Well, after a while, the BMW's find you. This one found me a couple weeks ago, but I haven't had much time to work on it yet. This was supposed to be a friends project, but he lost interest and offered it to me (with title) for a price so damn low I couldn't refuse. Thanks, man! This is an early 1974 R60/6. For those of you keeping up, I now own every BMW model from the "dreaded" 1974 production year.. and I ain't dead yet! I think.. How's it look? 81,851 on the odometer. Who knows if that's accurate.. The license plate expired in 1998. Wonder why it was parked.. The engine turns over and the transmission shifts. So, that's nice. It has an oil cooler/spacer: Unfortunately, that started a little period-correct-farkle-obsession for me, and I've acquired a few little doo-dads for a future project. How often does this happen: :huh Right after I got it, I mocked up all the pieces. Lots of nuts/bolts were missing, and the wiring was completely "disassembled." Thankfully, I have a couple other sibling-bikes to compare. The tank was originally blue, but this is good enough for me. I bought all the nuts and bolts, a driveshaft/finaldrive gasket, the missing jet and missing float needle. A BMWMOA member mailed me a tool tray for free. The PO tried to disassemble the driveshaft and may have buggered up the threads on the end of it. So, I just took it to the local airhead shop and had him tighten it back down to spec. Maybe I'll worry about it in another 81000 miles. A week ago, I repaired all the wiring. Yesterday, I reassembled the whole bike, torqued everything, changed the oil, filter, transmission/finaldrive/driveshaft oil, blinker fluid, etc. The transmission drain plug had a fair amount of fuzz on it, but I'll worry about that later. Two of the four muffler mounting nuts are stripped out, but there's one bolt on either for now. I'll slap a nut on it later. The bottom part of the curved stamped steel pieces are cracked on both sides, like lots of other airheads out there. I hooked the bike up to my too-powerful battery charger, but I am only getting power to the bright (headlight) switch and the tail light. I think the "circuit board" inside the headlight might not be good.. but haven't spent any time troubleshooting it yet. Over the course of assessing the entire bike, I've noticed that I need: 1 carb ferrule/nut 13110039178/32731236644, 1 left grip 32721237811(?), 1 sidestand 46531241598, ...and I would like: 1 tool kit 2 battery side covers (red) 46631232539/46631235024. ..all in all, I have about $325 in this bike so far. Not bad at all! At the same time I bought this, I sold my friends Suzuki GS750.. she wasn't very interested in it. She's now bugging me to let her have/buy this one, but we'll see.
I graduated High School in 1974 and have been plagued by the 1974 BMW curse too......R75/6... R90/6 .. R60/6...currently assembling a 71 Rat with a 74 R60/6 dual plugged motor / trans. The transmissions are supposed to be trash....I have a 74 trans. behind my 1000CC and sidecar and it is still going strong after 1000's of miles of abuse and torture.
I don't see a R90S in your sig line. A '74 R60/6 was my 3rd bike, after a 350 Ducati Scrambler and a '72 Norton Combat Commando. Long Story, but sometimes I think I'd like to get another one. I bought it with 5K miles, rode the crap out of it, often 2 up, with camping gear, and sold it with 75K miles. Next came a '76 R90S, a '81 R100RS, plus a buncha other stuff. Must be catching, I graduated then too.
My first car was a '74 bug(bought it when I was 12) and I own and lust after just about anything mechanical built in that year. Weird that I'm obsessed with vehicles built 10 years before me and not the year I was born(yep I'm a young'n), but to be honest CDD that bike needs to move to NC so she can keep her blue friend company.
..but I've got a blue bike to keep her company already; 1974 R90/6. ..and a black one; 1974 R75/6.. ..and a blue and black older sibling; 1957 BMVW.. ..and the too-mature middle-child; 1969 R60/2.. ..and they were all derelicts, too!
She only has; an 81 yamaha, a 71 Honda, a 73 Honda, and a 75 honda to play with. I think I need one of those sad Sarah McLachlan commercials showing how sad she is without a German friend...er ok a German m/c friend.
Nice! I have a grubby seat grabrail with your name on it. If needed.... tell me what address to dispose of it.
Another 74 /6 owner here.....I never knew about the 74 tranny issues till I joined this forum (I thought ALL BMWs shifted like mine). Here, all that time I was thinking I got a good deal because the previous owner didn't charge me extra for all those "spare neutrals"!!!!!
What trans issues, oh yeah, never mind then. A friend of mine and I were riding around a month ago (same friend I bought my /6 from) and at one stop for fuel we were having an argument over who's transmission shifted louder,his '66 shovelhead or my BMW. Being old motorcycle assholes we were arguing as if the louder one was the best one, like it was a sign of old school quality. Ahh simplicity and stupidity, these are a few of my favorite things...
The loud clunkiness of the transmission in my R90/6, '75, does have it's charm. I wouldn't mind, even the occasional slam into another gear, the missed shifts that grind loudly or the false neutrals except that I am afraid I can't go on this way for ever. I do think I have to fix it eventually or it will BREAK. And the longer I put this off the more money it is likely to cost me. I'll try to get to this sometime next year. Charlie
I haven't messed with the bike much since getting it, but the other day I spent an hour or so and got it running. BUT... It popped a fuse and died. Now, every time I turn the key on, it pops the top (15, I think) fuse. I blew through four at one sitting, troubleshooting it. I'd rather not keep throwing my money away, so if anyone has a suggestion of where to look first, I'm all ears!
Yes you have a problem. The good news is that you have completed the first step of our 10 step program for BMWOCD. We are currently running a special, and you can jump right to the 10th step, by simply replying with your address and leave all the titles on the seats of the bikes. We will gladly send someone to dispose of the problems for you. A Prince from Nigeria will be contacting you shortly to congratulate you on the successful completion of the program!
So, I had the bike running for about 2 seconds, then that fuse popped. I figured it was a short somewhere, so yesterday I set about hunting down the problem, forgetting my most important hard-earned motto.. It's always the battery. I switched out the ignition switch, starter relay, etc.. no difference. I cleaned up some wiring and kept trying. Well, I popped a couple fuses before I decided to swap out one crappy battery for another and... it worked! It was the battery all along. I guess there was a short somewhere inside it. So, I got the bike (actually) running last night. If the plate is any indication, it hasn't seen the light of day in 22 years. I'll get some pictures up in a day or two. Party on..
Congrats on the latest running '74. I hope to attend the rally at which you have all your BMWs in attendance--driven to the party by 5 or 6 of your friends. Heck, for that mule train I volunteer to be one of your friends. Bring spare parts galore. Onnnn Mule! (I skipped '74. Got a '56 R50, 70/71/73 Hondas, '75 /6, '77 /7, and so on. Good luck to you finding your R90S)
I can't tell you where the short is but I can help you stop blowing fuses and find the short. Make yourself a short finder by attaching a couple of wires, with alligator clips on the end, to the cheapest sealed beam you can find, or any lightbulb for that matter. Clip the wires to either side of the fuse holder and the lightbulb will light up because you have power coming in on one side and the short is your ground path to complete the circuit. Now disconnect one circuit at a time until the bulb goes out, that's the cicuit with the short to ground. Find the reason, fix it and install your last fuse. Hope this made sense, if it didn't let me know.
Hey, that sounds like fun. That's what this whole thing is about, having motorcycle fun and making motorcycle friends. Yeah, that one day I popped all those fuses and gave up. Every time, I thought I had it right but it beat me. My post from earlier today explains that last night I found out it was the crappy battery I had (some old derelict from older projects). I was about to wire up my own test light situation like you described.