I am singing the /5 blues

[anderson7585]

The story:
My 1973 R75/5 had spent A LOT of time sitting before I got her (the P.O. had her for 27 years and racked-up 800 miles!).

When I got her home I changed all the fluids, got new tires, flushed out the tank and started putting miles on her (life was good) I rode her to the Harvest Classic in Luckenbach (a 646 mile weekend) and she seemed to run fine. After the rally I noticed that she had "sweated" oil onto the freshly cleaned engine cases but that was no big deal.

I cleaned her up and rode down to the Lone Star rally in Galveston, Texas a few weeks later (about 60 miles roundtrip), while there I noticed a small "wet patch" on the ground under the sump and when I got home I saw that she had "really-sweated" oil (I still was not calling it a leak). I removed the sump and found threads hanging out from one of the bolt-holes and a LARGE amount of hard, dry gasket material! I did the Helicoil-thing and on refilling her I had about 100 oil leaks!

At this point I am staying off of her until I get her looked at by someone who knows what's what. I think that a breather failure or a cylinder problem (or both) allowed the crankcase pressure to skyrocket finishing off my already questionable gaskets.

She is going to Boxers by Bruce for: pushrod seals, base gaskets, later style breather, trans input spline greasing, carb rebuilds, fork rebuild, brake adjustment and a major tune (I have always been underwhelmed by her "performance" but I do not have a reference-point to judge by).

At this point I do not think any MAJOR damage was done, I think I'm going to get off "light" this time (around $1,500.00).

Vince

[schrader7032]

Rear main seal? That would let oil past and then drain out onto the shelf below the tranny.

100s of leaks? I'm having trouble understanding just where it was leaking from.

[anderson7585]

100's may be (slightly) overstating things but oil appears to be coming fron every-joint, the sump is "damp" and there is a damp, dark line at the base of the front cover.

Vince

[spo123]

Hi Vince,
I think that perhaps you are too "anal" about "seepage", "misting", "dampness", whatever you wish to call it. A LEAK WILL LEAVE DROPS OF OIL ON THE GROUND. My personal, 1973 BMW R75/5 LWB WILL always show "dampness" or whatever one would call the discoloration around the base gaskets, oil pan gasket, etc...
Granted, LEAKS from overtightened sump bolts will need to be remedied......Either helicoil or drilled to the next size bolt.....I have NOT been to this point.....I purchased the bike with 42,000 and it was BEAUTIFUL! NOW, the bike has 93,000 miles......some WEEPAGE IS NORMAL.
You and your FINE MACHINE will be OK!
There, I said it......Am I an a$$hole?.......Some says I am and some says I ain't.
I LOVE MY /5 and I ALWAYS WILL......Some stuff frightens me....so be it....I do keep a spare transmission in storage........Maybe we will see me crying sometime soon.....NOT to say you are crying.
I only POST occasionally.... and IF I think that I have something WORTHWHILE to say........I RUN FULL SYNTHETIC OILS.
Best wishes always.....IF I was near you, I would not hesitate to look at your bike and even go riding with you to see who's bike is "faster"....ha!

spo out

[schrader7032]

Vince -

spo suggested something...are you running synthetic oil? I had heard in the early days that synthetics didn't have the proper seal swelling agents and the oil tend to find gaps pretty quickly. Maybe that's been fixed...or maybe some oils still haven't correct that. If you're running a synthetic, I'd try a dino oil next and see if the problem goes away.

[anderson7585]

It's always been Dino oil for me, I run the Valvoline 4-stroke motorcycle oil for the ZDDP levels, I am used to British bikes and the rate of oil-loss would not be even close to acceptable on one of them!

Vince

[anderson7585]

I got a Toyota monster-SUV rental (my "real car" got slammed-into by an idiot, it's in the body shop). I picked up the trailer and the BMW is loaded, leaving for Pantego early tomorrow to see Bruce. We shall see what he finds.

Vince

[anderson7585]

Good news on the R75. I spoke with Bruce today and there does not seem to be any problems beyond the Breather and gaskets, apparently through dumb-luck I got it shut off before doing any actual-damage! The Rear Main Seal was the original and it was "in pretty bad shape".

Vince