R42 elektrics

[Darryl.Richman]

As far as the pictures go, there's no secret to it. Follow this link to the Historical Archives. Once there, you can select English (at the bottom of the page) and start searching.

I will say that the searches that have worked for me have been about the least intuitive ones, but at least the current incarnation of this site is faster than it used to be. I suggest that you not bother with the image search and instead use the advanced, regular search, on Products, and then select the year that you're interested in. This is how I've found most of the images you've seen.

And there are all kinds of tantalizing documents listed too -- but alas, I haven't been able to actually fish one out and read it. I suppose I should try ordering some of them and see what happens...

[Bruce Frey]

I have good luck searchng as follows:

Select advanced search.

Select "product"

Searchfield = '"description"

Operator = "contains"

Your Searchterm = insert your year of interest

After you click on "search", you should get a list of Resultlist of bikes, cars, engines, etc.

If you double click on the name of your item of interest, you should get a Dataview of that product. On the right side of the Dataview you can click on items like "the product is shown in the following images." When you do, you will get thumbnail views of the available images. Pointing to a thumbnail will cause a short description to be displayed.

Unfortunately, none of the workshop literature is actually displayed online.

However, I visited the Archives a few years ago armed with a list of R5 workshop literature that I obtained from this website. They were kind enough to hand me several folders of information and access to a copy machine.

The Montage-Anweisungs, or Assembly Instructions, are especially interesting and useful because they document the changes, modifications and fixes for problems.

They are continually adding more photos so it pays to check the Archives every few months.

Happy searching!

Bruce

[bmwmyplace]

Hi Bruce its been a while,,, thanks for the tip I am not getter very far at this stage Regards peter

[Darryl.Richman]

Sounds like you're doing about the same thing I am. You'd think that: image search -> keyword R42 (for example) would bring everything up, but that finds nothing at all. But persistence pays off.

Perhaps I'll get another chance to visit the archives and get some of the assembly instructions as well, for my R52. Or maybe I'll try to put in an order for it and see what happens.

[Barry Robin]

i've found that i sometimes get more results if i type it this way:

BMW R 42

or:
BMW R/42

it seems to like the spaces between the keywords-sometimes! there's no consistency in it, as though different people at bmw put the keywords in as to their liking.

so much for german engineering!
-b

[Darryl.Richman]

And what about the seat on that R12 is that poss a Pagusa???? and indeed it appears to be the very pic that is in my Genuine R17 hand book depicting the controls etc.

Say, Peter, you're right! I just dug up my R12 manual (an nth generation photocopy of the English language book) and so far as I can tell, this is the same photo as in the book, with that odd seat, and all the very early bits like the Wallentacho (drum speedometer) and the ignition twist grip. The only difference I can see is that the front brake lever is fully extended in the book, and the lighting seems more even than in this photo. Perhaps this was a test shot.

[Barry Robin]

...And what about the seat on that R12 is that poss a Pagusa???? ...

it might be; pagusa did exist by the mid thirties. it also might be from a company they used at the time call Bruninhous. i've come accross a few original seats-front and pillion-for sale through the years that were from them, though i believe that bmw first went to that style for the R5-officially, that is.

just something else to mess up your search...

-b

[Bruce Frey]

I look at pictures in the Archives, Handbuchs and Ersatzteillistes with a bit of skepticism.

In addition to the odd seat, if you look through the Archives' photos, you will discover pictures of some R12/R17 with R11/16 tanks with the speedo in them.

The Ersatzteilliste for the R12/R17 (all the versions that I have seen, at least) shows the R12/R17 tank to have an indentation for the nose of the seat like an R35.

I have no way of knowing if any of those items were ever used in actual R12/R17 production, but they would certainly be rare.

Postwar, BMW is reported to have made mockups for their Handbuchs/Ersatzteilliste photography using configurations that never went into production. It is quite possible they did the same for prewar.

Best regards,

Bruce

[Barry Robin]

aaww man, bruce! don't rain on our parade-just when we thought we'd found some previously undiscovered relic!

the hell with reality; i'm waiting for someone to find something really goofy, like a propeller sticking out the back of some prototype...!
-b

[Darryl.Richman]

the hell with reality; i'm waiting for someone to find something really goofy, like a propeller sticking out the back of some prototype...!

You may be in luck, then!



This is a homebuilt airplane with an R63 motor in it!