Restoration of BMW R69s engine

[malmac]

Hey Mal,

Love the look of your vintage BMW (what a classic!) and though you might enjoy my motorcycle adventure so hear it is. I bought a Honda CL350 in Japan on my last 6 month (USN 12/65-11/69) WestPack tour and brought it back on the aircraft carrier I was stationed on.

Getting ready to be discharge end of February 69' and I had two weeks more leave than I could sell back and burned those up riding it up coast from San Diego to San Francisco and then back to San Diego through the mountains and national parks sleeping along side the highway behind some shrubs/etc. This was my first experience riding a motorcycle and I survived it without any damage to me or anyone else.

Then after discharge the last week of February I road it cross country from San Diego to Hialeah Florida which was seven days of freezing my ass off drafting semi's trying to stay warm and sleeping on the ground next to the bike.

One year after discharge I attended a 9 month motorcycle mechanic school just north of Davenport Iowa and worked as a motorcycle mechanic from my mid 20's to mid 30's and then switched careers to data processing. My first motorcycle mechanics job was at a Honda Norton dealership in Davenport and I fell in love with Norton's and owned two of them (750 Interstate and 850 Commando) while wrenching on Honda's. Briefly worked at a Honda BMW dealership in Tampa Florida although no BMW wrenching experience.

I'm really enjoying your rebuild and special tool making as it brings back some nice memories of my wrenching years. I rebuild both of my Norton engines and while not as refined as a BMW they were a pleasure to work on as you could rebuild everything as opposed to Honda parts swapping. About five years after the end of my wrenching days I sold all of my tools and my last Norton for which I had about ten boxes of long neck bottle beer boxes full of new/used parts that I acquired over the years at various salvage yards and dealerships. I sold the bike and parts to a guy that appreciated Norton's and it did my hart good to know that the bike was in good hands.

To me there is nothing like old iron either motorcycles or metal working equipment and looking forward to the rest of your rebuild.

And yes per your quote “though were the days ...”

Harry

Harry

I did enjoy hearing your story. Those bike journeys when young just can't be redone. You get a chance to be young once and then it is gone.
Sleeping under railway bridges, old train stations and just on the ground. Your yarn brought back lots of similar memories. I have never worked as a bike mechanic but have learnt by breaking and spending........ ouch.
The guy down the road had a Norton Commando 750 fastback - red - beautiful bike with such a crisp note and visible vibration. I was always a sucker for quiet and smooth - my R1200GS is really great - but as I get older I would appreciate a smaller boxer and with less electrical complexity.

I am at a slow point at the moment with the rebuild. Sorting out a tool to hone my cam follower bores and also how best to tweak the crankshaft to get optimum alignment.

Thanks again for sharing your background with bikes.

Mal

 

[malmac]

I'm trying to find a pic of the 1969-70 Honda 350 Scrambler. It was the dual sport version with knobby tires, black exhaust with upswept pipes on both sides....I think.
I was dreamy over that bike. My best friend's big brother bought it new. We would look at it for hours and dream.

Is it something like this one?

 

[HarryJM]

.. and visible vibration. ...

Norton had an isolastic suspension system that isolated the engine, gear box and swing arm from the frame which resulted in the engine vibrations almost completely disappearing at certain crusing RPM ranges, although not quite as smooth as a Godlwing.

 

[C-Bag]

Hi Tony

I am learning a lot from the posts re the place motorcycles hold in a rider's memory. While we are all different there seems to be an easy friendship between motorcyclists (maybe true for boating folks and golfers - but that is just a guess).
I was a motorcycle training officer for about 15 years and appreciate that to put the bike aside before one gets hurt is wise.
Maybe I'm just not wise - but I ride pretty steady these days.

Mal

Rarely do those who ever experienced the feeling of freedom from riding a motorcycle have bad memories. I rode my bikes as little as possible in town and they were never my main transportation. Having always driven VW’s I lived the “you are invisible” credo. But having lost friends and several musical hero’s to motorcycles I was hyper aware and tried to be smart and always stay ahead of the situation.

My old ‘62 bug’s master cyl. died as I‘d been planning to go see my good friends in San Francisco. So I rode the Beemer in late and stashed it in my sister’s backyard in Daley City and rode the bus. I left at 2pm on Sunday (the usual lull in traffic) and was on the 580 headed for the bridge and did like I always did and got in the middle lane and was keeping with traffic. I noticed we were passing the slow lane like they were sitting still and the pack of cars i was in started feeling claustrophobic so I backed off and got like 4 car lengths and the guy behind me got spooked and backed way off and all the sudden everybody hit their brakes. Everybody in front of me(at least 8 cars) and the fast lane well behind me hit the the cars in front of them. It had to be at least 20 car pileup. I pulled into the slow lane and went around. Up at the front it looked like a big ol Plymouth Belvedere had clipped a Ford Pinto into the center divider and they were both crossways on the fast and middle lanes. I felt it was a sign.

Seeing your great tools and fixtures made me visit whats left of my VW tools. Timing gear puller, deck height gage, spec book I got while at the VW dealership, valve set cutters and my favorite, the Hazet ring compressor. Perfect for air cools where you have to slip the jug on. Just pull the handle out a little and the compressor releases. Works wonderful.

 

[malmac]

Rarely do those who ever experienced the feeling of freedom from riding a motorcycle have bad memories. I rode my bikes as little as possible in town and they were never my main transportation. Having always driven VW’s I lived the “you are invisible” credo. But having lost friends and several musical hero’s to motorcycles I was hyper aware and tried to be smart and always stay ahead of the situation.

My old ‘62 bug’s master cyl. died as I‘d been planning to go see my good friends in San Francisco. So I rode the Beemer in late and stashed it in my sister’s backyard in Daley City and rode the bus. I left at 2pm on Sunday (the usual lull in traffic) and was on the 580 headed for the bridge and did like I always did and got in the middle lane and was keeping with traffic. I noticed we were passing the slow lane like they were sitting still and the pack of cars i was in started feeling claustrophobic so I backed off and got like 4 car lengths and the guy behind me got spooked and backed way off and all the sudden everybody hit their brakes. Everybody in front of me(at least 8 cars) and the fast lane well behind me hit the the cars in front of them. It had to be at least 20 car pileup. I pulled into the slow lane and went around. Up at the front it looked like a big ol Plymouth Belvedere had clipped a Ford Pinto into the center divider and they were both crossways on the fast and middle lanes. I felt it was a sign.

Seeing your great tools and fixtures made me visit whats left of my VW tools. Timing gear puller, deck height gage, spec book I got while at the VW dealership, valve set cutters and my favorite, the Hazet ring compressor. Perfect for air cools where you have to slip the jug on. Just pull the handle out a little and the compressor releases. Works wonderful.

I think we all have stories of lucky escapes and you sure could have got mangled in that situation. I think riding motorcycles can hone one's intuition. Funny that intuition is a pretty good tool when one gets to the workshop as well.
Like when a bolt just starts to indicate it's not comfortable and one backs out before trouble eventuates.
I would like to claim, I never get it wrong but that is not the case. I seem to get it less wrong and when I do get it wrong I seem to bail out earlier and cause less problems.

Those valve seat cutters look really good. Any pics of them in action or set up for action?

Mal

 

[C-Bag]

I never had a way to take pictures of those cutters in action and haven’t used them for like 30yrs. Sorry. There’s no real mystery to them. They were made to cut the seats by hand, so just put the pilot in the guide and get er done. The reamers and guide drivers are in the box. Those are carbide cutters. They were made to do a 3 angle cut. Far more accurate than motor driven stone cutters especially on imports with small valve stems. I have 8.5mm, 8 and 6.5 pilots. Most times if the engine hadn’t burned a valve it didn’t take any time at all to bring a seat in. The three angles are 46, 15 and 75 deg. Most times I’d rough the seat in with the t-handle then use the speed handle to finish the 46deg. I was taught to always check the seat with Prussian blue after I was done. Never saw seat grinder do a seat concentric, the weight of the grinder would throw off the cut. 99% of all seats were done with a grinder and I can tell by the sound of the engine if it was done with cutters or a grinder. The ones done by a grinder have this odd hissing sound where the cutter doesn’t. It is a bit more work but worth it.

 

[Buffalo21]

I have similar looking set, used it when I worked in a Japanese motorcycle shop in the 80s-90s

 

[FOMOGO]

Those look like Neway cutters. I have a pretty good collection of them, and use them with an adapter I made, and a 3/8 drill. They work very well, but not cheap. Mike

 

[C-Bag]

Those look like Neway cutters. I have a pretty good collection of them, and use them with an adapter I made, and a 3/8 drill. They work very well, but not cheap. Mike

Yup, that’s exactly what they are. I’d not even opened that box in so long I forgot who made them, doh!

 

[malmac]

I never had a way to take pictures of those cutters in action and haven’t used them for like 30yrs. Sorry. There’s no real mystery to them. They were made to cut the seats by hand, so just put the pilot in the guide and get er done. The reamers and guide drivers are in the box. Those are carbide cutters. They were made to do a 3 angle cut. Far more accurate than motor driven stone cutters especially on imports with small valve stems. I have 8.5mm, 8 and 6.5 pilots. Most times if the engine hadn’t burned a valve it didn’t take any time at all to bring a seat in. The three angles are 46, 15 and 75 deg. Most times I’d rough the seat in with the t-handle then use the speed handle to finish the 46deg. I was taught to always check the seat with Prussian blue after I was done. Never saw seat grinder do a seat concentric, the weight of the grinder would throw off the cut. 99% of all seats were done with a grinder and I can tell by the sound of the engine if it was done with cutters or a grinder. The ones done by a grinder have this odd hissing sound where the cutter doesn’t. It is a bit more work but worth it.

Now it all makes sense. Some of these tools are probably not so easy to find anymore. Looks great.


Mal