Now that I've got the bean can fixed, I have turned my attention to the headlight on my '81 R65.
As I have mentioned, the PO rode this bike around with a big Rapid Transit fairing on it, as it was his main transportation. There was a brief period when he rode it without the fairing, during which time he hit a deer. Instead of fixing the munged headlight and bracket, he found another Rapid Transit fairing, and as it has its own headlight, he ignored the bent parts.
I was indeed fortunate that my BMW dealer in LA -- who sold me my brand new '81 R65 29 years ago -- found me a complete headlight/bucket/bracket/instrument cluster in her storage container. It arrived complete with a wiring harness, too!
So, I spent some quality time in the garage this afternoon. My first thought was that it would be mighty convenient to just swap everything out. But that would mean getting a non-matching ignition lock (not really a big deal, I never use the fork lock), and the odo wouldn't reflect the 170k miles that are on the bike.
After I got the old bucket and bracket off (all that was left), I noticed that the two wiring harnesses didn't match. After some careful research in my Haynes, it seems like the replacement cluster is actually from a '79-'80 bike, and it won't fit mine. So, I really had to take everything apart and swap it over.
I didn't quite get it all done today, but all that's left is to mount the instruments and button up the cluster. I did get to the point where I could test everything and it all works, save the burnt out parking light bulb I found in the headlight. Alas, I don't have one at hand and will have to go get one before I close up the headlight.
When I finish this, it will be good enough to get it registered and insured.
