Have been running a 1980 R65 for a few years now, and getting increasingly embarassed by the amount of chatter coming from under my rocker covers, despite routinely setting the clearances. There has always been a little ticking coming from the Left side that has really annoyed me and even my chronic deafness don't mask out. Anyway the tappety rattle since the last clearance set was getting too much to bear, so I thought I would do some googling and see what I could come up with. Found this forum and some other Beemer pages, found some how tos on reducing rocker shaft float , had a go this morning, and thankfully the bike is transformed. Smoother, and much much quieter having set tappets to 0.006 and 0.010 and removed end play. Left side exhaust had a axial gap - perhaps the source of the persistent ticking. I found a C clamp and two sockets acting as spacers the best way to tighten the endfloat out. So thankyou so much for existing!
Also found advice on flywheel marks - I have always been convinced there is no "OT" on mine, only a Dot at TDC, but using a torch and looking carefully, "OT" is there. I think the Haynes advice to detorque and retorque head each time should be accompanied by advice on how to set the pillow block end float, cos one is bound to effect the other at some stage.
