New owner

[Einar]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Einar and I live in Paris.

I'm the proud owner of a R65 1981-model. Bought her a week ago, and have put about 700 km on her since then. What a smooth rider!
She looks great, but a lot of bugs starts to appear so it is now clear she will need some work as there are some oil leaks starting to appear.

I hope to bounce some ideas off you all in due time, but for starters I need to read up on the basics. I will try to do most of the work myself, which will be a steep learning curve for me.

Some pictures attached.
Thank you for making such a great forum!

Best regards,
Einar

Yamaha XV125
BMW R1200C
BMW R65/7

[nhmaf]

Wow, what impressively shiny paint!
I see you also have the gearbox with the kickstarter option - those are quite rare over here!

Welcome aboard!

[montmil]

Sharp looking 1981 model, Einar.

I note the earlier ATE brake caliper. BMW used up existing parts inventory before going to the Brembo caliper. Both good brakes. Your R65 could be a late 1980 / nery early 1981 production number. The kick starter is nice to have if the battery should go flat, which can happen when the bike is ridden slowly with low revs in urban traffic. Needs 3-4000 revs to really start getting a good charge to the battery. The kickstarters are not known for their strength and longevity so use it only as a  last resort.

[Einar]

Thank you guys! Much appreciated.

She was apparently repainted 4 years ago by the previous owner, so yes, she is rather shiny.
On the downside the kickstarter doesn't work (unless there is a trick I don't know about), not a surprise given your comments as I estimate she has around 180k km (115k miles) under the belt.

From the pictures she looks very clean (taken the day i bought her), but I now have oil smear all over the engine block and will have to do something about the apparent leaks.

I will take some pictures to upload and will be very interested in any feedback as to where the leaks might stem from. Cylinder blocks, pushrod tubes, etc.

Couple of questions:
1) Is there a service/repair manual available on the forum?
2) I have tried to tune the carburators (irregular RPM + dirty/dark spark-plug), my technique is simply to adjust the fuel mix screw to the point where the RPM is at max. It has definitely improved the performance and idles at a stable 800 RPMs now once she is warm. Can I then consider the tune "optimized" if I see that my sparkplugs are also relatively dry/brown-ish? (see attached photos)
3) My choke is still not working after the carbu-tune. It simply kills the engine at max opening, half-open it does nothing. Does this mean I have a problem inside the carbu?
4) Any recommendations on web pages where I can buy parts such as oil change kits, filters, o-ring kits, etc at a reasonable price?

Best regards,
Einar.

Best regards,
Einar

[montmil]

Couple of questions:
1) Is there a service/repair manual available on the forum?
2) I have tried to tune the carburators (irregular RPM + dirty/dark spark-plug), my technique is simply to adjust the fuel mix screw to the point where the RPM is at max. It has definitely improved the performance and idles at a stable 800 RPMs now once she is warm. Can I then consider the tune "optimized" if I see that my sparkplugs are also relatively dry/brown-ish? (see attached photos)
3) My choke is still not working after the carbu-tune. It simply kills the engine at max opening, half-open it does nothing. Does this mean I have a problem inside the carbu?
4) Any recommendations on web pages where I can buy parts such as oil change kits, filters, o-ring kits, etc at a reasonable price?

1) In the R65 FAQs section, page 2, there is a complete R65 owners manual for the 81-84 models. You would benefit from buying a Clymer or Haynes (or both) manual for your bike.

2) 800 revs is really too low for the idle. The cam chain and gears receive their oil lube from a small pipe that squirts oil in their general direction. Kinda crude design. At low rpm, the oiling won't be sufficient. Manual states 900-1100 as optimal idle revs. Your spark plug pics indicate your tune is overly rich. The idle air circuit goes off line as soon as the throttle is opened, even just a fraction. Plugs indicate carb work required, including disassembly and cleaning. Floats may be fuel soaked 'sinkers" creating a rich mixture.

3) The "choke" is the enrichener system: a basic carburetor attached to the carb body. The discs in your carbs might be installed incorrectly, cables may be installed incorrectly. Or this issue could be related to the current overly rich mixture.

4) Check out:
http://www.beemerboneyard.com/
http://www.euromotoelectrics.co[url]m/Default.asp
https://www.motobins.co.uk/

Also, get to know The Snowbum.  http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/technical-articles-list.htm

[Einar]

Hi Monte,

Thank you that's really helpful!

Carburators and chokes are a bit of a black hole for me knowledgewise/confidencewise, so it's a good place to start getting my hands dirty before moving on to the oil leaks. I will do as you suggest.

As for manuals, I found the owners manual in the FAQ section, thank you. Will definitely need a full repair manual in addition. If I can find a softcopy I will upload to the forum.

Thanks for the links. I found a pretty good European site as well. Might not be very relevant for most of you guys, however it's very easy to identify parts and partnumbers (more importanlty) straight from a drawing. Unfortunately it exists only in french, however it is easy to navigate.
http://www.boxergaragemoto.fr

Best regards,
Einar

[montmil]

Should you decide to overhaul the Bing CV carbs, this link will be very helpful. Do one carb at a time so you'll have a reference.

http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/r100gs/carb_rebuild/index.html

[Einar]

Hi,

Thanks for the link, great pictures and some good pointers there. Found a good video on youtube also on how to rebuild a carb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6CKkNQnHkY

I have taken off the left carb, disassembled it and cleaned all the parts. I am waiting for a rebuild-kit before I put it back together though. Tomorrow I'll take off the right carb while waiting for parts.
Initially I was a bit worried as it is remarkable how dirty and oil smeared the engine block, carbs etc has become over the 2 weeks since I bought it and how worn the carb looked. However once I got the carb disassembled and cleaned it no longer looks that bad. In fact some of the parts look in very good shape.

Few things i noticed, knowing that I have no clue long it has been since the last carb service (and assuming the bike has approx 178k km of milage):

1) There seems to be dirty oil inside the carb as well as inside the piston. Is this normal? It doesn't smell distinctively like gas hence the question.
2) The long needle that goes from the diaphragm appears to be slightly bent along with the jets that it goes into. I am unsure of the effect this has on the carb-operation
3) The o-ring on the fuel mix needle was ripped.
4) The float bowl gasket was porous and broke when I touched it.
5) The threads on the screws attaching the butterfly to the rod are damaged. Are these screws meant to be replaced each time they are undone? I heard something about "1-fitting-only" screws somewhere in the Bing carb to prevent a faulty screw ending up in the engine.
6) The floats seem to be in decent condition. Is there a simple way to test them? I don't have an electronic weight that can measure down to 13 grams.
7) Am I correct in assuming the R65 uses 32mm carbs? That's what I have ordered parts for.

This was the "good" carb based on the spark-plug condition, so I will be able to compare tomorrow when I do the right side.

[suecanada]

I am hoping someone replies to help here.....what happened??