I got a new bike this weekend!

[Yikes]

Not another bike, but the old ’82 was transformed into a new bike.  Ever since I got the  bike (October ’07) it has had made this horrible noise.  My neighbor, not a BMW guy, but a retired machinist, examined the bike when I got it and assured me that he motor was sound, but something was amiss in the left head.  It didn’t make a tick, more of a clatter.  A very loud clatter.  As I worked on the bike over the last year, I discovered that the noise was caused by the left exhaust push rod bouncing back and forth between the cam follower and the adjuster.  As much as I tried, I could not eliminate that play in the push rod travel.  I thought maybe it was the cam follower, but my neighbor said that was unlikely and that the problem was probably due to the valve not fully closing, maybe a broken valve spring. :-/

Being unprepared for a full blown top end job, I took a gamble and bought a pair of cheap used heads on ebay a couple of months ago.  (They were advertised as having been re-worked 7,000 miles ago so I figured they would be OK.)  I took advantage of the 60 degree February weather we had this weekend and swapped my heads with the spares.  It was a great learning exercise and luckily my exhaust nuts came off pretty easily.  Well I got it back together, started it up and WOW!  She purred like a kitten.  It actually sounded like the smooth sounding R65’s I’ve listened to on You Tube.  It is like a new bike.  I used to hate to listen to it run, but now, well I just can’t believe how great it sounds.  I hardly even need the earplugs anymore.

While I was working I also replaced a muffler with a decent used one, installed new pushrod tube seals and the cylinder O rings, head and exhaust gaskets.  I’m hoping that the warm weather holds out a bit longer so I can do some serious riding.  Now I have some time to scrape up a valve spring compressor, check the condition of the valves and heads and decide where to go with them.  Maybe I’ll be lucky my neighbor will be right and it’ll only need a broken spring replaced.

Here's to successful fixes! [smiley=1drink.gif]

[aussie]

Congrats Yikes - it's always pleasing to hear when something like this is fixed relatively easily. Have a beer on me... [smiley=1drink.gif]

[not-so-fast-ed]

Wonderful!

Great to hear another success story.

Congratulations,

Ed

[trolle]

Good, I would hate to know that your new S-fairing were mounted on a noisy bike  

greetings from a white and cold north

[Yikes]

In my excitement about my new bike, I forgot to mention the crowning touch - a new Dyna coil and plug wires and caps from Rick at Motorad Electrik.  Two weeks ago I lost ignition on the James River bridge going into town.  Not a good place to break down at morning rush hour.  It started up again after a 15 minute coolng off period and I was up and running OK.  It had been dying on me with way too much regularity since it got cold and the weak orange spark I saw when I checked it was all I needed to see.  Another Crack-O-Matic is history.

Trolle, I have gotten started on getting the S fairing roughed up for the fiberglass repair.  I've been working on my painting skills, cleaning up my side covers and tail piece (per Monte's instructions), but I don't think I'm ready yet for the fairing job.  My painting problems could be due to having to spray outside in temperatures of 30 to 50 degrees F.  Another reason I'm anxiously awaiting spring.  I may just bite the bullet and take the fairing, tail piece side covers and fender to the body shop that just repaired the two cars that my daughter wrecked parallel parking in front of our house.  (A sad story of confusing the brake pedal for the accelerator in reverse gear.)  But I really would like to do the work myself, especially after seeing Steve Hawkins' Krylon job!