the distance on your odo is over a multiple of 80,000km you may want to consider this.
Thanks tunnelrider, some really handy stuff there. That’s a looot of Kim’s on your R65! Incredible.
Timing chain on this thing is waaay too noisy for my liking. Gets noisier once it’s warmed up? Fine under tension but when you back off to idle, it rattles around...
The Speedometer works on this thing, but the odometer and trip meter don’t! It’s a bugga. Speedometers are really handy in this day and age!, (it didn’t really matter much once upon a time) but I can’t live without an odometer... It’s critical to maintenance and monitoring. I’ve got both clocks in the R45 cache, but the speedo has a different number on the face and no trip meter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the same drive ratio. Or not.... It’ll be a suck it and see. It does have an odometer, so hopefully I’ll get those 2 functions. Fingers crossed.
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My advice given the lack of knowledge regarding the history is to change valves more or less immediately - they are after all so much cheaper than an engine rebuild.
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Hmm. Thanks for all that Tony. Again, a world of experience!
My journey so far has turned up some very knowledgeable BMW people! I think I posted somewhere that I ended up at Paul Rooney’s place a few weeks ago, and a more humble genius, I don’t think exists! A lovely bloke, and he did recommend a machine shop locally. He’s been big valving and double plugging BMW heads for years so that’s a good recommendation. He actually said a lot of the same things that you’ve been telling me, including K lining the valves.
He’s booked out for the next 2 years building Australian Safari winners (as well as restoring classic airheads) so he was happy to share his knowledge. Lovely bloke and I might try and get down there again in the next week or so to get some more bits.
I noticed one of his bikes for sale on Gumtree the other day. What a weapon! They rarely come up sale and if my balls drop this weekend, (sorry, Lottery reference) that thing is mine!
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/toowoomba/motorcycles/bmw-r80gs-hpn-paris-dakar-style-motorcycle/1210385802
I’m suss on the standard valve seats. That’s too many instances of failure for it to be ignored. Now that I know that the odometer isn’t working, I’ve got no idea of the mileage on this bike, so that means check everything! There was a post on the Aussie R65 Facebook page this week bout some guys bike dropping a valve on the way to work... When you know it’s a weak link. Fix it.
It’s been pissing rain here for weeks,(it’s Easter - it just rains here at Easter - welcome to Byron Bluesfest!) so ihevent been riding for a few days but I’m hoping for a clear break tomorrow. I’ve got a couple of little things to drop off to customers, so about 120klm round trip including 30klms of dirt through the rainforest. Hopefully, the weather will co-operate.
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I’ve got both clocks in the R45 cache, but the speedo has a different number on the face
I haven't had to look in to speedo's (touch something lucky), but I think if the different number you mention is a W... number, it will give different readings. Hopefully not, may as well try and see.
The rego history might give some insight to how many km the bike's done if you don't already know.
That said, if your seats are still serviceable I'd be inclined to "suck it and see" as replacing seats is not trivial and you may not need to - just monitor tappet clearances and if they do not sudden;y start closing up - golden.
Sage advice.
Tony I hadn't heard OEM exhaust valves are likely to expire around 50K km, is it because they were the first ones used then they got better? Is dropping an exhaust valve more likely to happen in a hot climate like northern Aus? I also used Intervalve for new valves and replaced what I thought were the original valves but now reading your post, they must've been replaced before as well. Would you replace your exhaust Intervalves at 50K km too? I'm on about 25K.
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I noticed one of his bikes for sale on Gumtree the other day. What a weapon! They rarely come up sale
Weapon alright. He makes a lovely job of it. Look at the clearance! So many good touches.
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Weapon alright. He makes a lovely job of it. Look at the clearance! So many good touches.
I wasn’t much of a GS/PD style fan until I went down to Paul’s place... now I really want one! He’s been building them for years and exports them all over the planet. You’ll notice that the advertised bike still has its R65 tank on it!
Interestingly, he was originally a Ducati guy and even raced one of the first Pantah’s in Australia back in the late 70’s.
I should have included a link to his website. A really, really nice bloke as well.
https://rooneycycle.com/
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Progress on my R65LS. Getting close to registering
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Well, that’s a nice bike mate.
Have you sold off your original rear subframe yet? I’m chasing one.
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Yes mate, there are a couple of bikes being redone around Brissie and the parts have been resurrecting them, have a R80 subframe for sale if you wanted to go longer wheel base.
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Good to hear that there are other people undertaking resurrections. R65’s haven’t been this popular since 1983!
They should start threads on here so we can all admire their progress.
Nah, I’ll wait till I find the correct 83 R65 subframe.
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Well that put a stop to proceedings. But the bigger issue was why it sounded like a bucket of bolts in my bottom end that happened almost simultaneously!
And it wasn’t the starter motor this time... It did sound more like the gearbox or the clutch. The noise has disappeared again now that I’ve got it home (on a trailer). I’ll get the tire repaired and start trying to find what on earth happened.
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Been a couple of weeks, I should update this a little.
So, it turns out.....
The tyre in the photo above is buggered. It actually plugged up ok, but the tubeless valve seal was destroyed during the 20 meters that it took me to pull upbefore I had it trailered home. So that meant taking it into the shop and of course, a repaired tyre is like a weak link in a chain... just replace it. Which cost me $206 for a brand new Michelin Pilot Activ. Whaaat? I gotta say, I was a little shocked at that, but so it goes. Anyway. It’s done and the bike is better and more reliable for it.
Now, the box of bolts noise! My great thanks to Mr.Clubike for his assistance in sorting this out... The neutral light switch on this bike has always been on continuously. There is a lockout in the circuit which stops the bike starting while it is in gear, but that can be overridden by pulling in the clutch lever.
The clutch lever switch in my bike is in 5 pieces, (not good) while the neutral switch has been bypassed by a jumper wire, which you would do if you couldn’t make the neutral switch work, and therefore couldn’t start the bike. What then happens if the 35 year old starter relay decides to start dropping its bundle, and just randomly engages the starter!!!??? I reckon it’d sound like my bike does.
There should be a photo below of a nice pile of MotoBins goodness which is slowly transforming things, including a neutral switch which I fitted today. I followed Snowbums guide pretty much and I gotta say, that’s a fantastic resource. It’s actually a bit of a bugga of a job and it took me a two attempts to get it function. The previous (non functioning) installation had both a spacer and thin crush washer. No wonder it didn’t work.... It should just have a 2mm crush washer. The clearances are obviously pretty fine. Works great now.
I also bought a new starter relay, which incorporates a diode (which in earlier examples was actually an inline diode). It’s a bizarre circuit and my thanks to Mr.Clubike for helping me get my head around it! The old starter relay btw, is date stamped 1983. No wonder it’s getting dodgy.
Hopefully, the other photo below shows some other major transformations. I finally put a new needle bearing in the shift lever pivot. I ordered (the wrong) bush first time round, so the new needle bearing has been taken a lot of the slush out of the lever, but added with the new adjuster/linkage/ball joints and a new shift rubber, it finally feels great! It makes such a difference to the ride, it’s phenominal.
As does the other major element in the photo, the “new” standard mufflers! I picked them up as part of the R45 cache but I needed the special mounting brackets which mate up to the hanger plates. So I also ordered those up new from MotoBins as well as the mounting hardware. I can’t tell you what a difference it’s made....
If you’ve been following this thread, the bike came originally with hot dog style mufflers on a fabricated mild steel header system. I fitted up a pair of “megaphonies” that I had lying around in my shed that had previously been fitted on a Hinkley Bonnie and they were really LOUD! The fabricated headers are 38mm tube welded onto the original 35mm stubs at the head and the mufflers are 35mm ID, so I had to roll up and weld some 35mm adapters to fit between the two systems. You can see two exhaust clamps in the photo, which 1explains what’s going on there. What I hadn’t figured on was the centrestand getting caught up on the clamp and not retracting fully. The first left hander I ran into, with a car coming the other way of course, I grounded the centrestand reeealy early and had to lift it up and veer into the oncoming car! Hmmm. Hilarious. Anyway, we made it and I’ve adjusted the clamp accordingly.
The result though is awesome. The standard mufflers are whisper quiet. It just changes the whole experience. The loud pipes really were intrusive. My wife and the dogs could hear me coming from kilometres away! Now, I pull up in the carport and no one hears me. Haha
The next major advancement is the sidestand! Thank you Tony Smith who did a deal I couldn’t refuse. Whoohoo. What a difference (again). The centrestand really was bugging me. Reverse parking on an incline was a nightmare. I actually had to ask a passer by for a hand getting it off the stand last week. Embarrassing.
So, that’s all good news and I’ve been riding the bike heaps! My odometer still doesn’t work but I’m thinking I’m well over the first thousand klms. Still heaps of jobs to do though, so on it goes.
Carb kits are next along with fuel lines and new filter.
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Well, a few more weeks, a few more klms, a few more bills, and a little more progress.
I’ve replaced the noisy timing chain which had just started to whack itself into the case, so that was right on time. I didn’t replace the crankshaft sprocket and bearing, and they’ve got a bit of life left in them yet, but it needs doing within a a year or so at the current rate.
I vapour blasted The timing chest while it was out, but I didn’t go overboard on it because it was being repainted. I had a few cans of VHT high temp paint that were lying around that I’ve been using up on this, and I started a new can to do this job and it looks like it’s a gloss whereas I’ve used a satin finish of the starter motor cover... Oh well. I’ll get away with that, as long as it’s not in a shiners parade!
The biggest complication was the disintergrating ignition connector that turned into crumbs when I disconnected it. The awesome contributors here were a great help tracking down the correct plug and socket replacements which I ended up getting from EME in Denver, CO. They do some great airhead bits those guys. I used DHL instead of USPS and that cost more that the parts, but it was in Australia in 3 days, but it then it sat in Australian Customs for another 4 or 5 bloody days...
Still, that’s not as long as the header pipes that I finally tracked down! They came from CA via USPS in a couple of days, and then waited in customs here for over 2 weeks! It all fitted up beautifully except I still need a a couple of clamps and the bracket on one side. It looks great though. Finally.
I’ve done a host of other little bits and pieces as well including routing the new fuel line correctly, a new rain seal on the fuel cap, fitting the rear tank support rubbers, that came on the imported spare tank, (as well as the tap, the cap etc). The tank was a good buy! and it will look heaps better than the repaired one when it finally gets repainted and fitted, but I was very lucky to get it into the country at all.
I also got around to opening up my dodgy speedo today as well. I’ll post an update in the other thread on here about my experience, but the good news is that it works like a beauty! Odometer clicks over, the needle doesn’t dance about, and its pretty accurate to boot. Woo Hoo! I’ve been using the
R45 speedo on it which is a different model number, and it worked ok but it was pretty inaccurate. It’s nice to have it functioning properly.
I just need to find the plastic instrument surround! It looks like they break pretty easily so spares are in short supply...
Anyway, it rolls on and on. I’ll update more soon.
I went off for a ride this afternoon and finally!, it rides beautifully, sounds like it should and is just generally pleasure to ride. Very happy with it.
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Too early for before and after? Nah, bugger it.
I’ve put another couple of hundred klms on it over the past few days and I’ve gotta say, it’s just a really sweeeet little bike....
I spoke with a bloke on a R75/6 a few weeks ago and he suggested the key to happiness was to preload the gear lever a little with my toe and to change up between 4 and 5 thousand rpm. Great advice. It just absolutely hummms along.
The loud pipes had me plodding around to avoid being too raucous, while the standard exhaust just begs to keep the revs up and when you do, it just drones away really happily. And quickly! The standard pipes and headers are so all nicely tucked away it has also cleared up all the ground clearance issues I had kept running into and so I’ve finally scrubbed out the chicken strips on that new rear Michelin!
Ive put a photo below beside the river from a few weeks ago (before the headers went on) which shows her in her new role as a delivery hack for my business, dropping off boxes of roasted coffee. I do a lot of klms every week in a 150klm loop (all through beautiful, scenic, twisty mountain roads) and quite often with only 10 or 15kg on board, so the single seat and carry rack are perfect.
I’m still tracking down a complete rear subframe to fit the dual seat I’ve got and I’m thinking of turning it into a convertible with the whole rear section of subframe, seat, guard, indicators etc swapped out with the just the 4 frame bolts, the 2 upper shock bolts, the 2 wiring connectors and then the number plate. I love taking my wife with me, (sometimes). :)
Future? Wellll... it turns out that there is a real buyers market for old BMW fairings so I’ve been getting on my best Milo Minderbinder and doing the Egyptian Cotton thing. Like honestly, you can’t even give them away at the moment!
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mawson/motorcycle-scooter-parts/bmw-r80rt-faring-free-to-good-home/1219844820
So, I can see one of that selection below ending up on the old girl at some point in the future. It’s the middle of winter here at the moment (about 15C on a cold day like today) and I don’t think I’m as young as I used to be! I was going to fit an RT fairing, (because the existing bar and cables would fit) but I really like the look of that RS fairing, and all those cables are due for replacement anyway...
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Too early for before and after? Nah, bugger it.
GREAT JOB! You truely saved her from the clutches of time..............
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Well done. When you see the difference I am not a fan of rat bikes.
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Cheers fellas.
Yeah, it was pretty ratty wasn’t it? I think I’ve been through just about everything now. It’s been a journey.
The good news is that it is really rewarding me for all of the effort I’ve put into her. It’s a really nice little bike and it’s been putting out some serious klms over the past couple of months and it just keeps getting better and better. I’m really enjoying riding it and I’ve had people come up and start talking a few times now when I pull up in local towns. It’s nice to see old bikes still trundling around!
I finally managed to do a deal today on the last remaining bits outstanding! The instrument shroud, a complete rear subframe with lights, indicators, seat, tail unit and toolbox. Basically my whole convertible setup. Plus another bloody fairing.... I can’t wait. I just have to do a 600klm round trip to pick it all up....
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So, I managed to squeeze in the 500klm round trip last weekend to collect the final cache of missing bits. Again, cheap as chips and in the current market, buyers can’t give this stuff away! A complete rear subframe with guard, mud flap, lights, nice seat (black too!), toolboxes the missing instrument binnacle top section (and original fold over key!) sidecovers, front guard, fairing etc etc... It didn’t include the binnacle lower section, but bizarrely enough, I collected one of those with the R45 cache.
Before I could fit all of that up I needed to buff the tailpiece that I had painted blue when I did the all of the other pieces a few months ago. I took me seconds to buff through the colour coat of course, thus starting a revolving cascade of tail chasing paint adventures for another half a day!
So I did the “convertible” changeover today and as expected, it took probably an hour or so, after sorting the obligatory electrical issues of bad earth and dirty connector... Initially nothing worked! One indicator and the tailight went off when you activated the brake lever, that was it. 45 minutes of testing and prodding later, I hit the actual connector plug up with contact cleaner and blink, blink, blink. All good.
Excellent! All the electricals then, are a single 6 pin connector under the left hand side cover. The rest of the changeover job was the 4 subframe bolts, the two upper shock mounts, swing the seat on and it’s done.
Which is good.... I really like the single seat now. Along with the rack, it’s been great. Ive been running boxes around for my work, and running up lots of klm’s so it’s been really utilitarian and useful. There’s photos below but, now that all of that is finished, it looks like any other bloody 1983 R65! The pooncy cream couloured single seat and the little rack, actually really give it character and an identity and it’s useful as well! I miss them already, so I can see it all going back on again in a few more weeks time. I’ll get some photos of it like this in the meantime.
I went for a run this afternoon with my Mrs, and I know that she is the pillion in a million! but still, the little R65 didn’t even notice.... It just handled beautifully two up, more than enough power and it just soaked up the extra weight without even thinking about it. The rear YSS’s are always set to max spring preload. Keep it reving, and the motor always has just enough power to do whatever you ask it to.
There are a lot of things about this R65 that I really, really like.
So, I reckon that that concludes stage 1. It’s not going to win a medal in any shiners parade, but it looks fine, runs well and so far is really, really reliable. We’ve did have that one trip home in a trailer a few months ago, but that was a flat tyre, so it doesn’t really count.
Lots and lots of other things to do as it goes along but I guess that I’ve done what I set out to do and it’s now on the road, looks largely standard, runs beautifully and reliably and it’s been saved from the knackers yard or even worse, a set of Firestone cross plys and wrapped exhaust pipes! :)
Stay tuned, more to come I’m sure.
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NICE! Good work on your part; the R65 really looks nice in its original condition.
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Great job and an amazing transformation, especially in a relatively short amount of time. I applaud your work ethic, sir.
Honestly, I thought the idea of the ugly as hell but runs like a beast rat bike would have been great, dented tank and all. But this turned out looking nice.
And even if you think it now looks like "any other" R65, just remember it's still the bastard stepchild of the BMW world, so we're all still a little special. ;)
"Except for R65" ........ that means Exceptional, right?
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Well done on de-ratting that bike, it really does look great and is a credit to your hard work.
If by chance you end up with enough spare bits to make an RS fairing, I'd like to have a talk to you. I was planning on fitting a K100RS, fairing, tank and ductail to mine, but the amount of work required means that the project keeps heading to the back burner. Besides, the tank I was planning use looks like it might be my only sound K-bike tank and I'll need it for the K100-RS that is my next project.
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And even if you think it now looks like "any other" R65, just remember it's still the bastard stepchild of the BMW world, so we're all still a little special. ;)
"Except for R65" ........ that means Exceptional, right?
Thanks fellas. And thanks for all of the help and advice along the way too!
You know BPT, I think that these bikes have obviously been long underrated and I don’t really know why that is except for the fact that they’re not 800cc or 1000cc. I’ve had lots of big, fast sports bikes over the years and the reality is that these days, you just don’t get to use that sort of potential without risking a very long stretch without a licence and hefty fines to boot. I don’t know about you guys over there, but Australian roads are just sooooo over policed, it’s completely ridiculous so I’m quite happy puttering around on a midsize bike these days and I’m enjoying a lot of aspects about this little bike.
Exceptional indeed!
Tony, I’ve got at least 2 RS fairings hanging in the shed now, (plus various spare sections), as well as the 2 RT fairings, so I’m sure we can work something out. I haven’t really gotten around to having a good look at them all yet, but I’m pretty sure that both of the RS’s are useable. They’re not going anywhere so lemme know when your ready.
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So, on and on it goes...
Now that I have the rear end reconfigured, I need more carry room, of course. I picked up some panniers a couple of months ago and when I asked the question of how the hell they fit on this forum I was of course informed that they were meant for the mono shock model. Bugga. They seemed like such nice bags. Of we’ll, not to be defeated I tracked down some images of what the correct frames should look like and eventually set about fabricating my own. Sounds easy doesn’t it?
Well, it kinda was but it never seems like that when your in the middle of it... I used 10mm round bar instead of 12mm tube, (which would be better and I might get around to doing it one day - see below) and I bent them up and fabbed up the brackets etc and got it all to work well enough and it all came out ok and has been working just fine.
Of course, a couple of days after I got all of that sorted, I picked up (yet another) RT fairing, this time off a monoshock R80RT, (I bought it for the pair of clocks which were still fitted) but it also came with a set of the monoshock pannier frames! They won’t fit the short rear end of the twinshock R65, but I wish I had had them for measurements and comparison when I was fabbing up my brackets! I can see me butchering them up one day and changing the bottom mounting point, to make a hybrid frame one day when I get around to it. My frame is working just fine for the time being so I’m not rushing, even though I do have issues opening the seat up fully. I can get to the battery but I don’t really need the storage space with all the room in the panniers.
Otherwise, we’ve plugged away heaps of klms over the past couple of weeks and everything has been hunky dory until yesterday when I got a hideous rear end wobble while going through a sweeper at about 120klm/hr! Hmm, that was fun. I had greased and checked the swingarm bearings initially before I put it back on the road and they didn’t need adjustment but I rechecked them this morning and there was a small but detectable deflection so I modified a socket to fit that bloody bearing orifice and reset the preload and torqued it all up and then spent the afternoon pushing it through 120klm/hr sweepers! Ha.
Actually, you can see from some of the photos below that I have been spending plenty of time on dirt roads out amongst the forests which surround where I live, (long story). I probably should have bought a bloody G/S! In fact, to tell the truth I did see an early R80GS a week or so before I bought this bike because it occurred to me that it would suit my purposes but I hadn’t realised that in the interim the GS had sparked a whole revolution and an entire genre in its image and that early GS’s have become a collectors item and are completely unaffordable. Whatever. The R65 is a really solid performer on dirt and it handles it all fantastically. Mind you, I did find it’s limits today on the track in that last photo, (thanks to the local 4WD club who do that stuff to forest trails!) and I had to turn around.... which was problematic with the 2ft ruts they’d created! I eventually had to do a burnout style turnaround to get it facing the other way, but we made it out! Great bike.
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More
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Well, it’s been a few months so probably time for an update and I’m about to embark on the next phase of work, so I should record for posterity where I’m at before that gets underway.
These threads tend to be a nice historical diary of how these things progress and I was talking to a bloke today about another of my bikes, and I shared with him a 10 year old restoration thread I did on that bike!
So anyway, the repaired speedo is reading 69920 and I reset it to 65000 when I repaired the odometer and did the last major service, so that means it’s due again. It was well worth repairing that odo and the repair (outlined in another thread here) has held up just fine. The only leak in the resealed instrument has been through the rubber gromet on the reset button on the front glass face and although MotoBins stock it, I baulked at the 7 quid price! I’ll just have to save up for it (and get my head around it!) I guess....
The 5000klm we’ve ticked off in the meantime have been fantastic. Wonderfully reliable and solid as a rock. It hasn’t let me down once and I’ve taken it to some pretty remote and out of the way places too and that reliability is a real necessity in those situations.
Some of the issues it has had though are now on the agenda for rectification.
I’ve adjusted the swingarm bearings on it twice now and I still have a really disconcerting rear end wallow on occasions when the speeds get up. Like over 120klm/hr. Not pretty.... The only remedy is I think, to completely strip out the rear end, replace the swingarm bearings, inspect everything else and reassemble, so the requisite bits are on the way over from MotoBins.
It’s a good time to do all that, because I’m going to have the gearbox and final drive out as well!
When I first drained and replaced the gearbox oil in this bike, it was way over full with milky hideous looking oil.... It’s taken me a while to realise that this is as a result of the sloppy old rubber seal on the speedo cable that allows water to enter the gearbox every time it rains. Again, not pretty....
For the past couple of months I’ve had this kind of rumbling bearing noise, that’s only really noticeable at lower speeds and it seems to be louder some days than others and it’s really difficult to pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from! I suspect that it is the output bearing on that gearbox. I was watching a Chris Harris video on YouTube recently and he talked exactly about this issue. Chris’ videos may be profane!, but he certainly knows his stuff.
I managed to pick up a second hand gearbox a couple of months ago off eBay for a few hundred bux, so I’ll install that as part of the current upgrades and that should give me a chance to have a look at the existing box and diagnose the issue properly. The clutch splines are well and truely due for inspection and lube also, so high time for both jobs.
While I’m in there doing that!, I might as well also deal with the leaky, thread bugged final drive in my bike! I think 3 of the 5 fillers/drain/breather threads on my FD are buggered and they all leak. Besides being unroadworthy, oil leaks have the habit of eventually catching you out and leaving you stranded, so in the interests of reliability it’s time to do that as well.
So, I managed to pick up a spare low miles FD which a former LS owner had picked up from overseas as a spare for his bike, but never fitted. It looks pretty nice, so hopefully that should solve some more problems.
While I’m dealing with all that lot, I’ll also do all the regular oil change, valve clearance, carb tune, timing etc etc as well as fitting a bunch of other bits and pieces that I’ve collected over the past few months and not yet attended to, like front wheel bearings, exhaust clamps for the balance pipe and new bearing and pivot pin for the centrestand. That centrestand has also been a right pain in the butt the whole time with a modified “tang” for lowering it that manages to ground out really early on left hand bends... Actually, it’s a dangerous pain in the butt!
I’ll also take the time to look at the front end and maybe change fork oil for 7.5wt to see if that makes things better. I suspect the issue I’m really chasing is to do with the swingarm bearings, but I’m fitting fork gaiters to it, so I may as well take the opportunity to change oils and see how it feels.
Anyway, another War and Peace length post, so I’ll add some photos and update again in a couple of weeks once I get all of that sorted!
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Considering where that bike started from you have done a truly magnificent job.
Take a bow Sir!
And yes I will be chasing you for a fairing, just as soon as I complete my dance with the Spainish fan dancer (which i expect to successfully complete by about April next year).
In the meantime, I hope to be well enough to take the R860 for a run the weekend after next.
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Considering where that bike started from you have done a truly magnificent job.
Take a bow Sir!
Great job, (Me: standing in the front row applauding )
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Thank you very much gentlemen! I’m sure none of us do this stuff for accolades or affirmation, but I do (very humbly) appreciate those comments from such esteemed company! Cheers.
Tony, good to hear the trajectory is up mate! You’ve been worryingly quiet lately so I’m glad to hear that things are progressing positively.
Your fairing lies in wait for you and I’ve kept one of the huuuge boxes that one of them shipped in especially. In the meantime keep your eyes open for the main fairing bracket, (which is different to the RT bracket) the 2 lower small brackets and a set of mirrors. There is a lot of seperate parts to these bloody fairings!
Photo from earlier today.
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Just read through your build and i have to say well done on the transformation, looks fantastic [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
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Just read through your build and i have to say well done on the transformation, looks fantastic [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
Cheers Dav. It’s been a journey that’s for sure and I doubt that it’s over yet. I’m really enjoying the R65, they’re a great little bike.
I’d better get around to updating all the latest upgrades soon. Things have all been a bit haywire here lately due to bushfires and evacuation even! but slowly life is returning to normal so I’d better update progress.
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Well, so much for the November update.... Gee, time gets away doesn’t it. Anyways, I’d better fill in a few more blanks I suppose.
The good news is that she is still chugging merrily away and the odo is now up around 74000K’s, so nearly ready for its next 5000K service - when I rebuilt my speedo, I reset it at 65K, so that future service points would be at an easy to remember 70K, 75K, 80K etc etc
At the last service point I did a fairly major strip down and attended to a whole host of bits and pieces that had been bugging me endlessly and other stuff that I just hadn’t gotten around to attending to.
I mentioned in my last post that I had picked up a replacement final drive to replace my leaky old unit. In chatting to seller, I mentioned that I’d had a lifetime of Ducati’s, but now that I’m an old guy, I was getting out of them and getting into Airheads instead. It turns out that he’d had years of Airheads and was getting into old Ducati’s... One thing led to another and before you know it, my beautiful little old ‘83 Pantah was being loaded up and shipped off to Canberra! I’d accumulated quite a swag of desirable spares and sundries for the little Ducati over the years which I was happy to include in the sale, so the purchaser was happy to ship off to me a swag of R65 parts that he had left over as well, so as a result of that I ended up with an extra gearbox, (needs some work - don’t they all) another bean can, a great centre stand and whole array of other small but useful items as well!
Anyway, back to the last service.... While I had the rear end out of it, I replaced the swing arm bearings, (which were pretty knackered) and took the opportunity to repaint the swingarm. I only had a gloss enamel on the shelf, so it’s too shiny and I kind of wished I’d waited until I’d got to town to get some satin black, but progress is progress.
I also did the rear wheel bearings which were well buggered and had a lot of play and were probably part of my bearing noise issues as well.
I fitted up the replacement FD and that all went swimmingly and I also greased the clutch splines and fitted up the second gearbox that I mentioned in the last post that I’d picked up from eBay a few months earlier. That didn’t go quite so swimmingly! It all went together well enough and shifted fine and had no weird noises, but it just lost its drive every now and again! What the .....?! A very strange thing indeed. I’d be plodding and suddenly drive would momentarily cease and the revs would jump, then it’d be fine again. I persevered for a couple of days trying to diagnose it and I posted a query on here and MrC suggested that just about the only thing it could be was the tapered fit of the output flange slipping. Not pretty. So, I swapped it back to the original, (noisy) gearbox. At least I know where the original noise is coming from now, because it’s back!
I had replaced the driveshaft boot and clamps as well as the flange bolts when I swapped the box out but I didn’t have any new stretch bolts to go back in when swapped it back and I had to order up new bolts from MotoBins, which I replaced again recently. I was speaking to an R80 owner recently who told me that he had not replaced those stretch bolts and they eventually let go causing lots of damage to the gearbox end housing.... very expensive mistake.
I also replaced the dodgy centre stand with its silly tang which had been trying its hardest to throw me off through every left hand bend also.
There’s more to this really long post, so I’ll split it up into a second instalment....
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Continued from last post:
She’s mostly been running fine every since but I recently spent a couple of days doing all the little things that needed doing still. I fitted up the fork gaiters, fitted new vacuum screws and diaphragm screws on the carbs and replaced the return springs, fitted the extra exhaust clamps that I’d bought months ago, fitted a battery strap, replaced the alternator brushes and did the bean can o ring that I had neglected to do when I did the timing chain.... I also had to replace the gear change shaft seal and the neutral switch which managed to get damaged in all the gearbox swap excitement.
I also did an interim adjustment on the left hand side valve gear which was getting a little noisy, well before it’s 5000K scheduled service. This has got me a little worried.
The exhaust valve clearance on that head has been consistently out, but it gets wider rather than closing up. If the valve were recessing, the clearance would be closing up rather than opening up? I quickly ripped the head off it last week just to check that the valve wasn’t recessing and it looked ok, but i really do need to figure in new valves and guides on these heads before too long.
That won’t fix the widening valve clearance though.... The only thing I can figure that issue down to, would be a valve follower wearing and opening out the valve clearance. Maybe a push rod wearing? Dunno. But it needs further investigation so I guess I should pull both of those heads, put them in for new valves and KLine the guides and while I’m in there, investigate the followers and I guess if I go to all of that trouble I’d better do the pushrod seals, maybe a set of piston rings too.
Anyway, its just on 12 months since I started this little odyssey and it’s been quite a journey. She’s put out some serious mileage through the year though and they’ve been entirely enjoyable and reliable miles. I’m really enjoying the process so I guess I’m committed to continuing the process and getting her fitter and healthier. I’ll update it as I go. Cheers.
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Your fairing lies in wait for you and I’ve kept one of the huuuge boxes that one of them shipped in especially.
Hi, if you still have the fairing can we progress this deal please? I reckon I can lay my hands on the bracketry and I've promised teh "used to be R65" that it will get some cosmetic attention this year.
So....PM me with the cash amount required and how you would like it paid (assuming that 1 year later you still have the fairign of course).
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Your fairing lies in wait for you and I’ve kept one of the huuuge boxes that one of them shipped in especially.
So....PM me with the cash amount required and how you would like it paid (assuming that 1 year later you still have the fairign of course).
Hi Tony. Yep, still have it. In fact I bumped my head on it the other day! I’ll drag it out and I’ll PM you once I’ve had a look at what’s there.
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I haven’t updated this since earlier this year, so it must be time I guess!
I put it through the annual roadworthy inspection in April and other than fitting a new rear tyre and contact cleaning the points in the bloody horn!, it was all pretty straight forward.
I’d given it a good degrease and clean, but it had a slight weep from the pushrod seals since I bought it, and I know the job needed doing. So, if your going to do that job, I thought I may as well attend to other issues while I’m in there.... So, as well as the pushrod seals, I also ordered from MotoBins a whole reseal kit including the base o rings, head gaskets, rocker cover gaskets etc I also ordered up new piston rings seeing as I was in there, and well, you may as well do the big end bearings as well. Quite a list.
MB have always been really fast shipments previously, but this was about May I think, right in the middle of the UK shutdown with very little air freight running and it took a whole month for the bits to arrive! Luckily, it wasn’t that urgent and it just meant being patient and everything eventually arrived.
Once I started stripping it down though, I pulled the gearbox and found that the rear main seal had gone (despite the PO having done it a couple of years previous) and the bell housing was covered in muck. So, I order the new main seal and oil pump o ring etc out of Munich Motorcycles here in Perth WA. 3 day wait was all.
So that was pretty much a complete engine strip, bar the main bearings.
Everything went pretty well really. Pretty straight forward stuff. The only issue I discovered was some galling on 2 of the rocker arm pads. I haven’t replaced these as yet, but they certainly need doing.
Oil pump internals were fine, clutch in good condition - not too contaminated by oil, I’d obviously caught it in time - main bearing journals all good and i leak tested the heads and valves and they were excellent as well.
While it was all apart, I soda blasted the heads and barrels and degreased and cleaned everything else, including blasting out the oil galleries in the block that deliver oil up to the heads.
I needed to make up a few special tools along the way for clutch holding and for centring and rear main seal installation etc, but nothing too difficult.
Everything went back together really nicely and it’s running very sweetly. It’s the middle of winter here and it’s been unseasonably rainy as well, so I haven’t clocked up too many K’s over the past 6 weeks and I haven’t even reached 500klm for its first oil change.
I’m keeping my eye open for a solution for the worn rocker arms. I could just import a pair off eBay, but it is an inlet on one side and an exhaust in the other side, so I’d need 2 whole sets to make it work. I believe some cylinder head repairers have tools to dress the rockers, but I haven’t found anyone locally who can do that for me yet.
Anyway, I’ll keep working on a solution before I put too many more K’s on it.
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So....PM me with the cash amount required and how you would like it paid (assuming that 1 year later you still have the fairign of course).
Hiya Tony, I have sent you a PM, but I don’t know if it would have sent you a notification? Anyway, all the details are in there. Cheers.
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Thank you, I got the message this morning and will reply shortly.
Turning back a moment to your rockers, redressing the rocker pad is not really your problem. Just about any old school shop will have a Wolf valve and rocker service tool which will do the job a treat.
When you find one telll the operator not to hog down too tightly on the rocker or they will fracture the sides out of the needle roller bearings, these are catalogue parts and not particulalry expensive, but you need to make tooling up to press the old ones out and the new ones in - you also need a fair sized vice to do the pressing.
Your real problem is that BMW have never been very generous with the depth of hardening they provide. Your real problem is to find a shop to re-harden the lash pads. There is a balcksmithing works in Atherton that has done this work for people I sent there. I did my own but I am no longer interested in doing my own case hardening since I discovered what the substances used in "Hardite" and the gases released are (Cyanide and Phosgene amongst others) I figure ?I have enough heatlh problems without adding to them.