Teutonic Tille Lives !

[nhmaf]

 
Huzzah !

After having my little red R65LS off the road since last fall (I admit, I haven't
been too speedy at getting the parts for repairs) I finally have it running again.
Teutonic Tillie has a replaced clutch disk, pushrod bearing, a rebuilt transmission,
rear drive leak repair, new front brake master cylinder and the piece de resistance,
a custom made shift linkage from Justin Bowser.



This fall (fingers crossed) I'm planning to rebuild the carbs (might need to do that sooner
as it isn't running as well as it did last year) and fix the seat (I have a new cover for it and
will have to find a good foam to use).  I also have a 2-1 exhaust that I've been
planning to put on sometime, which will probably precipitate some carb changes.
I may try to get the wheels powder coated, if I find enough extra cash...
I think I am going to be buying tires for her, as well as the Concours this fall, too, so
she may have to carry one with ugly rims for another year.  

It's good to have one's airhead running again and not in pieces scattered about the garage !!!

[Bob_Roller]

Did you have your original transmission rebuilt, or did you purchase a secondhand transmission ? I 've been waiting for the temperatures to drop to a reasonable level, so I can get my R65 back on the road again after this last round of maintenance, I've got about 15-20 hours of work to do yet. But it's still 96 F. at 5:20 am in the garage when I leave for work, so it looks like it may be a while before it gets done. Great looking bike, a red LS is still my favorite. I also noticed the side covers are black, is that a standard color for the LS's? I think mine are going to become a flat black, as they are in not so good looking condition.

[MrRiden]

love the red LSs and the low bars. Are those stainless lines on the front brakes?
rich

[dewjantim]

Nice looking bike, looks just like mine!!!! Will you be wanting to sell your mufflers when you add a new exhaust. If so just let me know how much and what condition they are in. Thanks, Dew.

[nhmaf]

Hi fellas,

I bought a rebuilt transmission from a friend of ours on this forum - Don.
I will get the old one rebuilt in a while - rebuilds are running around $600
on average - this one may cost a bit more as it will require a new input shaft,
which I priced at $265 for the part alone.

Yes, those are stainless brake lines on the front - I had to replace the brake lines
when I brought her home, as the brake fluid had turned into jelly and I had to replace
the lines... these I got from Bob's BMW and they weren't much more, or about the same,
price as the stock units.   Definitely have some serious stopping power now.   It was
missing rearview mirrors, and I always wanted a cafe type look, so I bought the european
spec bars and put the napolean bar end mirrors on there when I put progressive
springs and shocks on, and a high output PIA headlamp.   The paint, believe it or not, is all
original, including the sidecovers.    When you get up close you can see alot of small scratches, etc,
and where the front of the seat come against the back of the fuel tank, the seat pan has cut through
the foam and cover and scratched through the paint, and it is beginning to surface rust - thus
the seat and possible paint job rework later this year.

Dew, I'll let you know if I decide to sell the exhaust, but at this time I think that I'll be hanging on
to them, at least for a while, in case I have to revert from the performance exhaust experiment
over the winter..

Thanks for the support fellas !
Mike

[SCJJR65]

All right, looks like you're ready for the road!  Lock and Load!  Rock and Roll!!!  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I think, for $600, if I had two transmissions, I would try rebuilding one myself.  What is the worse that can happen, you ship the pieces off to someone if you fail?

[tagordon]

Congratulations. Now get out and Ride!

Troy

[Justin B.]

Gee, nhmaf, your looks a lot better than ours!  

[nhmaf]

Don't despair, Justin - it'll get there with a bit more time and your hands on the job !

I think that I may have spoken a bit too soon - I got Tillie to the shop and got her safety
inspection sticker, but after she has been sitting in my garage the past day or so there
are some small oil puddles underneath her.  At the moment it looks like there may
be a transmission oil leak coming out of the neutral switch (is there any way to tighten
that thing without pulling the transmission off again !? ) and either transmission oil is
coming out of the back of the transmission at the rubber boot for the pushrod/bearing
or else it is leaking at the boot over the universal joint by the transmission output
flange and dripping onto the clutch arm, running down and off the end of it.   Hmmmm.

I *know* that I didn't overfill anything - I premeasured the oil, put it in using a syringe (no drips)
AND checked the oil level visually before bolting everything up.     Maybe I should have put the
oil in the tranny BEFORE I installed it..... that darn 20/20 hindsight thing got me again, perhaps !!!
 
I did also check the ground cable bolt/breather hole to make sure that was clear.   I even cleaned it
out again and reinstalled to be sure. grumble grumble....

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Don't get excited about the amount of oil you put in the transmission.  It is impossible to put too much in, if it was installed and sitting level.  I don't even measure mine.  I just fill it to the bottom of the threads, or just below.

Did you just replace your neutral switch?  If not, it may need replacement to cure the leak.  If you did, perhaps you got a bad switch?
It might be possible to access it to try tightening it by sliding the tranny back as far as it will go with the swingarm in place.  I am not sure.

I cannot say I have ever heard of oil leaking out of the throwout lever assembly, before.  I could be wrong.

[Justin B.]

My '81 R100 seems to drip from that boot from time-to-time as well but it's never bothered me enough to figure it out...

[nhmaf]

Hi Rob, Justin -

The neutral switch was "new", actually came with the rebuilt transmission - I gave it a cursory
check but perhaps it wasn't quite tightened enough.  Maybe I'll drain the transmission and see
how far back I can slide things without having to unbolt the driveshaft.   If I can loosen the switch a little
bit I may put a bit of teflon tape on some of the threads to see if that helps.    I'm going to
dig into the diagrams of the transmissions again and see if there is something missing from
that end of the pushrod boot (I didn't think so) but will check and tighten the clamp screw a bit more.
It's too bad that it is leaking cause it is shifting and running great !  I was worried about the rear drive
leak that showed up earlier, but my fix for that seems to be working/holding.
I'll start a thread in the tech section with whatever I find out, but have to get ready to go to work right now...

-Mike

[suecanada]

Hey, hey, Mike! Bike looks great and you are to be congratulated. To answer someone's question, yes the black side covers are original as Mike said and I know we see them painted the henna red sometimes but the original brochure and my original LS had them black.

Anyway Mike, I am very interested to see what you find out about the wee oil leak as LRB dribbles there too and i suspect the neutral switch as well. I have been riding LRB after the big trip west and frankly I love that bike and find it more fun to ride than the F650...maybe because it is lower?  Naw, hard to explain but it actually feels lighter and feels like it has a lower centre of gravity if that's possible. (the F650 has its gas tank below the seat). Sometimes I think that if I had LRB all refurbished...he gets a valve job this fall and the insides of his cylinders all looked at...I would love to have the confidence in him to sell the F650 and just have LRB and ride thousands of miles on him. Nice to have the 2 bikes as one should always be up and ready to ride. I wonder if the ABS brakes on the F650 really saved me from being hit by the left turning pickup in Jackson WY. or not. LRB's brakes feel pretty darned good too and that's with the old type brake lines. Even the rear brakes can be felt!!!

Keep us posted and I may be close to your neck of the woods soon Mike as I am going to the Finger Lakes Rally and plan to ride back to Cape Breton with my brother Rich then come west and home again in about 1.5 weeks....after the 18th Sept. If I am alone I will try to call ya!

[nhmaf]

Oh, joy and happiness has returned to my garage !
 

I discovered that the leaks were coming from (2) easily fixed sources:

1) threads on the screw for the rear drive shaft boot clamp had become partially stripped,
    resulting in the clamp loosening up and causing drive shaft oil to leak out, fall onto the
   clutch arm and drip onto the floor/road - easily fixed.
2) the Allen bolt which holds the transmission shift linkage arm onto the selector rod(?) wasn't
   fully tightened.   It was tight enough for everything to work properly, but allowed transmission oil
   to weep out, down the side of the transmission case to the area of the neutral switch and then drip
   onto the floot.

After doing some investigating, I detected these things, corrected them and cleaned up the oil on the
outside of the bike and took it for a 25 mile ride on some twisty backroads.   It has been sitting in the garage
now for 24 hours and hasn't spilled a drop !   Finally, an oil-tight Beemer again (as it should be) !!!