Jul/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 19 Engine, Carbs, Exhaust
Over the past couple of weeks, I got the pistons, cylinders, heads, carburetor and exhaust back together. It’s almost looking like a motorcycle again 
I cleaned the carbon off the pistons using a wire wheel prior to putting the rings back on.
Before.
After.
I put the new rings back on by hand. The kit has all three rings clearly labeled. Be sure the “top” on the rings goes “up”
Ring kit.
“TOP” is engraved on the top side of the ring.
Then, I heated the pistons in the oven (175) and put the wrist pins in the freezer to make it easy to push the pins into the pistons. I bought a new set of C-clips and inserted them being sure the gap in the C-clip didn’t align with the cutout for removing them. There is a mark on the piston top “VOR” that indicates the side of the piston facing forward. Be sure you have them aligned correctly when assembling on the connecting rod.
C-clip covering the cutout in the piston.
Wrist pin assembled onto Piston and connecting rod.
Next, I assembled the push rod tube rubbers onto the ends of the tubes aligning them as shown.
Push rod tube rubbers aligned.
Then, I put the base gasket on using Hylomor as the sealant on both sides of the gasket. Be sure the holes in the gasket align with the holes in the base of the cylinder.
Base gasket with Hylomar sealant before smoothing it out over the gasket.
By hand, (I don’t have a ring compressor) I pushed the cylinder over the piston. You can do this by hand if you are very patient and go slowly so you don’t break a ring. I found using two wood sticks made it easier to compress a ring on one side, wiggle the cylinder a little so it covers that side of the ring then press the opposite side into the ring gap and wiggle the other side of the cylinder past a ring. Easy and slow does it here.
Cylinder over the piston.
Next, make sure you get the head gasket aligned the right way so it doesn’t cover the push rod openings.
INCORRECT – gasket covering push rod tube holes
CORRECT – no obstruction of the push rod tub holes.
Next, attach the head by sliding it over the cylinder studs and put the push rods into the push rod holes. Then, add the rocker arm assemblies and using a cross-over pattern, tighten the nuts on the cylinder studs to pull the cylinders down onto the engine. Check as you go that the push rod rubbers are aligned with the holes in the block, or you will crack them and have to replace them.
Inserted push rod.
Rocker arm assembly attached to cylinder studs.
Cross-tighten nuts on cylinder studs to pull cylinder into the block.
Next, follow the torque tightening sequence and tighten the heads down. Torque is brought up in stages, not all at once. When that’s done, set the valve clearences, add the valve covers and move on to the other side.
I added the carburetors using the rubber spigots and then assembled the new exhaust system. I found that assembling the muffler to the header first was the best way to go. I had some troubles with one of the inserts that goes on the header pipe as it wasn’t round. I finally got it back into shape. Keep all the connections loose and attach the muffler to the rear mounts. Then, be sure the header is pushed all the way into the head and twisted so the cross over pipe goes on. This took some fiddling, but it finally goes together. On the right side, I had to remove the brake peddle and grind a little off the the top of the peddel casting so the peddle would move freely.
Right Side.
Front showing cross over pipe.
Left Side.
I’m replacing the choke cables and have to wait for them to come in before putting the air cleaner and housing back onto the engine. That will complete the engine assembly.
Next up, paint preparation and finally, shooting the paint.
Jul/100
Compression
Recently, my wife and I took a two week vacation driving from our home in Colorado to the upper pennisula of Michigan to a “traditional” music festival. The tempo and meter of life was different. Instead of the cadence of a work day, we had the cadence of a driving day. Instead of keyboards, cell phones, marketing videos and conference calls, dictating my attention span, my mind was engaged listening to the CD player and having conversations with my wife. Time was measured by conversations about random topics and the rythmic hum of miles accumulating on the odometer. The screen in front of us was Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota … big sky and rolling land. We didn’t tune in to the news, web or blogs. We tuned into driving, thinking idle thoughts, and listening to music. Decompression.
Upon our return, I noticed the rate of content bombardment went up … way up. I plugged back in to — email, news papers (yeah, I’m one of those), blogs and very limited TV (The News Hour). The transition was stark. Time was now measured by the pace of electronic connectivity rather than scenery passing by. And if I was in my 20′s and totally connected, the rate of input would have been much higher.
It dawned on me that compression not only has to do with how time is metered out, but how information is concentrated. News of events now is worldwide. I can see in 20 mins a range of events that covers most of the surface of the Earth and reflects the pain, anger, anxiety and hatred of 6 Billion folks. 40 years ago, I couldn’t read about more than what was happening in my local community and a small amount of national and even less international news due to the size of a newspaper printed once a day. That constrained the content I was exposed to enormously, and even more, the culture and norms I was exposed to.
So, what happens to your sense of balance, happiness, well being and confidence about how the world works when compression includes not just time, but the events of the entire world updated every 20 mins? We know that the majority of the “popular news” is about pain, anger, anxiety, hatred and conflict, rather than dull, non-emotional stories. What happens when you get that kind of input, world-wide, updated every 20 mins? Does it change your perceptions, attitude, and outlook on life?
I wanted to draw attention to the fact the negative things people do to each other, they have always been doing. But, you didn’t see very much of it since the scope of information you could access was pretty small. Today, that scope is global. Is the world and its people more, or less, aggessive towards each other? Hmm …
Jul/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 18 Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Rebuilding
I started on this project last October and have been chipping away at it as time permitted. Last week, I had a four day weekend and spent time preparing for painting, aka, priming and sanding. This has taken much longer than I expected, and I’ve been recalling Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“. I’ve experienced several personal “gumption traps” and found that “being in the moment” is not easy to accomplish in a consistent manner.
The paint preparation phase has exposed a couple bad habits I have. The first is hurrying, the second is not thinking it through and the third is pushing to complete when I should take a break. These are related, and if I recall, are called out by Pirsig as examples of gumption traps that impede attaining quality.
Hurrying usually results in getting “behinder” due to mistakes and the rework they require. On top of that, you’re attitude is not postive due to your inner voice of self critisim getting pretty loud. The fun factor goes way down.
If you don’t stop and visualize getting from what you have to what you want, you can find the path you take is the wrong one, or you aren’t taking the shortest path to do the work. This is more the case when I have been working on disassembly and assembly of the Grey Ghost, but I find it happening in paint preparation as well. For example, I’ve forgotten to clean spray nozzles, not had the gloves on, forgotten to clean the parts with Windex prior to priming and each of those are the result of not thinking about how to get from what I have in front of me to where I want to end up BEFORE starting the work.
I also find that “getting done” is a slippery gumption trap. Getting done, of course, has value and does provide gratification. But, the journey also has great reward, and a journey done well has an even greater sense of accomplishment. I’m starting to figure out when the “let’s get done” motivation is out of control. And every time I don’t listen to that inner voice that says “Hey, you’re getting tired of what you are doing, take a break”, and keep on working, inevitably s&^%t happens.
I think there are days when you should not work on a project. This past Monday was one of those. I managed to break the coffee pot, assemble something backwards and put my finger prints in wet primer … all in about an hours time. I quit for the day at that point. It seems that Monday was not a day where I was “in the moment”; perhaps I was distracted by thoughts of a family get together later that day, or thoughts about the impending return to work drowned out “being in the moment”. For whatever reasons, the Zen state required for good quality was not in evidence.
Here is an observation about our ability to recognize the qualityof our work. Paint preparation (the mundane) really shows how quality (the sublime) is achieved: many small things done well result in high quality. I’ve sanded several areas and had to refill them because the surface was not the right contour or small defects were evident in the body putty. Each time I re-primed those areas, I’d think “There, that’s got it”. And then I’d re-sand it and see another small defect I had missed, and I’d say “Well, that’s not enough to make any difference”. But, the next day, I’d look at that area again, and it was clear it wasn’t up to snuff. So, I’d go back and put more body putty over it, prime it and sand it again. In one area of the tank, I’ve had to repeat that process 4 times.
My point is we see quality, or the lack of it, in an instant. But, we also have built-in “reality filters” that allow us to pretend we achieved it when we really haven’t. The pursuit of quality demands an ego-less perspective on our own work, which for me, isn’t easy to achieve. There is an absolute ego-less honesty required about your work if you want it have high quality. Achieving that honesty is worth the journey, and in no small part, it is what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is all about.
Jun/100
Arvada, CO to New Haven, CT-2020 Miles, 40.5 Hours
My high school, Hopkins, is a prep school in New Haven, CT. It celebrated it’s 350th anniversary this year (yeap, it was founded in 1660, 50 years after Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter making the sun center of the solar system and 6 years before Newton worked out the laws of motion and gravitation) which coincided with my 40th reunion. So, I took advantage of too much vacation accrual, and planned a ride out and back. By adding a few jogs to the route, I could try an Iron Butt Saddle Sore 2000 ride. The SS2000 is 2000 miles in 48 hours, or less. I’ve done a couple of SS1000 and one Bun Burner 1500 which is 1500 miles in 36 hours. So, I figured this wouldn’t be too tough a challenge.
My departure was set for Wednesday, June 9th with a target of being in New Haven no later than Friday afternoon to attend our class get together at a local pub. The formal reunion would be on Saturday. I had three days to get there with a plan to do it in 39 1/2 hours including sleep at the 1005 mile mark, almost exactly half way. I had planned 8 hours of sleep with some time to eat dinner and get some breakfast before starting the next day’s 1000 mile ride. The total distance would be 2021 miles according to Microsoft Streets and Trips.
The route went north from my home in Arvada, CO on I-25 to Cheyenne where I took I-80 through Nebraska, Iowa, and then I-74 to just south of Peoria, Illinois the first day. I budgeted 9.5 hours for sleep and a dinner stop that night. The second day the route continued on I-74 picking up I-70 at Indianapolis, then across Indiana to Columbus, Ohio where I picked up I-71 to I-76 just outside Akron, Ohio. From there, I would continue on to the intersection with I-80 in Pennsylvania to I-287 in New York and finally to I-95 to the final destination in New Haven, CT. Here’s a map of the route showing planned gas and sleep stops.
I planned to do the trip from twilight to dusk avoiding night driving. Since June 9th is close to the summer solstice, I would get maximum daylight – 5:15 am to about 9:00 pm.
I got my starting gas receipt at 5:20 am and my start witness, my youngest son, signed off in time to roll out of the station at exactly 5:30 am. The ride to Cheyenne was uneventful. I did encounter some light sprinkles just before getting to Cheyenne, but the sky cleared off as I headed west on I-80.
I had a list of stops with times that I created on a spreadsheet and at Cheyenne, figured out I had an error in my time arithmetic so the sheet was about 30 minutes ahead of my real arrival times at gas stops. As in past long distance rides, my stops alternated between 10 and 20 minute stops. 10 minutes is about right to get gassed and visit the rest room and may be grab some munchies out of the saddle bag. The 20 minute stop allows more time to get coffee if I want and to eat more and stretch out and exercise any tired muscles. Each stop is timed at about 200 – 220 miles, so depending on speed limits, that’s about 2.5 to 3 hours between them. I’ve found I can maintain that rhythm for 18-20 hours at a time if need be.
The only problem on day 1 was a detour in Davenport, IA due to the I-80 bridge over the Mississippi being closed. The detour took I-280 over the river which added about 15 miles to the trip. I hit the hotel about 20 mins late, grabbed a Burger King #1 meal, ate in my room and arranged for a 5:00 am wake up call for the next morning. Here’s the GPS record of Day1. You can ignore the “Maximum Speed” as that’s an artifact of the GPS. It frequently records an unobtainable maximum speed when it can’t get a satellite lock. The GPS gets turned off when the engine is off, so total time was a bit more than 15 hours.
On day 2, I had to add air to the tires as the elevation had dropped from 5300 feet to about 800 feet. So that added a few minutes to the moring preparations. Oil consumption at 1005 miles was about 1/16 of a quart.
As I headed out, I enjoyed the sunrise and cool temperatures on my way to Champaign, IL. Then on to Indiannapolis, IN.
I hadn’t expected the sad state of the freeway system in Indiannapolis. It was a huge mess and I got lost at one point due to construction detours. At the gas stop outside town, I could hear an unusual sound. I checked the bike and found the front fender was rubbing on the front tire. The two rear bolts that attached to the forks had both come out. I had mounted new tires the day before I left and I guess I managed to not get either bolt tight. I grabbed duct tape and tried to secure the fender adding a good 15 – 20 minutes to a planned 10 minute stop. As I got to each successive gas stop, I found the tape had not held and tried adding more. This is the final duck tape kludge I ended up with at the 3rd gas stop.
Toward the end of the day, I remembered I had some wire in my tool kit and ran some through the bolt holes and the fender which took the strain off the duck tape and kept the fender from tipping forward toward the tire. Lesson learned. Use bailing wire for this kind of repair.
When I got to the Tappan ZeeBridge over the Hudson River in New York, I was about an hour behind due to the multiple 20 min gas stops to futz with the front fender. When I took the exit to I-95 just before Greenwich, CT, all traffic stopped. All lanes, but one, on I-95 were closed for construction. And, they did that two more times in 40 miles. Each time there was a large traffic jam which added another 30 minutes or so lost before getting to my final gas station … which was closed by that time. I found one open about 5 miles up the road and clocked out at about 11:30 pm, June 10. The second 1000 miles took a bit more than 17 hours. Total time for the 2021 mile trip including sleep was about 40 hours 30 minutes and the average speed for the entire trip was 40 MPH. I slept quite well on Thursday night
The Return Trip
For the return trip 2 days later, I visited the family cemetery on my mother’s side north of New York City where my mom and dad currently reside, then headed south through Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and then home. That route was about 2100 miles and I took 3 days to complete it riding about 700 miles a day. Here’s the route and some pictures along the way.
My Prep School – Founded 1660
Yeap, 350 years old, and I was a member of the 1st graduating class
Replica of the original school building originally on the New Haven green.
My mother’s side of the family is buried in Phillipsport, NY which is just a street sign these days.
The “Sherwood” plot and Cookie Monster, my BMW R1150-RS. The Sherwoods are decended from the “Sherwood Forest” owners in England.
Maryland.
West Virginia
Kentucky.
Indiana
Kansas
Home Ahead
Jun/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 17 Carburetor Rebuild, The Good The Bad & The Ugly
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I took on the task of rebuilding the carburetors. The right side carb had a broken float pin boss and I had to get a used R75/5 carb body 5 years ago to get it running again. The right side has not been happy and when the heads and valves were redone, the right side exhaust was in worse shape than the left which are signs of lean running on the right side. With 103,000 and 35 years on the left side carb, and no full rebuild in that time (new floats and float needles of course, but no rebuild) it was time to get them back in condition.
To keep parts together, prevent confusing the parts from the left with those from the right side and to always have a correctly assembled carb to refer to, I rebuilt them one at a time starting with the right side. Since I was going to reinstall the original 75/6 right side carb, I would be stripping all parts off the old 75/5 carb body, replacing with new parts in the rebuild kit, and reusing the other parts. The R75/6 body had been sent to the Bing Agency to repair the broken float boss. Here are the before and after pictures.
Although Bing cleaned the carb, I polished it up a bit more with aluminum cleaner, steel wool and metal polish while I waited for parts to soak in solvent.
The first step was to remove the enricher from the R75/5 body taking out the 4 machine screws. As you can see in the picture, this is the Bad part — as in dirty. But it gets worse.
Next, I took off the float bowl … and now you can see the Uglypart … a nice bunch of glop in the bottom … not a good sign of a healthy carb by any means. I’m suspicious that the float was starting to dissolve which can happen with our methanol laced fuels. Corrosion is also clearly evident on the washer underneath the main jet in the center of the carb and the gasket between the float bowl and carb body is complete toast.
I focused on the enricher rebuild first. I dissembled it, and took pictures of the parts order so I wouldn’t make a mistake. I also have the Bing Agency carb book with full exploded view diagrams which is very helpful. I’ll refer to part numbers in this diagram in the following material.
I removed the old O-ring (pretty cracked) (#26) and soaked in parts washer solvent for several hours.I cleaned up the housing and lever using a wire wheel, aluminum cleaner and then metal polish. I used some masking tape to cover the threads of the disk (#47) to make it easier to get the O-ring (#49) on and not tear it in the process. I have some steel picks, one of which has a “C” shaped end that I hooked under the O-ring so I could pull it over the threads and onto the slot.
I found details in Snowbum’son-line BMW reference material on how to ensure the enricher is assembled correctly. There are two articles as well as another on the R75/5 Bing carburetor. As is the case with his writing, read slowly and carefully and be prepared to be told the same thing three times in different places and different ways. The right side housing has the curved passage on the right.
You should confirm you have the correct disk. The inside of the shaft is stamped with “R” for right and “W” for wrong … , actually, it’s “L” for left.
Then the disk is inserted as shown, with the slot at the 8:00 position and the little holes at the 1:00 position.
Then I assembled the housing putting the new gasket (#50) between it and the carb body. I put a small amount of silicone grease on the O-ring and a tiny amount of antiseize on the threads of each of the screws (#51). Note there is a dimple on one side of the shaft. This should be closer to right side on the right carburator.
The handle goes on the shaft with the nut (#52d) to attach the choke cable facing you. The shaft handle goes between the two verticle pins and the shaft should be pointing to the fuel spigot on the carb.
I put a tiny bit of antiseize on the brass threads of the shaft and then tightended up the nut.
The next step was to remove the throttle linkage (#27, #28), spring (#35) and throttle linkeage bracket (#31).
Then I remove the throttle plate (#23) and throttle shaft (#24). The screws (#25) holding the throttle plate to the shaft are peened over and are hard to remove. I was not able to remove one of them. So, I ground off the end of the screw on the back side of the throttle plate with a grinding stone on the end of a Dremel tool, and drilled a pilot hole for my smallest easy out and extracted it. The carb rebuild kit comes with new screws, so no worrries.
I soaked the parts in solvent for several hours and then cleaned them. I polished the throttle linkage parts and springs with a wire wheel, steel wool, aluminium cleaner and then finished them off with metal polish. I replaced the O-ring on the throttle shaft using tape over the threads and put a bit of silicone grease on the O-ring. Then I pushed the shaft back into the throttle body. It took a couple of tries to get the throttle plate into the slot in the shaft, so be patient and don’t force it. I found assembling the throttle linkage bracket (#31) into the groove on the throttle shaft and then tightening the bracket screws to the carb body ensured the shaft would not bind. I didn’t do that the first time and it bound up as there is some laterial play in the throttle shaft. I used lock tight on the throttle plate screws to ensure they wouldn’t come loose … if they do, they go right into the engine 
I also put a tiny bit of grease on the groove in the throttle shaft to keep things turning smoothly.
Next I removed the top, pulled out the slide with the jet needle and removed the metal ring (#17) holding the rubber diaphram to the top of the slide. There is a new jet needle (#3) in the rebuild kit and a new needle jet (#4). The needle vibrates and wearing the needle jet and the needle. I could see grooves in the needle.
Then, I took out all the jets from the bottom of the carb. When I reassembled the main jet, it cracked in two. It likely had a crack in it before hand. I suspect a cracked main jet didn’t help carburetion any :-( I have extra main jets, so no problem.
Each of the jets I removed (#7, #5, #1, #2, #3, #10) was very dirty. Here is the crud that was inside the needle jet (#3) and the atomizer (#2).
I had read on Snowbum’s posting that Berryman B-12 Chemtool was very good at removing crud and fuel varnish, but extremely nasty stuff. I bought some and wore my nitrile gloves when handling it. When I fished the parts out of the container, the nitrile started to wrinkle … the next day, the finger parts had completely dissolved … nasty indeed.
After all the internal jets were cleaned, I put new O-rings on them again using the masking tape trick and “C” shaped steel pick to pull them into the groove on the jets. I broke one O-ring, but my handy Ace hardware had a metric replacement . I put a tiny bit of antiseize on the jet threads as they are brass and screw into pot metal threads. I installed the new needle jet (#3) and atomizer (#2). The Bing exploded view diagram and the picture I took helped me make sure these went together in the right order. I installed the new float (#40), float needle (#4) and float hinge pin (#1 from the rebuild kit and then put in the new cork gasket (#46) into the groove in the bottom of the float bowl.
I reassembled the slide (#13) with the new diaphram (#16) from the rebuild kit putting a dab of antiseize on the screws. I added the internal spring (#22) which was not part of the original carb assemble. Clem supplied these and said adding them would improve gas mileage.
Then, I put the top (#20) back on and put a tiny amount of antiseize on the four screws (#21) that secure it to the carb body.
Now for the Good part. Here are “before” and “after” pictures showing the rebuilt right side carb and the yet to be rebuilt left side carb. Definitely night and day.
I did it all one more time on the left carb. Both were in need of attention, so I am very hopeful they will operate much better and the bike run a lot smoother.
May/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 16 Shocks, Controls, Handlebar, Wiring
The past week I’ve been working on a number of items. First order of business was to put the shocks back together and mount them. I clamped the shock in a vice an put the preload adjuster, retainer and shock together with the tighter windings of the spring at the bottom.
In lieu of the BMW shock spring compressor, I use two 1 inch hose clamps to compress the springs so I can put the top shock mount bracket on. Thread the hose clamps through three of the spring coils near the top and then tight to compress the springs leaving a clear space between the top of the spring and the bottom of the mounting bracket.
I could push the aluminum cover down a bit more to insert the 10 mm wrench on the shock rod and a screw driver through the eye bolt to tighten the top mounting bracket.
To mount the shocks, I used a jack stand and some wood blocks to hold up the rear end so I could insert the top bolt on the right side shock. Since that side has a stud for the bottom mounting, its easier to mount the right side first.
With the rear shocks mounted, I took apart the instruments, controls and handlebar to clean them up. I also needed to remove the Windjammer V wiring harness from the headlight shell so I could reinstall the original headlight wiring harness.
I painted the headlight “ears”, and cleaned and polished the mounting hardware before putting the R90S turn signal brackets and fairing mounting brackets on.
I wired in the turn signal wires and the old front headlight wiring harness and the neutral switch that allows you to start the engine when the clutch is pulled in. I took some time reviewing the wiring diagrams to find out where the connectors go inside the headlight shell. I also had to modify some of the connectors to the correct “L” shaped connector with insulator boot. It does look like “wiring spaghetti” inside the headlight shell
The final task was to mount the speedometer/tach, handlebars, controls and atach the new throttle cables and the existing clutch and front brake cables to the levers. It took some time and couple of disassemble/reassembly tries to get the wiring and cables routed correctly. For some reason, its too easy to get one thing going the wrong way with that many cables and wiring harness to contend with. Here’s the final handlebar and control assembly’s mounted. The new paint stands out compared to the dulled plastic of the switch assembles. I’ll try more Amour All and see if I can brighten the plastic on the controls.
At this point, the engine top end, carburetor rebuild and new electronic ignition installation are the remaining mechanical tasks. And, the painting project of course, is still left to be done. But, the Grey Ghost is coming back together.
May/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 15 Mounting Front Wheel & Subframe
When I had the front end rebuilt, I had 11 rib fork boots not the standard 13 rib. So, I removed the tubes and mounted the correct 13 rib boots. I also cleaned up the snowflake cast front rim and the disk brake rotor assemble and had repainted the brake caliper which was showing aluminum instead of the original black paint.
Here are the pictures of the front end with the incorrect 11 rib and the correct 13 rib fork boots. It looks much better with the correct ones installed.
I loosely mounted the fork brace and then mounted the front wheel . I pushed up and down on the forks a couple of times to ensure alignment and then tightened the axle nut and locking bolts. Again, I pumped the front forks up and down and then tighted the fork brace bolts to the correct torque settings.
I bought new disk brake pads and also had to buy a new brake pipe as corrosion had made one of the nuts too small to fit a standard 10 mm ring spanner. The two pads are different. The one that goes into the piston side (right one in the photo) of the caliper has a small hole in it and the fixed pad (left one in the photo) has two raised castings that center the pad in the circular caliper cut out.
The brake pad kits come with a new O-ring that goes inside the center of the caliper piston as shown and a new clip for securing the fixed pad onto the back of the caliper.
Insert the pad into the piston first. The curved end of the pad goes to the back of the caliper. Then, put the pad into the fixed side of the caliper and secure it with the clip on the back with the open ends facing down as shown.
Next, I mounted the caliber to the fork using the excentric pin to hold it in place. Finally, I connected the new brake pipe to the braided steel brake line. Here’s the completed front end and wheel with brake caliper.
I spent a couple of hours polishing the aluminum engine cases with Autosol metal cleaner, metal polish and finished up with Aluminum oil. Now it really matches the transmission and rear drive and has a nice satin patina to it.
Finally, I mounted the subframe. I found mounting it using the bottom bolts first makes it easier to force the top legs into the top of the spine. Then I used a piece of wire and threaded it through the rear hole to the front hole in the subframe. I wrapped the wiring harness with duct tape and twisted the wire around that and pulled the wire harness back through the subframe tubing to the rear. Its all ready for the rear turn signals, but I have to finish painting the rear fender before I can mount them as they attach to the fender.
Here’s the Grey Ghost with the subframe mounted to the frame along with the key lock and the side handle for lifting the bike onto the center stand. It’s starting to more like a motorcycle. I just need to slap the rear shocks back on when I get the chance.
May/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 14 Small Parts & Engine Painting
We have had miserable weather with cold, damp and even snow in Denver for the past two weeks. We did get two warm days stuck in the middle of each week and I took advantage to complete painting of the small parts and the engine cylinders and valve covers.
For the small parts, I used some wood clamps and some plywood on my saw horses to make a “paint fence” so I could hang the parts.
I again had some problems with paint adhering to some of the parts , so I had to strip the turn signal brackets and repaint them.
The next warm day, I painted the cylinders and valve covers. The valve covers have ridges that are not painted. I thought putting a little oil on them would keep the paint form sticking. That was not a good idea as the oil flowed down the side of the ridges requiring me to re-clean the parts. Next, I tried axle grease very sparingly applied to the top of each ridge. As noted below, that didn’t really work well as the paint became very sticky and was hard to remove. I primed the parts and then finished up with engine paint rated to 500 degrees temperature. I taped off the base of the cylinder, the ends of the push rod tubes and the top of the head where the cylinder gasket goes to prevent getting paint on these surfaces as they have close tolerances. I also stuffed the cylinder bores with newspaper and taped off all the holes in the top of the heads.
Here’s the parts after painting.
I found that the best approach for cleaning paint off the ridges on the heads was to use a Dremel tool with a coarse sanding cylinder to remove the paint from the top of the ridge. This also let me remove some gouges and pits in the aluminum. I masked off the covers around the ridges with masking tape to prevent mishaps. After removing much of the paint with Dremel tool which really gummed up the sanding cylinders (I used 5 of them ), I used a sanding block with 220 grit to get all the last bit of paint off and then finished up with 600 grit to polish the aluminum. Here is the before and after pictures.
Finally, I baked the parts in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 mins. I opened windows and doors to let the fumes escape. My wife, who is a saint, only mentioned that they were “stinky” as they baked … ”Nothings quite so loving as something in the oven”
I believe I have all the parts painted other than the fenders, tank, side covers and fairing which will be painted Smoke Silver. That promises to be an adventure
Apr/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 13 Putting Back End Back Together
I’ve been out of town more than usually over the past couple of weeks, so progress has slowed down a bit. I discovered that the paint on the subframe didn’t adhere properly – ripples in some places and soft paint in others .
I suspect the aircraft stripper wasn’t completly removed from the subframe. I took the wire wheel and my hand drill and wire brushed the new paint off the frame. Then, I washed it in the sink several times and finished it off with windex and paper towels to dry it.
This time I primed first and could see the primer was sticking nicely. I did a light sand with 400 grit, washed it again and then shot it with several coats of the black gloss enamel. When I came back from my recent travels, the enamel had no ripples and the subframe was looking great.
While I was out of town, the heads came back from Randy Long at Long’s Custom Services in Pennsylvania. I originally sent him the head with the cracked fin to repair. When he received it I called him to talk over the options for the repair. Since the crack extended past the pin, I had Randy cut the pin off and fix the fin. Upon closer inspection of the seats, Randy conclued the exhaust valve was buried too far into the head to be in spec. I decided to ship him the other head and have him replace the exhaust valves, guides, springs and keepers. Here’s a before, after picture set of Randy’s work. Very nice repair.
Cylinder Fin Damage
Today, Sunday, Branden came over and we started working on putting the backend back together. First, we cleaned the rust off the transmission input shaft and greased it with Honda Moly-60 paste. The BMW greases don’t have a great reputation, but the Honda Moly-60 is recommended by many. I used a toothbrush to put a light coat on the transmission splines. It’s best to coat the transmission splines ONLY and not the clutch plate female splines. This way, any excess grease is pushed past the clutch plates so any thrown off won’t coat the plates. I also put a dab on the end of the clutch throw out rod to keep it and where it contacts the clutch plate from rusting.
Next, we put the transmission back in the frame and carefully inserted it into the clutch spline. I put rags on all the freshly painted frame tubes to prevent scratching the paint job. Here’s Branden getting it lined up.
He put the three bolts and the upper right nut back on and torqued them up. Branden had to leave at that point, so I continued with the swing arm, rear drive and rear wheel.
I cleaned the old gasket off the rear drive and swing arm which took some time. I found using carb cleaner and then working at the old gasket carefully with a paint scraper and brass brush finally got the 35 year old gasket off.
Next, I mounted the swing arm with the bushings and ran them in as evenly as I could. Then, using a caliper, I loosened one bushing and tightened the opposite one until the gap was within .02 inch on each side.
Next, I torqued the bushings to the bearing preload torque and measured the gap again. I had to loosen the bushings and readjust the gap slightly and then retorqued to the preload torque. Then, I loosened the bushings and torqued to the final settings which are lower than the preload. I measured the gaps again and they were within .01 inch.
Next, I mounted the rear wheel. I found that sitting on the rear wheel when I took the transmission/drive shaft bolts off keep the shaft from spinning, so I figured it would keep the shaft from spinning when I tighted them.
I mounted the rear drive to the drive shaft. These splines are lubricated by the gear lube in the drive shaft so you don’t need to grease them. I rotated the drive shaft until the splines lined up, slide the rear drive on the shaft splines, and then put the nuts on the studs. There are no torque settings so I tightend the nuts to a reasonable level.
As I don’t have the BMW tool for torquing the bolts that connect the drive shaft to the transmission output shaft, Clem suggested I use some thread lock and tighten with my 10 mm ring spanner until tight. The bolts and washers are “use once” and get stretched when tightened, so they can’t be reused. I put the rubber boot on that goes between the swing arm and transmission and then pulled the drive shaft up to the transmission. Then, I put locktight on each of the new bolts and finger tighted them onto the tranmission output shaft and then leaned into them while sitting on the back tire.
Finally, I pulled the rubber boot over the swing arm and used the large ring clamp to attach it to the swing arm and used the second ring clamp to attach the other end to the transmission. Here’s the pictures of the bike with the back end reassembled.
Apr/100
Grey Ghost Restoration-Part 12 Painting Frame, Subframe, Swing Arm
I finally got decent weather for painting this Sunday, low humidity and temperatures in the low 70′s. I had prepared the frame, sub-frame and swing arm for painting over the past two weeks during the evenings after work. I used body putty to fill in where the paint was chipped from stones and where acid from the battery had removed the paint when the bike tipped over. (Would anyone who owns a bike for 35 years and never had it tip over, please raise their hand? Hmm, is that a hand up way in the back? ).
It was hard to sand the putty on the tubes since they are round. I found using 400 grit paper and just curling it around the tubes and using light pressure worked. I had to apply the body putty several times to fill in low spots and holes so this took a couple of nights to get the frame and swing arm prepared. Since I stripped the subframe down to the primer, it was ready to go.
I built a paint booth in the garage. I used several plastic drop cloths and stapled them to the joists to create an enclosure around the frame with enough room to paint the swing arm and subframe as well. I taped the seams between the drop cloths in several places to help seal them. I didn’t tape one seam so I could get into the booth. I used clothes pins and rolled the edges of the two plastic drop clothes together and fastened them from the inside with the clothes pins to seal the entry.
I removed the cars and the other bikes before I painted as spray paint sends small droplets of paint everywhere even though I was painting inside an enclosure.
Prior to painting, I used windex and paper towels to clean all the surfaces and remove any dirt or oil traces. I wore nitril gloves to keep finger print oil off the surfaces. Then, I wrapped all the surfaces on the bike that I wasn’t going to paint with newspaper. Finally, I covered the floor with newspaper as well.
Sunday, I taped off the bearings and covered the ends of the rear drive in the swing arm with newspaper and hung them from the rafters. I used wire for the swing arm since its heavy and string for the subframe. I had left enough room inside to hang those behind the bike and could walk around the front and back end of the bike to get to all the parts.
I used a hat, mask, nitrile goves and a long sleeve shirt when painting. It gets all over you, so covering up is a good idea. I also recommend wearing safety glasses to keep the paint out of your eyes. I opened the back door and cracked open the garage door to get some air circulation to remove the fumes, but not enough to have to worry about dirt and dust getting on the parts. I painted each part with about 4 coats of gloss black enamel paint available at my local auto parts store. I painted 2 coats in the first pass and let that dry for about an hour. I filled a small butter tub with Laquer thinner so I could clean the spay head in between uses to eliminate paint globs.
As I painted, I found the newspaper got very sticky and I was pulling it up when I walked on it. Perhaps, using some wax paper on the bottom of my shoes fastened with duck tape might have prevented that. I’ll have to try that next time when I prime the tank and fenders.
I inspected everything using a drop light after the first two coats and was amazed to see a half dozen places that didn’t get covered well. When painting black paint on top of black paint, its hard to see where the coverage is thin, and it’s especially hard to see when painting tubing. I painted the final two coats starting with the areas that were thin from the first two coats. I kept the final 2 coats light but made sure they wet all the painted surfaces.
Despite covering up, I got paint on my cheeks and forehead, so taking a shower right after you finish painting is a good idea as the enamel takes several hours to really dry and a shower seemed to remove most of it from my skin and beard.
Here’s a picture of the mask I wore after I finished painting. This is a pretty graphic demonstration of why you don’t want to paint without a mask. Most of that would have ended up in my lungs. I suspect that’s equal to a month or two of a 2 pack a day smoking habit
I’m letting everything dry for two days before touching them. Enamel takes awhile to harden, so its good to be patient and avoid touching the parts so you don’t get finger prints in the paint.