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New Year Holidays, 2002 Heavy duty springs, such as those on BMW motorcycle center stands and side stands, can be quite a hassle to install. Vech used a spring puller tool, which is essentially a sturdy hook with a handle. He pulled the spring into place, then he twisted the tool to release the spring. The spring puller tool did such a good job that we added it to our stock for sale at Bench Mark Works. |
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Reproduction
main wiring harnesses are available, but Vech prefers to make them from
scratch. He said that of the many little jobs involved in a BMW
motorcycle restoration, he enjoys the electrical wiring job the most.
I can't imagine why he says that. During the wiring phase, Vech often
puts both hands on his head and repeats over and over, "Let me think!
Let me think!" I know not to talk to him while he wires a bike. Vech wired so many BMW motorcycles in the past that he no longer uses the wiring diagrams as a reference. He relied on memory and visual calculation to wire the bike. He soldered each connection and used heat-shrink tubing over the wires. Vech once used a propane torch to heat the heat-shrink tubing. I bought a heat gun with heat deflector. Vech said he didn't think that he needed the gun, but after he used it, he realized it's quite a handy tool to have in the shop. |
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The
type of rubber BMW used in white rubber plugs turns brown with age.
Since there is no exact reproduction for the timing plug, we left the
cream-colored original plug in place. Post-1955 BMW motorcycles used
two clamps on each carb-to-air-tube rubber, while pre-1955 BMW
motorcycles never used clamps in that area. We were lucky to have two original Bing carburettors (carbs) with the bike, but they were in pieces, gummed-up and parts were missing. Carb flanges (the flat surface where the carb meets the carb-head isolation spacer) can become warped when the nuts are over-tightened, but the R51/2 carbs seemed fine. Vech totally disassembled the carbs, cleaned them with carb cleaner and bead blasted the carb bodies (which are pot metal). He reassembled the carbs with new gaskets, needles and floats. Each carb has about 31 parts. Vech made the job look simple, but my advice to you is: send the carbs to the United States Bing dealer and let them do the job. |
 My beautiful wheels. |
Maybe
you didn't notice in earlier photos, but this bike had plain black Avon
tires. A customer from Mexico helped us locate a source for whitewall
Avon 19-inch tires. They are new in stock and I desperately wanted them
on this R51/2. The R51/2 rims are powdercoated and Vech didn't want to
risk damaging them by removing the black tires to replace them with
whitewalls. Well, lucky for me that my birthday is coming up soon
(January 29th). I used my birthday wish to get the whitewalls
installed. Vech and his friend, John Andol, changed the tires without
rim damage. The close-up, color photo shows the beautiful black and silver powdercoated rim, chrome nipples and black spokes. I think the whitewalls look awesome, but Vech kids me about them as being "gangster whitewalls" and says that next I'll want fuzzy dice and curb feelers. I'm quite happy without those (thank you), but I wish we could find a source for 18-inch whitewalls for the post-1955 BMW motorcycles. |
 Drawings from R51/2 owner manual |
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