New Blood

[Blackjack]

Well....

I got an R/65.

I'd show you the blog and a pic, but I'm not allowed.

You know that thing where the pushrods rot out?

Anyone machine their own from stainless?

Or do we just buy them?

[Blackjack]

Says 3 posts, let's give this a go...



That's what I'm building.

[montmil]

Hello, Mr bridges. Don't see a license plate on your bad ass cafe racer so give us a heads up on where you hail from.

Welcome and thanks for posting a photo of your scooter. As you may have discerned, no photo - the bike doesn't exist!

Fill us in on the mods... Inquiring minds and all that stuff.

Monte

[dav]

Welcome aboard mate, nice build you got going there, as Monte says please tell the story behind it [smiley=bmw_smiley.gif].

[Blackjack]

Hi,

The bike came to me after spending about 10 years outside in a garden. It, not me....

The garden was (and probably still is) in England.  

Was going to trike it, but don't like trikes. Decided to Café it because you unbolt some stuff, you bolt some other stuff on, how hard can it be?

Doing some research, I decided I wanted to build a BMW that looked like it was going racing, not a race bike with a BMW engine in it, and that I liked the way they looked with the engine shifted forward and up.

So I shifted the engine forward and up, and in the process managed to snap one of the threaded exhaust collars off of the head. So, I sawed the other one off, used some 1 3/8" pipe stubs to fit in the heads, bent up an equal length 2-1 in 1 1/2" tube, made the collector, bent up a 1 3/4" tail pipe, and made the silencer. That's being secured to the head by drilling the fins and using springs from a moto-X bike.

I wanted rear sets, didn't like what I saw, so I made them. Wanted a tubular fork brace, was no way going to pay that kind of money for such a shoodily made piece of kit, built my own instead. Couldn't find a cafe seat unit that looked like what I had in mind, but luckily seem to be quite accomplished at metal shaping, so I made that too.

Rear light is from a Land Rover. Didn't make that or the squishy foam air filters.

Cut down the timing cover, going to chop off the top edges of the crankcase and drill the clutch housing soon, as well as add some frame braces with a torque plate upper engine mount off the top two transmission to crankcase studs, and splices in the right hand rail to allow for oil changes and engine removal.

Fuel tank is R80. I've done the rear mounts, yet to do the front one.

There's a blog which has more photos and detail here...

http://misterbridges.blogspot.com/

It's not finished yet, but because I wanted it to look like a BMW that was off to the races etc. I got it to look the way I want it so that I could work the braces around that, rather than chopping things up to suit the bracing I'd made.

It does run, and doesn't sound horrible, but it seems to be leaking oii through the pushrod tubes. I'm half tempted to make some stainless ones myself, but probably ought to buy them. The gearbox rattles because the previous owner fitted new bearings and mixed up or lost some of the shims.   I'll need to figure that out too...

Ripped a diaphragm in one of the carbs the other bay while freeing off the butterfly shaft. Not entirely pleased about that.

[nhmaf]

I think that you're best off with getting new rubber pushrod tube seals rather than trying to make something out of metal, and then still having to put rubber gaskets or O-rings onto the ends.   The rubber ones allow for alot of expansion/alignment changes if needed while still keeping the oil in, and generally last for years and years.   Sometimes one can squeeze them in a bit more and get a little additional life out of them, but seldom much more once they start leaking.  Also check that the 'collars' on the metal pushrod tubes which hold the rubber seals against the engine case haven't slipped - sometimes these need to be re-brazed.

[Blackjack]

I think that you're best off with getting new rubber pushrod tube seals rather than trying to make something out of metal, and then still having to put rubber gaskets or O-rings onto the ends.   The rubber ones allow for alot of expansion/alignment changes if needed while still keeping the oil in, and generally last for years and years.   Sometimes one can squeeze them in a bit more and get a little additional life out of them, but seldom much more once they start leaking.  Also check that the 'collars' on the metal pushrod tubes which hold the rubber seals against the engine case haven't slipped - sometimes these need to be re-brazed.

I think you've misunderstood....

Its the holes that appear to be rusted through the tube part of the pushrod tubes that's letting the oil out.

What I'm thinking about doing is machining some new tubes from a chunk of stainless steel that are copies of the existing ones, but without the rust holes.

[nhmaf]

Hmm, I guess that I've never seen one of these pushrod tubes rust through before.   You need to pay close attention to the I.D. of the tube if you make your own - the angle of the rod in the tube is often not PERFECTLY coaxial, so it may come closer or might possibly rub on an edge out at the end of the tube where it goes into the head.   I think that I'd stick with OEM parts for this purpose - unless the bike is left out in another flower garden for 10+ years, I don't think that you'll see the pushrod tubes rust through again.

[Blackjack]

Rusty pushrod tubes are enough of a problem over here that you can buy stainless ones off the shelf. Rusted through may be somewhat less common, but not unheard of.

The motorcycle is definitely getting some, the question is simply whether I turn them myself, or buy  them. I've got the material to make them, but they're £56 for four to buy.

[Semper Gumby]

Hey Mr Bridges.  Welcome.  If it sat out that long then you probably need to take apart the tranny/drive shaft and make sure there is no rust on the inside.  When you have the cylinders off you might also pull the solid lifters and see if the faces have any rust or dammage.  If there is you might want to take apart the motor.

10 years is a long time out of doors.

Good luck.

[Lucky_Lou]

Welcome Mr Bridges.... the tubes on mine were rusted after standing almost 10 years but not rusted through so a clean up and paint was all that was needed with a set of new seals, they do come up on flea bay now and again.Im down your way next April for the Wootton Bassett bike run.Your project looks very promising there was a link to a site with BMW cafe racers but i cannot remember where it is if you find it it may be helpfull.
Lou

[Blackjack]

BMW cafe racer web site. Rocker Boxer perhaps?

http://www.rockerboxer.com/garage.html

There's also the Team Incomplete Boxer site..

http://www.teamincomplete.com/Boxer/boxerhome.html

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I think this is what you are looking for.  This is vanzens design (rockerboxer):



http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff169/53vanzen53/RBSS2/

[Bob_Roller]

This is the first instance I've heard of where the push rod tubes have rusted through .

But then I live in a desert environment, and rust is not a common occurrence here !!

I would say though, that if the push rod tubes rusted through, the rest of the engine may not be in much better condition .

[Blackjack]

I think this is what you are looking for.  This is vanzens design (rockerboxer):

I'm going to have to make my right hand lower rail drop out too, but I'm pretty sure that I can use frame splices from a Suzuki Bandit to do that. Hope so, because I bought them today.

This is what I need.



Stainless pushrod tubes for the R45/65 from Motobins.