New Member in Ft. Worth, TX

[caci]

Hi, all.  Chris here, in Ft. Worth.  Just bought a '84 R65LS from a non-BMW Dealer (read: we don't know much about it, but a lot of Beemer guys have told us "it's cool").

Anyway... Black Custom paint w/Red pinstripe (been lightly dropped - little scuffs to front fairing and 1 rocker cover; couple of bent fins on underside of left head).

Had a friend ride it home 2 miles for me Friday week.  Began goin' over it and promptly broke the clutch arm boss on rear trans cover - someone had "fixed" a cracked boss with JB Weld.  On impulse, purchased new rear cover from Ebay (wrong one) and ordered an Output Flange Tool from Ed Korn.

I had already stopped in to see Merry & Perry Bushong, as a good friend of mine dealt with them many years ago and I remember all of the nice things he liked about dealing with them.

When I told Perry what I was going to do, he told me to just bring him the trans and he would have the bosses welded up, so that I could re-cut the pivot for the clutch arm.  He took care of that in less than 2 days!

He was very helpful, in that he gave me pointers on rebuilding the carbs (bike came with o-rings, gaskets and diaphragms), as well as cleaning rear brake shoes (boil in water to remove any oils that may have gotten on them) and what to check out on the fronts.

Well I started at the rear axle and worked my way forward and when I attempted to replace the front wheel so as to check out the front calipers and bleed - I noticed that the left fork was about 3/4" lower than the right (this after already draining and replacing the fluid in both).  I couldn't budge it and the fender was even "twisted".  When I removed the front fender, the left slider fell to the floor.

To be continued....

[NC Steve]

Welcome to the club, Chris, hope you enjoy yourself here, it's a great, helpful group of folks.

BTW, the Big Boss, Justin B, lives just down the road in Crowley...

[caci]

Turns out the cir-clip has come out of the slot and the piston rings had dislodged.  I brought the disassembled fork to the Bushongs' yesterday and Perry offered to put it back together - on-the-spot!  
I had damaged one of the fork piston rings and Perry gave me another.  Unfortunately, he noticed that the "top out" bumper was in poor shape and should be replaced so that it didn't fall apart and possible clog holes in the metering assembly.  They will be in Tuesday.

I'll go ahead and replace that part in both forks, along with the Fork Seals.

What I've done so far:
Repaired Clutch Fork Boss
Cleaned and repacked roller bearing of same
Greased Input Splines
Drained and refilled Engine, Trans, Driveshaft and Final Drive
Cleaned/Rebuilt Carbs
Re-torqued heads and adjusted valves
Removed Air Injection (plugged 1 hole in airbox, used other to route hose for crankcase vent)
Plugged heads with cut-down-welded-up original fittings
Cleaned and lubed Throttle, Clutch and Choke Cables
Cleaned and lubed Throttle mech and Choke Lever
Stripped and re-painted upper engine and rocker covers
Cleaned in-tank fuel screen
Replaced fuel lines (I am impressed with BMW's "no clamp" fuel line)
Installed in-line fuel filter
Cleaned and lubed Rear Brake and GearShift linkages.
Replaced both crossovers, as I had to destroy them to remove exhaust
(Merry had both of them in-stock- in chrome)

I've lurked for the past week and look forward to bending ears on this Forum.

Looks like there are quite a few LS owners and lots of expertise available.

Thanks,
Chris

[caci]

Welcome to the club, Chris, hope you enjoy yourself here, it's a great, helpful group of folks.

BTW, the Big Boss, Justin B, lives just down the road in Crowley...

NC Steve,

Thanks for the welcome.  Yes, I noticed that Justin is in Crowley.  I attended 3-12 grades there and continued to work in Crowley up til 1984.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

You are so very lucky to have the Bushongs nearby!

Have fun with your new bike.  Post a picture when you can!

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Welcome to the farm Caci.  I'm in Bedford and Monte is up in Denton.  You also have a very good resource in Bruce Davidson in Pantego, aka Boxers By Bruce.  Post your questions no matter how trivial, someone here will know the solution.

[scottyintex]

Welcome to the Clan...more than a few Texans here. I am in Marble Falls. Would love to see pictures of your cycle.

[montmil]

OhBoy! Another fellow Texican. We may soon outnumber the Aussies that hang out hereabouts.

As Scotty says, we love photos of peep's R65s and their other bikes. Those Aussies I mentioned do seem to have a grip on sweet looking BMWs. I just bought some stainless Dunstall-style mufflers just trying to hold up our end!

Welcome to the asylum.

Monte Miller
Denton, TEXAS

[Darwin_R65]

welcome to the forum.

sounds like you've found yourself a good mechanic.

Piccies, we love them here.

As for monte's comments on more texans than ozzies, thing is that you can be at opposite ends of texas and still be closer together than most of us ozzies.

keep us up to date on progress of fixing this bike.

I take it looking at those forks that the previous owner dismounted very quickly as he connected with the curb.
 

[Darwin_R65]

Hey Monte if all those Texans added themselves to our FRAPPR map at http://www.frappr.com/r65org

we'd see just how many there are, and where abouts they're located

unless of course they don't want to be found ...........

[caci]

OK, after a little more work and help from Merry & Perry Bushong, I've got the LS up and running (still need NEW tires).  

Perry got the forks taken care of a couple of days after my last post.
I rushed home (2.6 miles) and installed the forks.  
After a few days bad weather, attempted to ride the bike to Perry for carb adjustment.  About 1/4 mile from the shop, pulled in the clutch to stop for a light and it shut down in a hurry, as the front brakes were not releasing.
Pulled out of traffic - after using up about half of what was probably a low-mileage clutch and called for help.  Meanwhile I had 3 people stop to see if they could help!

All I needed was an 11mm wrench to crack the front calipers.  Do you think I brought any tools with me?
Anyway, a gentleman stopped and lent me a socket and rachet and I made it to Perry's.

He diagnosed the problem as a dirty Master Cylinder that was not properly back-flowing upon release.

I left the LS with him and he cleaned the MC (saving me quite a bit of $$$) and had to clean my carb cleaning job (I'll be more thorough  next time).

More cold weather, picked the bike up and even though Perry test-rode the bike, I wasn't happy with the front rotors, which had warped from the original trip to Bushong's (.030 runout on the left & .012 on the right - pulsed pretty bad and would probably be a little dangerous in wet weather).

Perry fixed me up with a pair of gently used rotors. Got it back together in 15 minutes and finally took it out for a shakedown Wed. evening.  He's got this thing idling right at 1000 rpm and once I figured out how the "Choke" works, it is pretty easy to start.  "Tested in sub-30 degree temps"!


I am really happy with it, although, as I tip the scales at about 250, I will most likely upgrade to progressive fork springs and HD sprung 412's.

Photobucket images in next post...

Thanks,
Chris

[caci]

BTW, put together a took kit.  I found all of the upen-end wrenches at a local pawn shop - many marked BMW and/or Heyco.

Bike is not concours, numerous nicks and scratches.  The worst of it is on the left side of the nacelle - looks like a 0.0 mph fall.  If I can get that paint "ironed out", I'll install the red decals.








Thanks,

Chris

[NC Steve]

Wow, very nice looking LS you got there, Chris!
I particularly like the red pinstriping, and the blacked-out exhaust couple with the gloss black paint. Nice! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

And by the way, if you'll copy your photo link from Photobucket using their last "IMG Code" and paste it in, or stick it in one of the picture frame looking doohickeys when you post, your shots will come out looking like this.

[montmil]

In the last photo of the bike, Chris, there is shown a large diameter, clear vinyl tube exiting the air filter box in the former location of the pulse air fitting. If the vinyl tube is being used as a drain, vent or something, be advised it also functions as an air intake drawing unfiltered air into the carbs and engine.

Best to seal off that opening. The same hard rubber plug used in the timing window hole can be used to good effect in the two pulse air openings. With the road grit thrown up by the rear wheel, you'll likely be doing a bit of sand blasting on the engine internals... especially with the sand recently thrown down by the FTW road crews.

Monte

[caci]

Monte,

Actually, that line is passing through the airbox, connected to the engine-breather reed-valve.  The only point of entry for un-filtered air is around the hose - where it exits the airbox.

Thanks,

Chris